Intimate Pretence is a collection of fourteen short stories by Paramita Satpathy. Translated from Oriya by the author and few others, the stories address the recurring problems of the booming middle-class of Orissa. The plight of the modern woman has been delineated with utmost loneliness, or the doting mother who never fails to care about her worthless son. The author also digs deep into the deceit of women, their frivolity and infidelity, and also the grievance of the mother who lost her son in the Kargil War.