Medical maladies : stories of disease and cure from Indian languages

Ranging from the early 20th century stories to contemporary ones, the compendium includes pieces by canonical authors such as Tagore, Premchand, and Manto. This pioneering anthology brings together 19 fascinating short stories, translated into English from Indian languages--Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, and Urdu--demonstrating a spectrum of medical cultures in India. The thought-provoking and compelling stories address a wide array of themes and topics, including the individual and social crises during epidemics, medical pluralism, patient care, medical paternalism, disease-mongering, medicalization, and medical ethics, amongst others.Delineating a range of diseases, healing, and allied concerns in India, the stories depict modern medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, surgeons, as well as traditional practitioners such as vaids, hakims, kavirajs, quacks, and folk healers. A few of the stories also engage with aspects of women's mental and physical health, including pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and depression. This pioneering anthology brings together 19 fascinating short stories, translated into English from Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, and Urdudemonstrating a spectrum of medical cultures in India. The thought-provoking and compelling stories address a wide array of themes and topics, including the individual and social crises during epidemics, medical pluralism, patient care, medical paternalism, diseasemongering, medicalization, and medical ethics, amongst others. Delineating a range of diseases, healing, and allied concerns in India, the stories depict modern medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, surgeons, as well as traditional practitioners such as vaids, hakims, kavirajs, quacks, and folk healers. A few of the stories also engage with aspects of womens mental and physical health, including pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and depression. Ranging from the early 20th century stories to contemporary ones, the compendium includes pieces by canonical authors such as Tagore, Premchand, and Manto, as well as by medical practitioners such as Rashid Jahan and Shirin Shrikant Valavade. The anthology garners refreshing insights and offers a new understanding of the interrelationship of literature and medicine. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Foreword Introduction Quarantine by Rajinder Singh Bedi A Major Operation by Basant Kumar Satpathy A Day in the Labour Room by Jeelani Bano A Crisis of Medical Treatment by Rajshekhar Basu ‘Parshuram’ Whose Turn Now? by Shankar Raina The Surgeon by Sheeba E.K. Manzoor by Saadat Hasan Manto The Longing by Kartar Singh Duggal Mantra by Premchand Doctor Moni by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay The Cavern by Bhabendra Nath Saikia Narova Kunjarova by Shirin Shashikant Valavade Day Care by Zakia Mashhadi The Gift of Vision by Rabindranath Tagore Asif Jahan’s Daughter-in-Law by Rashid Jahan The Plague-Witch by Master Bhagwandas The Stranger by Ashok Vasishth Heartless by Annie Zaidi The Final Test by Amar Works Cited in the Introduction Notes on the Authors Notes on the Translators Acknowledgments