Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

Heart Lamp: Selected Stories (2025) is a literary short story collection by Indian author Banu Mushtaq. The stories in Heart Lamp focus on the suffering and resilience of Muslim women in India, as well as the tensions between the upper and working classes. Through these stories, Mushtaq critiques The Problem of Gendered Violence in the Family, The Inextricable Link Between Patriarchy and Capitalism, and The Importance of Reforming Religion for Modern Society.

The author of six previous short story collections, Mushtaq drew from her personal experiences to discuss women’s issues in India. Heart Lamp selects stories from the writing Mushtaq produced between 1990 and 2023. The collection was translated from its original Kannada language into English by Deepa Bhasthi. In 2025, the book became the first short story collection and the first Kannada-language book to win the International Booker Prize. 

This study guide uses the Kindle edition published by And Other Stories in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of gender discrimination, death, illness, religious discrimination, child death, physical and emotional abuse, bullying, child abuse, suicidal ideation, graphic violence, animal cruelty and death, mental illness, and sexual violence.

Plot Summaries

Mushtaq’s book consists of 12 stories, all of which focus on the lives of Muslim Indians.

“Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal” is told by a woman named Zeenat, who becomes friends with another woman named Shaista. Zeenat and Shaista’s husbands, Mujahid and Iftikhar, generally expect women to live domestic lives, which clashes against Shaista’s ambitions for her eldest daughter to pursue her education. While Zeenat and Mujahid visit them, Shaista’s husband makes hyperbolic declarations of love toward his wife, which Mujahid challenges. When Shaista gives birth to her seventh child, Zeenat becomes concerned for her well-being. To Zeenat’s shock, Shaista unexpectedly dies in recovery and is quickly replaced by a new wife. Zeenat scolds Iftikhar, urging him to refrain from making excessive declarations to his new wife as he did with Shaista.

“Fire Rain” follows Usman Saheb, a mutawalli whose role is to execute his mosque’s charitable functions. Usman is preoccupied with resolving a land ownership issue involving his youngest sister, who is demanding her share of the family property. Usman finds an opportunity to dismiss the issue when he galvanizes the community to fulfill the reburial rites of a Muslim who was wrongfully interred in a Hindu cemetery. It isn’t long until Usman discovers that the reburial issue was based on wrongful information and that his family issues distracted him from the poor health of his son, who ends up in the hospital for meningitis treatment.

“Black Cobras” tells the story of Aashraf, a mother who has been abandoned by her husband, Yakub, after giving birth to three daughters in a row. The mutawalli is sympathetic to Yakub, but is afraid of risking his credibility before the housewives in his community. In a show of her growing resilience, Aashraf urges the mutawalli to force Yakub to give child support. On the day of the mutawalli’s judgment, Aashraf approaches him and Yakub while carrying her youngest child. Yakub kicks Aashraf away, resulting in the child’s death. Soon, the community turns against the mutawalli for allowing Yakub’s transgression to pass.

In “A Decision of the Heart,” a fruit seller named Yusuf is torn between his loyalty to his mother, Mehaboob Bi, and his wife, Akhila. When the conflict between mother and wife reaches a boiling point, Yusuf takes on the challenge of getting his mother remarried. This drives Akhila’s remorse as she tries to reverse the consequences of her temperamental behavior. Out of love for her son’s well-being, Mehaboob Bi accepts her remarriage. Yusuf insinuates that he resents Akhila.

“Red Lungi” depicts a mass khatna (circumcision) ceremony, which is organized after a wealthy woman named Razia acquires a surplus of red cloth to fashion into lungis (men’s skirts) for the boys in her family. Razia is surprised to learn that a boy from a poor family, Arif, has recovered much faster from his circumcision than her son, Samad. Believing that Arif has been blessed for his poverty, Razia gifts him with new clothes and invites him to eat with her family.

“Heart Lamp” begins when a woman named Mehrun returns to her family to escape her unfaithful husband, Inayat. To her disappointment, her family personally escorts her back to her husband’s house. Though Inayat acts kindly toward Mehrun’s brothers, he threatens Mehrun with divorce. That evening, Mehrun attempts self-immolation, but is stopped by her eldest daughter, Salma, who consoles her and compels her to live for her children.

In “High-Heeled Shoe,” a man named Nayaz Khan covets the high-heeled shoes of his migrant sister-in-law, Naseema, because he wants his wife, Arifa, to wear them and demonstrate his financial capability. Naseema uses Nayaz’s ambition to stir a conflict with her husband, Mehaboob. The rift ends when Mehaboob chooses to show sympathy for Arifa, who has become exhausted in the late stages of pregnancy. Still determined to prove his capability, Nayaz buys Arifa an expensive but ill-fitting pair of shoes. Fearing that the shoes will harm her pregnancy, Arifa shatters the heels so that she can walk easily again.

“Soft Whispers” journeys into the childhood of its narrator, Safiya, who has been called to represent her family at an upcoming religious festival in their ancestral village. Safiya’s childhood memories revolve around her relationship with her grandmother, who worked as a traditional healer, and a boy named Abid, whose violence leaves an indelible mark on Safiya’s life. As an adult, Safiya reunites with Abid, who extends the formal invitation to the festival, and wonders if he still remembers her from childhood.

“A Taste of Heaven” explores the tense family dynamics between a man named Saadat; his wife, Shameem; and Saadat’s aunt, Bi Dadi. When Saadat’s children accidentally ruin Bi Dadi’s old prayer mat, Bi Dadi becomes increasingly aggrieved, which exacerbates her relations with Saadat and Shameem. The children resolve the issue by convincing Bi Dadi that she is already in heaven. Though this requires them to provide her with a steady supply of fizzy beverages, the tensions in the house die down, with none of the elders any wiser about the reasons for their newfound peace.

In “The Shroud,” a rich woman named Shaziya agrees to buy a funeral shroud for a poor woman named Yaseen Bua during her Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. Shaziya fails to make good on her promise and is shocked when she learns that Bua has died shortly after her return to India. Unable to fulfill Bua’s dying request, Shaziya laments the hollowness of her spirit.

“The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri” follows a lawyer who arranges Arabic language lessons for her two daughters. The lawyer is suspicious about the teacher she has hired and eventually discovers that he has enlisted her daughters in a plan to satisfy his insatiable craving for the snack called gobi manchuri. Though this discovery scares the teacher away, the lawyer eventually learns of the teacher’s marriage to a woman who does not know how to cook gobi manchuri. The teacher frequently abuses his wife, which compels the lawyer to intervene on her behalf. The story ends with her looking up the recipe for gobi manchuri.

“Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!” is written as a prayer to Allah, in which the narrator laments her marriage to an abusive man who only values her as an outlet for his sexual desires. The narrator’s cruel husband restricts her from going home to see her family and extorts her for whatever wealth her family has bestowed upon her. Though their relationship produces two children, the husband chooses to abandon the narrator when she develops a tumor. He remarries and locks the narrator out of the house, prompting the narrator to pray that Allah might return to the world as a woman.