The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet

The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories by Vandana Singh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A gem of a book, with most of the stories being startlingly original, Delhi based and rooted in Indianness.

Biharis are not very common on the moon…Sinha Auntie’s boardinghouse, one of the oldest structures in Luna City…Saturday afternoons Sinha Auntie does a huge old-fashioned Bihari-style tea, complete with suji halwa, litti, pakoras, matar-ki-gugni, crisp-fried chura with sev and roasted peanuts, and the best tamarind chutney on the moon.

Memorable stories are Delhi, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, Thirst, Aesop fable-like Three Tales from the Sky River, The Tetrahedron. The tales are part feminine angst, part fantasy, occasionally hard-core SF and sometimes mythical.
A refreshing change from SF's, as the author concludes, "white, male, techno-fantasies - Westerns and the White Man's Burden in Outer Space..."

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