Book excerpt: City of Joy, City of Paradoxes Kolkata, in West Bengal, India, is nicknamed "The City Of Joy." Contrary to its name, it is a city of paradoxes. The stories in this collection provide fascinating glimpses into a panorama of baffling variety, its rich contrast of the simple and the sophisticated, the ancient and the modern. The characters are mostly drawn from the women of Kolkata, and seek to put the challenges of being a woman in India in a broader perspective. The focus is on ordinary people, and have themes and motifs of women's rights, marital problems, matriarchies, and patriarchies. In general, they are about the living and breathing families in the Kolkata, India of the past and the present.