Foreword

Eds: In March 2013, Himal Southasian announced its short story competition, open to all, to write stories based around our Online-istan theme. Entries went through two rounds of judging by our editorial team, before the final selection was made by Southasian author Prajwal Parajuly, whose debut collection of short stories, The Gurkha’s Daughter, was published in 2012.

Published on:

15 Jul 2013, 2:49 am

I acquired my first email address when I was 14 years old. It took a lot of effort, and a lot of people's help. Just when you thought the registration process was complete, the sluggish computer in the only cyber café in Gangtok, Sikkim, would refuse to co-operate. If it wasn't the machine, it was the internet connectivity. The line went dead if it rained too hard. Things, of course, have changed.

I first read the shortlisted entries of Himal's short story competition at JFK airport in New York, the connection between the theme of the competition – communication technology penetrating deeper into our lives – and the equipment on which I was reading the stories – my internet-enabled smartphone – not escaping me. That was quite a distance travelled from the days when even spam mail triggered excitement.

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