What is common to the hunt for an escaped fugitive and a murder which is not a murder? Or to an illegitimate son of a nobleman in the royal Maurya court and an unlettered man fighting his way out of poverty in Marxist Bengal? Or to the host of characters who live through the many disparate adventures in these stories? Very little, except the universal frailty of the human condition. And the proximity of death. From historical political dramas to psychological thrillers, from a modern murder mystery to a romance in the times of the Company Sahib, from ruthless bankers to slice-of-life insights into the everyday lives of everyday people, and even the occult, this collection throws open a window into myriad worlds.