Stranger Than Truth

Manjula Padmanabhan's Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities brings all her science fiction stories together in one place

- Aditya Mani Jha

STOLEN HOURS AND OTHER CURIOSITIES The Collected Science Fiction Stories by Manjula Padmanabhan HACHETTE ₹599; 288 pages

In the Author's Note to Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities-Manjula Padmanabhan's career-spanning science fiction anthology-she writes about what the genre means to her. "Writing SF is a way of celebrating the 'other-ing' that I experienced as a young person. Instead of travelling to other countries, I can explore alternate states of consciousness, timelines, body types, species, genders, dimensions." There are 25 stories in total, with the oldest ('A Government of India Undertaking') written in 1984 and the most recent one ('Octobaby') written shortly before publication. Together, they're a reminder of the 70-yearold Padmanabhan's stature as one of the most versatile and inventive Indian writers of her generation-not to mention, one of the pioneers of South Asian science fiction.