To love what we cannot keep: On Sara Rai’s ‘Other Skies, Other Stories’
Summary
Sara Rai’s Other Skies, Other Stories uses shifting language and close observation to trace lives shaped by memory, impermanence, and loss. The collection, translated by Ira Pande, is rooted in Allahabad and moves between Hindi, Urdu, and English.
Key Points
- Sara Rai’s collection treats language as both a home and a medium of attention, with stories grounded in everyday life in Allahabad.
- The review highlights how the stories move between Hindi, Urdu and English, with translations by Ira Pande shaping the English text.
- Recurring themes include untranslatability, fragile identities, impermanence and the ethics of looking without possessing.
- The review praises Rai’s refusal to turn her characters into spectacle, instead letting them remain partly unread and ordinary.
