ABSTRACT
A young girl wants to know where her father is, why he is not coming from wherever he is. Mother tells her he became a sanyaasi (a monk) but she is not convinced. Her neighbour, a school teacher, just back from a pilgrimage to Benaras, is then persuaded by the mother to say he ‘saw him in Benaras in ochre robes.’ Is there no merit in telling a harmless lie if it would bring in peace in the family? (in ‘Power of Tears’). This theme is carried forward in ‘Survey Joke’ where harmless lies are dished out while computing the results of a field survey. The title ‘A Shade of Jealousy’ indicates its content, while anxiety, with a strong shade of anger, rules ‘Son-in-Law’ who is in a cargo boat caught in a storm. Nalini of ‘Missing’ brings out another behavioural aspect – the tendency to boast of some achievement, considered enviable in her layer of society. Travelling in a crowded railway compartment, she throws her weight around with her provocative and restless tongue merely to make it known that – ‘My Husband is a Policeman!’
