Farrukh Dhondy’s delightful collection of linked short stories, Poona Company, was initially published in 1980 and has been reissued in the Harper Perennial Modern Classics series. Largely centered around a cast of characters that hangs around Sarbatwalla Chowk in Poona in the 1950s, the book takes us back to a time that seems far away: its fifty years since the fifties. The collection also takes the reader back to an earlier moment in the now flourishing domain of contemporary Indian writing in English, a time when a handful of writers wrote and were published. For this reader, both journeys to the past were very welcome.
Since Dhondy’s father was in the army and travelled extensively, Dhondy lived with his grandfather, just a short distance from the chowk and its two Irani cafes. Young Farrukh, known as ‘nalha’, or small one, is initially outside the life of the chowk.After the age of twelve, he begins to pass by on his bicycle to and from school.