India, May 8 -- Death is the common thread that runs through this collection that's suffused with despair and gloom. The few stories in a comic vein provide some relief. Written between 1898 and 1945, many of these pieces explore the theme of hunger, with Kalindi Charan Panigrahi's Victory Celebration (1945) being the most evocative.

The titular Maguni's Bullock Cart (1939) by Godavarish Mohapatra will be especially interesting for contemporary readers as some might see parallels with the emergence of AI and the dilemma it presents in India, where there is no dearth of human resources. The story is set in a time when a bus is introduced to a village that had until then relied on Maguni and his bullock cart. Maguni regaled his clients wit...