"A Horse and Two Goats"
This entire story is an exercise in irony centering upon a long, involved conversation between an American businessman and a poor old Indian man. The two men complete a business negotiation hat is satisfactory to both despite the fact that neither one understands a single word the other is saying. Further adding to the irony is the fact that the American buys a statue which the old man does not even own.
"An Astrologer's Day"
This story closes with the title character confessing to his wife that the reason they are married is because he ran away from his hometown to start over with a new life in hiding from the guilt of having once killed a man. Ironically, not only did he not actually kill the man, but that man he attacked he thought he killed has been searching for his attacker ever since then and yet fails to recognize him as the astrologer when he comes face to face with him.
"Like the Sun"
The irony of this story is of a much lighter touch. Sekhar is teacher who has decided on a whim to spend the entire day telling the truth no matter what. The no matter what reaches a state of conflict during an evening with the headmaster. Sekhar is desperate to get an extension on grading papers he has still not gotten around to completing and after initially ingratiating himself with the headmaster, he gets a full ten day extension. And then comes the moment of truth, literally, when Sekhar must fulfill his commitment by being honest about the headmaster’s musical talents. The story concludes with Sekhar hard at work getting one-hundred test papers graded by the next morning.
"Another Community"
In contrast to the above example, the irony turns absolutely brutal in “Another Community.” The narrative here is one that might, with a few tweaks here and there, be the kind of story that popped up on The Twilight Zone. It is the tragic irony of a man so desperate to preserve the communal peace that he attempts to single-handedly become the obstruction to the ignition of a flaming rivalry only to proceed to become the flame which ignites the wick.
"A Snake in the Grass"
The irony of “A Snake in the Grass” begins with the title which appears to be entirely literal in respect to subject matter, but actually completely gives away the plot and the story’s theme. A lazy idler of a servant manages to convince the family which employs him that he is much cagier than they because he has managed to trap the cobra they have expended so much energy trying to catch. In doing so, he also works from them an apology for accusing of indolence and the promise of a reward. The irony, of course, is that he has fooled them; the jar in which he supposedly is taking the cobra to a snake hander is empty. The story concludes, however, on yet another level of irony as the servant has been gone no more than five minutes before the cobra reappears and the family realizes they have been taken in by their very own snake in the grass.
