Apprehending the Contemporary Indian Society through the Lens of Social Realism- A Study of Shashi Tharoor's 'The Five Dollar Smile And Other Stories'

The emergence of Indian novels in English was not purely a literary phenomenon. Rather than a historical romance, it began as a novel of social realism. Social realism is the faithful representation of reality. It limns familiar real-life places and mundane, everyday stories of ordinary people, primarily society's middle and lower classes. The depiction of different shades of modern Indian life is one of the principal sources of appeal in Shashi Tharoor's fiction and non-fiction works. Tharoor's writings predominantly deal with India's historical, social or political aspects, and the characters are the central focus of the narratives. Tharoor's The Five Dollar Smile And Other Stories (1990) is a collection of short stories and a farce based on his childhood and early adulthood anecdotes. The stories reflect themes like love, hate, loss, deceit, and many other social evils. The paper attempts to explore and critically analyse Tharoor's collection of short stories in the light of social realism in modern India from an adolescent's perception.