Calcutta

The city of Calcutta, located in western India, surfaces in several of the selected short stories. In the story "The Cabuliwallah," the narrator, his wife, and daughter Mini reside in Calcutta. While writing here on autumn mornings, the narrator says that "without stirring from [his] little corner in Calcutta," he would let his "mind wander over the whole world" (12). At times, simply seeing "a foreigner in the streets" will cause him to mourn on their behalf, his thoughts drifting into imaginings of their home lands (12). As a writer, the narrator's mind is wont to transport him. Therefore, the bustle of his home city acts as a gateway out of his present reality and into a host of possible parallel realities. This is indeed how the narrator meets and becomes involved with the Cabuliwallah.

In the short story "The Postmaster," Calcutta is the city from which the postmaster originates...