Summary

In “Ganga and the Snake: A Fauxtale,” Rajiv tells a story. In the story, a young girl, Ganga, gets married when she is a child. She lives with “her groom’s parents” (279). She spends her days singing and dancing on the riverbank. Her songs draw out the snakes. When one snake “opens his mouth,” Ganga walks into his “widened jaws” (283).

In “Aji Recording: Asirbaad, Blessing,” Rajiv translates another of Aji’s songs.

In “The King and the Koyal: A Fauxtale,” in another of Rajiv’s stories, a king is “unable to sleep” because of a bird’s song (290). Annoyed, he issues a decree for the bird’s death. Whoever kills the bird will “receive the entirety of [his] wealth” (293).

An archer prepares for the job. Although killing the bird will result in his “exile...