Contains three stories : Plus and Minus Greater than Zero, Parallel Lines and The Visitor
All these are much dicussed and translated and published in reputed literay journals of English and other Indian languages.
Plus and Minus Greater than Zero centers around the historical truth that human history does not cancel itself out like mathematical plus and minus figures. History builds up on itself, on its own ruins. The story is built up on the psychology of children when they contest for leadership amongst themselves.Two children were locked up in a fight, like bullies, when they heard the call of other children for rescuing a small bird that had accidentally fallen into a tank of pitch the road workers just left behind. None ventured to get up onto the perilous sticky rim of the pitch tank and bend down for picking up the struggling bird from sure death. However, one of the warring parties did take the cahallenge unto himself and rushed forward for rescue mission. But unfortunately he lost balance and fell into the tank. The onlookers howled and fled the scene.Suddenly the otherwarring partner, the opponent of the sinking boy, did a somersault. He jumped up on to the rim of the tank, bent down and caught hold of a hand of the drowning boy and tried to pull him up with all his might. But he too lost balance and tumbled into the tank himself. When the workers came back there was no trace of the drowned children except a branch like human hand jutting out of the hot pitch with a little bird perching on it, alive.