The twenty-one stories in the present collection 'The Speechless and Other Stories' – to characterize them in one single phrase – give voice to the voiceless, the muted subaltern, portraying as they do, the struggles, the traumas and the anguish of the masses living on the margins of the society. With the force and immediate appeal of a live commentary but without any attempt at leaning or sensationalism, they take us straight into the innermost parts of the Hindi heartland, Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern U. P. –away from the casual and more often than not, second hand reporting of the newspapers – capturing the human dimensions of the social conflicts that arose and are still taking place in the wake of the powerful political changes of the last forty years or so.