Stories from Kolkata are often assumed to be about bhadralok culture and the Bengali way of life. But Kolkata is a city with a multiplicity of stories to share. Contemporary Urdu Short Stories from Kolkata highlights the diversity of recent Urdu short stories from the city. In one story, a writer trying to escape the city wants to find the reason why the railway clock has stopped working, in another, a new friendship sours as soon as it blossoms, while some other stories show how the complexity of human relationships is explored. There is an experiment in abstraction, and legend and reality are brought together when three sleepers of an earlier civilisation wake up in the modern world. Dealing with love and loss, dreams and reality, as well as history and violence, this collection encompasses the whole gamut of human experience, seen through the eyes of current Urdu writers from Kolkata.