Mohammed a Mechanic and Mary a Maid

And Other Stories of Dusky India

Sex permeates in every time to alleviate the pain of life, yet in essence, Gautam's stories are about the perpetuity of human relationships. His characters have beliefs to give their life for. He creates them with a potter's ardor and earthiness, and with almost no stylization. He penetrates the obscurity of his world without breaking the apparatus. His old-fashioned way of storytelling adds to the quintessential enigma. He also ruffles the feathers of decadent morality, but with gentle strokes. While traversing the urban milieu in the title story, Mohammed a Mechanic and Mary a Maid, he retains the strength of his terra firma. Rest of the stories in this volume are set in where his heart lies- the rural India. With the adeptness he brings the bucolic India alive, he re-establishes his claim to be called the Premchand of Indian English literature.