LOVING AYESHA AND OTHER STORIES By Victor Rangel-Ribeiro HarperCollins India Price: Rs 250 Pages: 223

Goan-born New Yorker Victor Rangel-Ribeiro's world is a vast one. It traverses continents exploring the intricate simplicity of village life in Tivolem and Mapusa and the apparently incalculable but profoundly prosaic preoccupations of city dwellers in the Big Apple and Mumbai. At times the language in this collection of short stories is great; witty, tender, sharply clever in its themes and in the manner in which the author has chosen to deal with them. Original. Inventive. At other times it is so very close to home, one could turn around and see any one of his intimately constructed characters standing by one's side, walking past, just being.

This detailed book is clearly a work of painstaking passion. But every so often, such a great love of words, such a nurturing instinct can be a writer's Achilles heel. In parts, Rangel-Ribeiro's craftsmanship constructs descriptions of such unceasing magnitude that the reader is left wearied. Elsewhere, his desire to be the character he has spawned succeeds only in so much that his voice overpowers that of his creations. In "Keeping in Touch" he is the father writing to his collegian son in Paris, while in "Peter and the Ants" the preoccupations of the fastidious Manhattan scientist who will not rest till he has destroyed all the ants in his kitchen are less Peter and more Rangel-Ribeiro.

Yet, the author's skill in recovering the attention of his readers, even after inveigling them in skeins of prose, is undeniable. This is particularly true of "The Miscreant", about a lovable village crook named Lazar and his inability to keep his sticky fingers off anything that could be untied, chased or driven away for profit. If your attention holds therefore, there are tales here whose gentle simplicity is utterly engaging. For example, "An Anna's Worth of Kindness", in which a pickpocket in a tramcar steals a rupee from an urchin and then repents, and "Lonely Ageing Chinese-American New York Neighbour Lady", a moving first-person account of youthful age, and a kindness that transcends all in the 1960s America. And my favourite, "Specials of the Day", is a wicked jab at amateur writers, using a French restaurant in New York's Upper West Side to illustrate the burgeoning relationship between an earnest American Francophobe and an Indian writer whose demure appearance belies her fiery temperament. The title story, "Loving Ayesha", a warm and carefully moulded narrative of a boy's love for two sisters, both of whom leave him for their greater devotion to religion, is however, overwhelmed by an unrestrained sentimentality.

Nevertheless, a brief meeting with Rangel-Ribeiro's global cast provides insight into the common inner workings of apparently diverse people.

Finally, while Mario Miranda's illustrations are legendary for their ability to capture the Goan spirit, their presence in Rangel-Ribeiro's second offering after the award-winning Tivolem, is incongruous, only serving to distract one's attention from a book that requires no illustrations to paint a picture that stays, for at least a while, in one's mind.

AUTHORSPEAK
ROSEMARY CRILL, STEVEN COHEN AND RUTH BARNES
Cross Stitch

It is one of the best kept personal collections in India that we have ever catalogued and among the finest in the world," trills Ruth Barnes. And Rosemary Crill and Steven Cohen agree. They are referring to Praful and Shilpa Shah's Tapi Collection, named after the river. Owners of Garden Mills, the Shahs have been collecting textiles for the past 20 years.

The trio, well-known in the textile field, was approached by the Shahs to put together the book, Trade, Temple & Court: Indian Textiles (IBH), detailing the collection. For a year and a half they researched in England and then spent four months in India to compile the book. Says Crill: "We went through 1,000 pieces before choosing 93 from them." After selecting their areas of interest, the three divided the subject into five groups-textiles for the Asian market, for Europe, Kashmir shawls, court and urban textiles including woven, embroidered and painted pieces for domestic use, and religious hangings.

What makes the book special? "Sitting with the Shahs, we discussed each fabric and how they acquired it. Travelling through Gujarat to trace the origins of the pieces and talking to craftspeople made the collection come alive," says Crill. The book has interesting nuggets about the trade in textiles. "Indians were global even before the world knew it," says Barnes who has authored a book on early Indian textiles and is currently researching on the Indian Ocean trade network. "They made Kutchi block prints for Egyptians and patolas for Indonesian spice lords."

The writers feel there is a paucity of specialised books on the country's textiles. Says Crill, deputy curator of the Indian and South-East Asian Department at London's Victoria and Albert Museum: "Most books on Indian textiles are like replicas, without any new information or pictures." But the trio, who often wear Indian garments, is optimistic. "While the old market has disappeared, new markets have risen," says Cohen. In other words, the saga of the great textile trade continues.