CONTENTS
Stories 1-98 · Title and Opening Page
NO. TITLE P.
1 Two Janakpurs 5
2 The Forgotten Disputation 11
3 The Pond of Time 17
4 The City of Letters 24
5 The Final Annotation 30
6 The Map That Kept Growing 37
7 One Writer, Two Births 44
8 A Dictionary of Memory 50
9 The Zero Chapter 54
10 The Copyist 60
11 The Third History 67
12 The Translator 76
13 The Nameless Deity 85
14 The Path of Time 96
15 The Lineage of Mirrors 108
16 The Invisible Book 118
17 The Seventh Direction 133
18 The Last Reader 144
19 The Incident at the Pond 158
20 Night at the Court 172
21 The Stolen Idol 190
22 The Shot at the Border 208
23 The Marriage Dispute 226
24 The Flood Boat 251
25 The Painter's Death 259
26 The Old Lawsuit 281
27 The Night of the Fair 308
28 The Hero's Tale 338
29 The Last Meal 361
30 The Poet and the King 380
31 The Accident at the Turn 394
32 The Prize for a Lie 411
33 The Village Fire 426
34 Across the River 441
35 The Mason's Fall 459
36 The Old Photograph 471
37 The Voice in the Night 482
38 Whose Fault? 492
39 The Scent of Makhana 505
40 Yellow Flowers 516
41 The Afternoon Table 527
42 Kohl 537
43 The New Curtain 542
44 Fragrance 548
45 The Silver Bowl 554
46 Drying Her Hair 559
47 White Flowers 565
48 A Small Party 570
49 The Silken Scarf 575
NO. TITLE P.
50 Rain at the Window 580
51 The Taste of Lemon 586
52 The Pink Cup 591
53 The Scent of Sunlight 596
54 The Earring 600
55 Red Nail Polish 606
56 The Sheer Curtain 613
57 Cardamom 620
58 The Flower Vase 629
59 The Dry Kamala 637
60 The House of Sand 650
61 The Sound of Bamboo 665
62 The Dusty Footpath 681
63 The Empty Pond 700
64 Erosion 716
65 The Scent of Earth 732
66 The Roofless House 750
67 The River Spoke 771
68 The Cave-In 790
69 The Field of Kans Grass 806
70 The Dust of Tirhut 827
71 Three Graves 850
72 The Marks of the Flood 867
73 The Abandoned Well 889
74 Dried Maize Leaves 902
75 The Last Boat 921
76 The Tree Stump 939
77 Smoke 954
78 The Silent Village 963
79 Between Three Years 973
80 The Reason to Return 982
81 The Sisters 992
82 The Old Doctor 1002
83 House Number Five 1010
84 The Photo Album 1016
85 A Decision 1022
86 A Friend's Daughter 1029
87 The Bus Stop 1035
88 After the Marriage 1041
89 Mother's Friend 1046
90 The Letter That Was Never Sent 1051
91 Two Cities 1057
92 Twenty Years Later 1063
93 Aunt's House 1071
94 The Red Trunk 1078
95 The Music Teacher 1086
96 A Separate Road 1092
97 The Lost Year 1098
98 The Final Journey 1103