My mother's friend told us the rest. 'The first one on the rail-track was the father of my children. Then his friends lay alongside him and alongside them were their wives. The engine started whistling frantically from a long distance.. The wheels of the train ran over many men. But no one moved from his place. All along the track we chanted: 'Praise be to the Almighty, the Formless one, Praise be..'The chant went on in unison. And then the train went backwards...." When we were returning to our village that evening, my mother began to tell my sister the story of the Temple of the Guru's Palm. She told her how the Guru came that way with his disciple: how the disciple thirsted and Guru sent him to the dervish to the top the hill; how the dervish turned him back three times: how the Guru asked his disciple to pick up a rock; how the spring burst forth from under it and the well of the dervish dried up; how the dervish had hurled the boulder; and how the Guru had said: "Praise be to the Almighty, the Formless One,' and stopped it with the palm of his hand. About The Author Kartar Singh Duggar (b. 1917), a Fellow of the National Academy of Letters is leading Indian Writer with equal proficiency in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English. He is the winner of prestigious awards like the Padma Bhusan in 1998 and the Waris Award as the Punjabi Writer of the Millennium in 2000. His career as a short story wirter began with a sudden drift from poetry to this first short story 'Wadh Vich Ik Swer', which made him stand with the stalwarts like Krishen Chander and Rajinder Singh Bedi. Since then ther was no looking back. His collection of short stories entitled Ik Chit Chanan Di ( a Beam of Light) won Sashitya Academy Award. His short story'Come Back, My master' figures in the World's Greatest Short Stories published in Germany. Table Of Contents Preface The Miracle The Night of the Full Moon Come Back, My Master A Punjab Pastoral Meenoo Trishna Chameli A Room 10x8 The Taxi Driver The Man in White Suffer Little Children Mhaja is Not Dead When Will this Father Die The Sins of Her Father Where Should Manira Now Go? The Making of a Militant The Lonely Traveller Live Without Him Nobody Sleeps Tonight Minna Must Come The Award And the Train Left The Accursed Death in Delhi A Pathan Pastoral The Letter Comes All Alone The Sole Standby Rain God and the Radio The Hijacked Death of a Song The Terrace Mirage of Sand? Mundu Sitting by Herself and Smoking Returned Empty Handed Again the Pilgrimage Ahims Women's Lib Shama Agony and Ecstasy The Damned Punjab Singh The Letter Will Now Never Come Rukko, the Accursed The Slap A study in Boredom Repeat Performance Birth of a Song Nasibo Returned to Her Village The Banked Fire Glossary