Intro; Half Title; Title; Dedication; Copyright; Contents; Preface; RABINDRANATH TAGORE; Letter; From Boyhood Days; From Final Poems; "Sickbed 21"; "Recovery 4"; SAROJINI NAIDU; To Arthur Symons; From a Letter to Edmund Gosse; To Rabindranath Tagore (1912); To Rabindranath Tagore (undated); PREMCHAND (DHANPAT RAI); "Two Autobiographical Sketches"; NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI; From The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian; From "My Birthplace"; From "The English Scene"; From "The Englishman in the Flesh"; JIBANANANDA DAS; "The Professor"; "Name Me a Word"; "Poetry"; "The Windy Night"; R.K. NARAYAN

From My Days: A MemoirVAIKOM MUHAMMAD BASHEER; From "Pattumma's Goat"; RAJA RAO; "Entering the Literary World"; LALITHAMBIKA ANTHERJANAM; "Childhood Memories"; AGYEAY (SACHC HIDANANDA VATSAAYN); "The Signs"; "Words and Truths"; "Three Words to Make a Poem"; "The Revolving Rock XVI"; "The Revolving Rock XXV"; UMASHANKAR JOSHI; "My Four-Sided Field"; From "The World of Birds"; Acceptance Speech for the 1968 Bharatiya Jnanpith Award; SAADAT HASAN MANTO; "First Letter to Uncle Sam"; ISMAT CHUGTAI; "We People"; AMRITA PRITAM; "To Waris Shah"; From The Revenue Stamp; My Sixteenth Year; A Shadow

NISSIM EZEKIEL"Background, Casually"; "Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher"; MAHASWETA DEVI; "So Many Words, So Many Sounds"; NAAYNTARA SAHGAL; "Rejecting Extinction"; QURRATULAIN HYDER; "Beyond the Stars"; JAAYNTA MAHAPATRA; From an Autobiographical Essay; "Grandfather"; "The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore"; "Hunger"; A.K. RAMANUJAN; "Elements of Composition"; "Saturdays"; From "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay"; NIRMAL VERMA; "Returning to One's Country"; K. AYYAPPA PANIKER; "Why Write?"; "Upon My Walls"; "Epitaph"; From "Passage to America"; ARUN KOLATKAR

"From an Undated Sheet"From "Making Love to a Poem"; U.R. ANANTHAMURTHY; From "Five Decades of My Writing"; KAMALA DAS; From My Story; "The Bougainvillea"; From "The P.E.N. Poetry Prize"; "The Old Playhouse"; From "An Introduction"; KEKI DARUWALLA; "The Decolonised Muse (A Personal Statement)"; ANITA DESAI; "On Being an Indian Writer Today"; GIRISH KARNAD; From Author's Introduction to Three Plays; NABANEETA DEV SEN; "In Poetry"; "Alphabets"; "Combustion"; "The Year's First Poem"; "Broken Home"; From My Life, My Work; ADIL JUSSAWALLA; "Being There: Aspects of an Indian Crisis."

AMBAI (C.S. LAKSHMI)From "Squirrel"; PAUL ZACHARIA; From "Sinning in Mysore"; K. SATCHIDANANDAN; "Gandhi and Poetry"; "Stammer"; "Burnt Poems"; "About Poetry, About Life"; ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA; "Engraving of a Bison on Stone"; "Distance in Statute Miles"; "Where Will the Next One Come From"; "Inscription"; SALMAN RUSHDIE; "Imaginary Homelands"; AGHA SHAHID ALI; From "In Search of Evanescence"; NAMDEO DHASAL; "Approaching the Organized Harem of the Octopus"; "Mandakini Patil: A Young Prostitute, My Intended Collage"; "The Day She Was Gone"; MEENA ALEXANDER; From "Illiterate Heart."