The article deals with the use of the pluperfect as a narrative device in six short stories writen by the Hindi-author Kamlesvar and published in 1964. The article distinguishes two ways of using the "absolute" pluperfect, that is, the pluperfect found in a context other than retroversions. The first type is the pluperfect that signalizes Free Indirect Discourse. In the second type, the pluperfect expresses a feeling of helplessness, as experienced by a character or narrator. The use of the pluperfect in FID is a result of the tense shift that characterizes this semi-direct style. Its occurerence in the second type, on the other hand, comes close to the central meaning of the Hindi pluperfect of indicating and action that (according to Montaut´s explanation) does not go on to and is separated by a time interval from, the present. Here, however, that meaning should be taken metaphorically.