Using the pen-names of Kalkut and Bhromor, Sameresh Basu electrified Bengali readers with his insight into working class life. This slim volume is a selection of the major stories of a contemporary Bengali writer who has been at the center of the most acrimonious controversies on issues relating to politics and sexuality. In the words of the translator, Basu 'remains the most representative storyteller of Bengal's suburban life, as distinct from other well-known Bengali authors who had faithfully painted the life and problems of either Bengal's rural society or the urban middle class. Basu draws on his lived experience of Calcutta's 'half-rural, half-urban,' industrial suburbs.'