In short stories, words are on a tight leash, since they have to attain the immersiveness of novels while remaining, well, short. Anupam Arunachalam sculpts worlds of mystic containing fantastical creatures from Greek, Persian, Roman and Indian legends in 15 riveting short stories. While the creatures in Tooth and Nail, Fur and Scale hint at being fearsome, they also elicit sympathy because of the depth Arunachalam gives to their characters.
There’s the recurring theme that antagonism is not clear-cut. In ‘No Bedtime for the Fearless’ the protagonist, Sri, follows a poochandi, a bogeyman, out of morbid curiosity, hoping to catch it in its abode. In a reversal of roles, he finds the poochandi admonishing his children, telling them that if they are not quiet, “...[the humans] will come for you!”
The writer places fabled animals among humdrum tourists, children looking for Air Jordans, on roads teeming with puffing cars. In ‘The Guardian of the Fount’, a Yaksha decides that he has dominion over a water fountain in the airport, and demands that a young boy answer his riddles to deem himself worthy of drinking the water. The boy humours him but threatens to leave, and the Yaksha, though indignant, desperately desires the acknowledgement of his power.
While having the timelessness of Aesop’s fables, these parables avoid clichéd denouements: power dynamics are reversed or often the humans are at fault. However, the author sometimes loses himself in the details. Some of the sub plots do not propel the narrative forward and convolute the purpose of the story. In fact, some stories do not seem to have any purpose at all, offering little more than an lengthy description of a beast.
I loved the fact that after each story, there’s a charming note contextualising the beast and explaining its origins: like how the cow-eating tree was not a complete fabrication but something that a girl allegedly saw in Karnataka in 2007. With striking settings and thrilling finales, the stories stoke a curious desire to spy on the secret lives of the beasts while asking us to confront the monstrosity we have in ourselves.