NAIYER MASUD is the Indian subcontinent’s foremost Urdu short-story writer. His works have been translated into English, French, Finnish and, recently, Spanish. Snake Catcher, the second selection of his translated stories, appeared in 2006. Early in 2008 he received the 17th Saraswati Samman (India). A new collection of his Urdu stories, Ganjifa, was published by Scheherzade (Karachi) in 2008.