Reviews & Musings

ABOUT THE BOOK Image Source: Goodreads.com The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told showcases Odia’s greatest storytellers ranging from literary masters such as Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopinath Mohanty, Reba Ray, and Manoj Das to contemporary stalwarts like Pratibha Ray, and Nrusingha Tripathy, among others. A young woman who was dragged away by a crocodile mysteriously resurfaces after a decade in Manoj Das’s ‘Mrs Crocodile’; a pet goat let loose in a government office causes amusement and chaos in Gopinath Mohanty’s ‘The Solution’; Godavaris Mahapatra’s ‘Maguni’s Bullock Cart’ deals with the anxieties of a bullock cart driver stuck between the trappings of traditions and modernity—the stories in this anthology traverse an exciting range of themes from fantasy to reality, and bone-chilling horror to rib-tickling humour. Timeless, evocative and striking, The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told offers a rich selection of stories that are unrivalled in their range, style and complexit

How do you define happiness?

About the Book Say hi to Rumana. A freshly minted (baked?) chef who decides to trade her powersuit for chef’s whites to live her dream of owning a cafe. Cut to six months later and there is not too sweet, a gorgeous little cafe with a burgeoning clientele. This is home and heart and everything in between. But Rumana's Banker’s bliss is cut short when competition drives in not only right into her street but parks itself right next door! What the... Enter Daniyal—rock star chef, too good-looking, and annoyingly charming. With him around, Rumana flits between being putty in his hands—giving away a cherished recipe to him when he asks nicely!—and getting mad at herself for her actions. But battle lines get drawn when Daniyal decides to present her recipe to the world with his take on it. Attracted towards the wild-haired Rumana, whose sweet kisses are a complete contradiction to her angry personality, Daniyal has no idea what’s about to hit him. At Daniyal’s Desserts, he can’

    Title: Interpreter of Winds  Author: Fairoz Ahmad Publisher: Ethos Books ( 2019) Interpreter of Winds  is a collection of four stories which brings together Fairoz Ahmad’s experiences and observations while growing up as a Muslim. In a world where we are (sadly) divided by religion and united by our bitterness towards it all, these stories are an invigorating read. This short collection is a remarkable attempt to interpret faith and capture its challenges. Ahmad is a young voice who is striving to be the change he wants to see in the world. Having co-founded an award-winning social enterprise  Chapter W —  which works at the intersection of women, technology and social impact, he has been awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni award by National University of Singapore for his work with the community. He believes that magic, wonder and richness of one’s history and culture, together with their quirks and eccentricities, could help narrow the gap in our understanding. His stories seem

About the Book Raghu Mehta is a desperate man. His handicraft imports business has unexpectedly collapsed and cash is drying out quickly, his wife thinks he is a loser and society considers him irrelevant. Meanwhile, his closest friends and family all seem to be running flourishing businesses and living luxurious lives in Surat, the diamond capital of India. A trip to China to scout for a new consumer goods business offers a glimmer of hope. But Raghu instead gets sucked into the black-market trade in the back alleys of Beijing. Everything about this new opportunity goes against his god-fearing, vegetarian, middle-class mindset - can he quash his natural instincts to make a success of it? Darkly comical, 'Made in China' is a soul-stirring and thrilling entrepreneurial journey of a man willing to do anything he can to make it big.

The Speaking Stone by Ratnadip Acharya ~Book Tour~ 11th to 17th November

The Sinners by Sourabh Mukherjee ~ Release Day Blitz ~ 12th November

  Book Review by Namrata   Title: Animalia Indica –The Finest Animal Stories in Indian Literature  Editor: Sumana Roy Publisher: Aleph Book Company (2019) Edited by Sumana Roy,  Animalia Indica  is a first of its kind collection of animal stories in Indian literature. From classic story tellers like R.K.Narayan, Premchand, Rudyard Kipling to the most recent maestros like Kanishk Tharoor, Perumal Murugan, and Nilanjana Roy, this collection features them all. Sumana Roy is a Siliguri based author whose previous works include a non-fiction title ( How I became a tree ), a fiction novel ( Missing ) and a poetry collection ( Out of Syllabus ). She went on to win the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award in 2017 for her debut book  How I became a tree . This anthology, with its beautiful cover, has twenty-one stories about humans and animals. It can easily be called a collector’s edition with the who’s who of Indian literature featured within. Not all o

About the book Do you know what you really are? Or has life not tested you yet! 8 stories 8 situations 8 emotions 

    Title: The Crooked Line Author: Ismat Chugtai (Translated from Urdu by Tahira Naqvi) Publisher: Speaking Tiger, 2019 Narrating the tale of a lonely child called Shaman, the novel,  The Crooked Line , by Ismat Chugtai is considered to be one of her finest works. Written is an extremely poignant and evocative manner, Shaman’s story takes us through her experiences of growing up as a woman in a conservative Muslim family. Ismat Chugtai  is regarded as one of the most rebellious and provocative women writers in Urdu and continues to be a luminary till date.  The Crooked Line  was originally published in 1945 and was translated into English fifty years later, after it was compared to  The Second Sex  (1949) by de Beauvoir for its strong portrayal of gender and politics. However, the two books are starkly different in their approach with  The Crooked Line  being a novel while  The Second Sex  is a treatise;  though it has always been argued that the former could be semi-autobiographical.

  Title: She Stoops to Kill — Stories of Crime and Passion Editor: Preeti Gill Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books Date of Publication: 2019 She Stoops to Kill  is a collection of crime stories written by some of the most illustrious women writers of India. A chanced discussion at Guwahati airport between Preeti Gill and the featured authors about the rising crime rates featured in daily newspapers matured into an anthology of murder stories. Preeti Gill is a renowned name in the literary circles, having worked in the publishing industry for more than two decades now. She has donned various hats during this period, ranging from being a writer, commissioning editor, rights manager, script writer, researcher and is now, an independent editor and literary agent. This collection brings together a heady combination of renowned authors like Paro Anand, Venita Coelho, Uddipana Goswami, Manjula Padmanabhan, Janice Pariat, Mitra Phukan, Pratyaksha and Bulbul Sharma. Interestingly, each one of them