Salman Rushdie, in his first collection of short stories, looks at his two worlds: their intimacy and distance, their shared history, and the misunderstandings both tragic and comic that separate and bind them. A rickshaw driver dreams of being a movie star; Hollywood icons acquire magic powers; India diplomats must go into a world of conspiracy and violence; and Hamlet's jester is caught up in murderous intrigues. East and West form a hybrid world where an Indian's guru can be a Welshman, and women must choose between love and home