India, April 17 -- To Orhan Pamuk, stories are a function of time. However, the mechanics of storytelling doesn't dictate that time flows in a single direction. If a literary piece is engaging and purposeful, it can move on different axes of time. This is the principal, defining characteristic of Deepa Rajagopalan's collection of interconnected short stories, Peacocks of Instagram that was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2024.

The epigraph of Rajagopalan's book quotes Pamuk: From tiny experiences we build cathedrals. But by no means are the experiences reflected in Rajagopalan's debut collection 'tiny'. These 14 stories speak of the larger arc of humanity that has been affected by discriminations of all sorts, signal a sense of commu...