‘Sharing Air’ with ‘Gandhi Toxin’ during ‘Exile’ in ‘2099’ AD: Manjula Padmanabhan’s short stories

This article studies four (science fiction [SF]) short stories written by Manjula Padmanabhan in order to draw linkages between the texts and their contemporary material realities. Using the theoretical framework of Darko Suvin’s novum, it focuses on the extent to which contemporary discourses contour the narrative framework and thematic concerns of an SF text. Each story studied here represents at least one specific malady that afflicts contemporary India. This article seeks to locate and determine how Padmanabhan engages in social criticism, and how the self-aware delivery mechanism of SF is deployed for this sociopolitical indictment.