Deep Ties

  ‘Eventide’ – the title of the poetry book by Vasudha Pansare hints at a major theme that nestles within, one that deals with the evening of our lives. “However long, the day will end,” says the poet, using a metaphor for life and death, which is carried on throughout the book in various other poems such as ‘The Evening of Life’, ‘Mortality’, ‘The Evening Sky’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Evening’ and ‘When It’s Time to Die’. “Tranquil should be our sunset years,” “The twilight has entered my being, / And tranquil I feel, without and within.” “The sun of youthfulness has set, / And I do not regret.” The poet prays for the health and happiness of all in the eventide of life. Another apt metaphor sings of the ocean of life and human beings as boats. “ I am a weak little boat, and the waves turbulent.” She is very much a nature poet as she finds beauty everywhere in nature. “We are like Autumn leaves, / Here today, gone tomorrow.” A sense of thankfulness runs through many of Vasudha Pan...

  The red and green cover image leaps out, imbued in joy and festivity, replete with a glorious Gulmohar, and a feisty lady dancing the Giddha with fervour. This sets the tone of the book from the very start. #ChetnaKeer’s #GiddhaOnMyGulmohar’ is a laugh riot from page one, as her vivacious protagonist in her forties, #Lollita, aka Laasyanga Mansingh, (another amusing story there!) waltzes her way across the pages, striving to write a Wannabe Bestseller. Her gang of friends are equally vibrant with exotic names such as Nazaakat Dutt, Rehmat Anand, Ibaadat Thapar and Krrish Sathe. Not surprisingly, her beloved queen cat called Bholi Punjabban aka Iraa Singh, rules her life. Just when Lollita thinks of crystallising her dreams, the “uncommonest Party Pooper or Game Changer – Lockdown 1.0” materialises, leaving her “caged in the claustrophobic confines of the concrete jungle called condo life.” Her dreams revolve around being a bestseller author and maybe getting to the Booker Lon...

  Amazon.in Manju Nambiar writes a pithy little book that revolves around a money lender in the state of Kerala, where, under a communist government, the economy suffered. As skilled labourers migrated to the Middle East, a member from almost every family, this particular small town changed its name to ‘Gulf Town’. Money flowed in, and as people became richer, their egos grew, along with their needs. This story is narrated by a prominent person amongst them, the money lender, who found that he could lend money at exorbitant interest rates. “My business grew along with the haughtiness of the Gulf Town”. The money lender acquired the amusing name of Uncle Scrooge, which quite pleased him as he loved money and felt that the world revolved around it. For that reason alone, he remained a bachelor. This book is a legacy, a collection of his more amusing stories which “reflect our town, our way of living, our thoughts and priorities and our deepest innermost fears.” In ‘The Brickmaker...

  Goodreads How does the memory of a dream return to an old man, a memory of a “reverie that had once set his youth on fire?” “Why did the dream materialise again after years in hibernation?” In the story ‘Calendar Girl’, Madhavan Nair reminisces over his life with his inelegant wife, Rajam, a woman he has never been in love with. Over the decades, he has learnt to live his mundane life with his wife and children, but with the recurrence of the dream, he is forced to linger on the thoughts of the woman of his dreams, and the “vestiges of an old, gnawing sense of deprivation” begin to pierce his heart all over again. “Chandrika soon became an obsession swathed in mystery.” When his obsession goes beyond limits, his parents get him married to Rajam, the daughter of a relative. How does Madhavan Nair reconcile between the woman of his dreams and the woman in his hearth? Do separation and unfamiliarity lead to apprehension in a marriage? How do long-distance marriages survive...

  Amazon.in “If you are alive, you produce light.” Makosinski (From the story ‘Switch’) ‘Bhumi’ is an anthology by a bold young writer, Tina Sequeira, who has created a mosaic of stories around strong and intrepid protagonists, mostly women. Her narratives bring out the fact clearly that modern women are no damsels in distress, but are one step ahead always, finding solutions to life’s darkest problems. Understandably, the book was the winner of the Rashtriya Gaurav Award by the Government of Telangana. The foreword by the versatile and prolific writer, Ms. Santosh Bakaya, is yet another reason to look forward to these beautifully written stories. Hope and resilience are the themes of many of the stories in this anthology, be it ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’ or ‘Fat Chance’. Women who have been hurt or shamed also rise like the phoenix and batter down the walls that have tried to contain them, breaking out in glorious freedom. ‘Climax’ has one such protagonist who picks up the...