Batik Rain and Other Stories

Batik Rain is a collection of delicately nuanced short stories that unravel the complexities that layer Indians in foreign lands. Like a slow winding river the stories meander through the lush locales of Bali and Siem Reap to the charming by lanes of Hyderabad and Pune where characters spring to life with striking vividness. Written in an evocative literary style the personal angst of these characters is sensitively etched through poignant personal journeys in search of the self. This soul-searching forms the theme of Homecoming which explores the emotional relationship between a US-returned software engineer and his mother a prominent politician from Pune whose passion for her profession creates a rift between them. Anthem of Guilt takes the reader through the twists and turns of a young man’s guilt-ridden conscience his love-hate relationship with India a country he left eighteen years ago but cant get out of his system. Batik Rain shows a young Indian-American couple wanting to get away from Boston in the aftermath of 9/11 and who find the spectre of terror haunting them yet again this time in the idyllic island of Bali. Six stories like beads strung together gentle yet resilient coming full circle like new beginnings.