Munshi Premchand is one of the most important writers of the Hindi-Urdu canon in India. His prolific writing contributed largely to shape the genre of short stories as we know it in India. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance and satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched skill and compassion.

Premchand's wrote prolifically about life in the city in the India of his time . In fact, his fictional corpus, if read uncritically, would lend itself to an easy binary between country life and city life. This collection attempts to break away from the misconceptions to bring to light the nuance in his understanding of city life.