Reflections of a face that laughs with a heart that bleeds K R G Nair

On a foggy winter morning a tough-looking man wearing a mask surveys each bank in a residential-cum-commercial area to choose one to take his money. After making doubly sure that there was no one around, he chooses one to grab his money when lo and behold, the security guard appears from nowhere, points his gun at the "thief" forcing him to unmask to be identified.

A big built woman suffering from leprosy and pushing an empty cart bursts into tears on being asked by a nodding acquaintance as to why the cart, which usually has her husband sitting, was empty. It seemed that he had passed away.

The seeming calm that urbanization had brought in a caste-ridden society was reflected by people of different castes sitting side by side, eating lunch and relaxing afterwards together. But this underlying calm was disturbed when the foot of a low caste woman accidentally touched the body of a high caste man when both and many others were having their afternoon siesta side by side. There was a big furor with the high caste man going home to have a purifying bath before coming back to resume his duties. A decision was also taken to ban the low caste woman from joining the group in future.

These are teaser summaries of representative stories contained in the three different sections of the book sub-titled Frivolity, Digging Deep and Churnings contained in this collection dealing with Indian society in transition.