The lyrical prose of writer, journalist and film director Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (1914-1987) easily lends itself to short stories. In Sardarji and Other Stories, a captivating collection, the protagonists of each tale are portrayed grappling with realities imposed upon them by an unrelenting historical churning that compels them to revisit their relationships with their cultural, spatial and psychological moorings. Communal riots, poverty, abjection, love and longing or renewed hopes and nascent dreams make this collection an incisive and moving portrayal of the human condition.