In better times for the genre, there was a master who ruled the art of writing short stories. He taunted, tickled, seduced, provoked and tore your heart apart in a few pages; he ruled the underbellies of print like smut and elite circles like high art, finding the profound in the salacious and the banality of the profound. He played with the craft like he cared two hoots about it and played with laws and ideologies that ruled the written word, grinning all the way.

Filmistan Studio at SV Road, Goregaon (W). Pic/Nimesh Dave