black-and-white fountain

original themes
engaging narrative
contemporary design

black-and-white fountain, founded in 2012, is a small but high-impact independent press dedicated to Sindhi heritage, Partition narratives, and the global Sindhi diaspora. Established by Saaz Aggarwal as an offering of her personal resources, its mission is to create a body of reliable, good-quality work that restores cultural memory, challenges stereotypes, and enriches public understanding.

Our list is highly selective, with emphasis on clarity of language, strong storytelling, and thoughtful design. The books are widely reviewed and appreciated for their literary quality, endorsed by leading historians, and acquired by libraries at international universities. Several titles are recognized contributions to South Asian Studies.

Beyond publishing, black-and-white fountain draws on deep domain expertise. We have conducted oral histories across continents, produced family and business histories on private commission, and contributed chapters to scholarly volumes. Looking ahead, our focus is on supporting multilingual diaspora writing, translating classics and literary works, creating bilingual children’s books, documenting business histories, and helping scholars share their findings with wider audiences.

New release

Sunrise over Valivade

Growing up in the Sindhi Refugee Camp in Kolhapur

This memoir, emerging from the well-populated yet little-known Gandhinagar Refugee Camp at Valiwade, Kolhapur, tells a story of heartbreak and devastation met with resilience and determination. It brings to light a history obscured by time, and the remarkable feats of ordinary men and women who adapted swiftly to their tragic loss and displacement, continuing to strive with all their might, to secure a better future for the generations that followed.

A Modern Day Classic

Sindh: Stories from a Vanished Homeland

In November 2012, when this book was published, documentation about the Partition experiences of the Hindus of Sindh, and their rehabilitation, was scanty. Beginning with one woman’s memories of her childhood, the book evolved to form a depository of individual experiences, supplemented by information from secondary sources. Together, these provide a multi-dimensional perspective of the community.

The book soon found its place in university libraries around the world, as well as among the treasured chronicles of families to whom it gave a better understanding of their recent history and their disrupted cultural heritage.

BESTSELLERS

BESTSELLER

Beyond the rainbow

Murli Melwani

This collection of short stories is set in the global Sindhi diaspora, an interesting and little-known history which is only just emerging.

Literary fiction by Murli Melwani, Beyond the Rainbow, offers not just an enjoyable reading experience but also insights into the lifestyle and business practices of the Sindhi families living in ports around the world.

Bestseller

An elephant kissed my window

M Ravindran & Saaz Aggarwal

An account of life on the tea plantations of South India over a period of fifty years, this book largely comprises personal anecdotes, traces the journey that began when once-impenetrable jungle made way for the pioneering British planters of the eighteenth century.

Our Sindh Library

Stories from a vanished homeland

Saaz Aggarwal

Sindhi Tapestry

Reflections on the Sindhi identity: an anthology

The Amils of Sindh

Saaz Aggarwal

My Sindh

Shakuntala Bharvani

Losing Home, Finding Home

Saaz Aggarwal

Beyond the Rainbow

Murli Melwani

Tales from Yerwada Jail

Rita Shahani

While Sowing Dreams

Mohan Gehani

Refugees in their own country

Sunayna Pal

Sunrise over Valivade

Susheel Gajwani

Readers' Opinions

Through the skilful use of oral histories, Saaz Aggarwal’s book recreates the experience of living in undivided Sindh, in towns and villages peopled by both Hindus and Muslims. It then moves forward to the events of 1947, and the displacement of Sindhi Hindus, to their forced migration across the border, and the hard, heroic rebuilding of their lives in India.

Structured along scrapbook lines, Stories from a Vanished Homeland interweaves factual information drawn from secondary sources — academic books and articles — with first-hand accounts, photographs, poetry and even cherished family recipes which together evoke a bittersweet nostalgia for times lost and even opportunities missed.

A valuable addition to Sindh studies, a new book presents the history and oral narratives of a community largely displaced during Partition.

This wonderful book has many forms of joy, but also spectres that haunt.

This book packs anecdotes and history marvellously well.

The authors need a round of applause for this volume. The aroma of the strong-bodied South Indian teas wafts around long after the last chapter has been read.

Murli Melwani’s collection of short stories is a melange of colourful people, exotic locales and some adventure. All characters and events are supposedly fictional. But I suspect, very strongly, each story is true or at least has a broad element of truth.