STORIES: 4.5/5
WRITING: 4.5/5
CONCEPT: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 4.5/5
GENRE & THEMES: Short Stories, Benares, Death
In my search for fresh Indian voices—those whose names don’t pop up nearly as often as they should—I stumbled upon K. Madavane’s “To Die in Benares”. This collection of seven short stories orbits around Benares, death, and that delicate, almost imperceptible line that separates the living from the departed.
The book offers a poignant yet unsettling meditation on life and death, filtered through the lens of culture and, more importantly, Hindu philosophy. After all, Kashi is no ordinary city—it’s the city of death, where funeral pyres burn endlessly under the watchful eyes of Lord Shiva himself. In a place where mortality is woven into the rhythm of daily life, it’s only natural that death becomes an inseparable thread in these tales.
Originally written in French, these stories also carry subtle traces of postcolonial French influence—remnants of Pondicherry’s French colonial past. The English translation by Blake, a historian of Indo-French relations and postdoctoral researcher, retains that layered nuance beautifully. As for Madavane, he brings to his writing the depth of a playwright and the sensitivity of a scholar—qualities honed during his years teaching at JNU, Delhi.
To capture Kashi or Benares, or Varanasi — is no easy task, and yet Madavane manages to do so in this humble attempt. The stories span a wide range of subjects, reflecting different people, places, energies, and even periods of time. And still, it is Kashi that binds them all together. Kashi being the eternal riverbank on which the very foundations of these stories rest.
The titular story, “To Die in Benares,” captures the quiet sorrow of a woman who longs to be cremated on the sacred banks of the Ganga. Many are blessed to die in Kashi, and luckier still to be laid to rest in its eternal burning ghats — but not this woman. Her final wish is cruelly denied by her husband, who insists she will be buried instead. And so, she lies on her deathbed, waiting for the inevitable, her last desire broken and scattered like ash before the wind.
“A Nail on a Tamarind Tree” follows a group of carefree teenagers and their foolish late-night dare — to hammer a nail into a haunted tamarind tree inside an old cemetery. The tree, they say, has seen countless suicides, each nail a grim reminder of a life lost. It stands there, heavy with sorrow and secrets, its silence almost alive. Everyone in town keeps their distance — everyone, except these kids, who have no idea what they’re about to awaken.
“A Night of the New Moon” tells the eerie tale of a headless spirit — a devoted mother who refuses to rest until her son performs her last rites properly. Born the first in her family, and on a moonless night at that, her fate takes a dark turn when a sorcerer steals her skull for his sinister rituals. Now, she returns to haunt her son, pleading for peace — for her head to be found, and for her soul to finally be set free through the sacred rites she was denied.
“A Holy Cow in Varanasi” is a witty, satirical story about how some foreigners view India through a lens clouded with bias and self-importance. Here, it’s the wife of a French diplomat who calls everything “exotic” — a word she uses for all that she doesn’t truly understand. It’s her way of masking her bias, convincing herself she’s being appreciative while actually feeding her sense of superiority. Her curiosity isn’t about understanding India, but about finding clichés that confirm the prejudices she already carries.
But of all the stories, the one that touched me the most was “A Paper Boat on the Ganges.” Perhaps it was the endless cycle of failure and despair that the main character seems trapped in, or the painful reality of bullying that dims even the brightest of souls. There’s something deeply moving about the way this story captures grief and helplessness — its sorrow seeps quietly into you, making you ache for the characters long after you’ve turned the last page.
Overall, To Die in Benares is a beautiful read — a calm, melancholic, yet fitting tribute to the world of Kashi, the Ganga, and its timeless culture. Read it if you love Indian literature, if you enjoy thoughtful short story collections, or if you’re drawn to stories that carry a faint echo of India’s colonial French past.
Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of To Die in Benares right away!
