‘Stolen Hours’: Manjula Padmanabhan’s sci-fi stories of altered worlds examine our own world

It begins like any ordinary world. Rebellious teens steal from their parents while they’re asleep. Groups of men huddle to harass women. India preps its defences against unfriendly neighbours. Journalists chase stories with relentless hunger. The world feels almost like ours…except in its details. The teenager doesn’t steal money from his parents’ wallet; instead, he takes something far more precious: their time. The men ogle women wearing traditional odhnis and carrying babies on their hips – tiny, colourful, tentacled babies. India’s neighbour is not a rival nation but something big, red, and extraterrestrial: Mars. And the journalists? They find themselves covering Yetis…and Gods.

A funhouse mirror

In Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities, author Manjula Padmanabhan takes what is familiar and tilts it, just slightly, and then spectacularly. Most of the stories have previously appeared individually in magazines and anthologies, with a few new ones completing the collection. Through a handful of surreal details, she transforms everyday experiences into strange, glittering visions. Her sharp-witted stories mirror the ethos of India, of the world, and of human beings at large. Except this reflection is through a funhouse mirror, one that distorts to reveal.

This is, arguably, science fiction’s greatest strength: to reassess the ordinary through the language of the extraordinary. We...

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