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Pigeons of the dome: Stories on Communalism is a collection of short stories depicting the various hues and shades of the demon of communalism that lurks within Indian society.

A word that crops up repeatedly in the stories included here is fasaad in Urdu and danga in Hindi; translated as ‘riot’ in English, it has an entirely and peculiarly Indian connotation. When used in India, a riot is more often than not a clash between two communities and is a word loaded with communal intent unlike the original English usage whereby the word, free of any sociological baggage, merely refers to unruly or disorderly conduct by a group of people.

Contents: 1. Fear/Gulzar. 2. The ones with the signs/Abdua Samad. 3. The line/Tariq Chhatari. 4. The wolves are secular/Zakia Mashhadi. 5. Rogue/Syed Muhammad Ashraf. 6. The wail of the black breeze/Ajeet Cour. 7. I am a Hindu/Asghar Wajahat. 8. At the zebra crossing/Deepak Budki. 9. Flowers of mustard/M K Mahtab. 10. Soil Tarannum Riyaz. 11. The last lesson/Joginder Paul. 12. The Culprit/Jeelani Bano. 13. Another great war/Ratan Singh. 14. Hysteria/Khalid Jawed. 15. A life in Transit. 16. Blank Call/Khurshid Akram. 17. Bars/Keki N Daruwalla. 18. The Vultures of Doongerwadi/Ali Imam Naqvi.