Winter Companions (R/J)

Not very differently from their big-city cousins we discover in the wonderfully comic 'Chandu and the Bissyaar' one of eighteen evocative stories in Neelum Saran Gour's third book of fiction. The making and unmaking of a poet is described in 'A Lane in Lucknow'; two old men find solace in 'Winter Companions'; and a nurse examines the quality of her faith in 'The Knitting Needle'. In a vivid kaleidoscope of provincial bazaars claustrophobic bedrooms cemeteries courtyards hospital corridors park benches and railway compartments we are introduced to varied and colourful characters forging unexpected emotional bonds with friends lovers strangers and kin tangled in the skeins of dreams deceptions anxieties lusts and joys.