Edition Details:
Format: E-book | Publisher: Juggernaut | Page Count: 16
Book link: E-book
Story:
On the day Ritwik Singh was to be executed, he vanished from his jail cell. The prison guard posted there has no idea where Ritwik went. The search for the missing prisoner is on but there is no clue except for a diary left behind by him. And now the Jailor Jayant Makhija is reading it in hope to find answers about Ritwik's disappearance.
Where did Ritwik go? Why did he left his diary behind? And what was in the diary?
My take:
A prisoner's diary is a short story by Abhilash Sanyal. It is available on Juggernaut platform.
I'll start by saying that i liked the concept of A prisoner's diary and i had high hopes from it. The story of a prisoner who vanishes into thin air on the day he was to be executed would grab anyone's attention. Any reader would want to know how the prisoner managed it? And, i was no different. But alas, this was a disappointing read.
There are many problems that i had with this story.
The first and foremost is the place where this story is set up. It's difficult to fathom where the story is taking place. All the characters here are Indian but the world they are in feels overly American. For eg:
In India prison wardens are usually called Jailors but the author has chosen the term Warden which seems weird to me. Now in India executions are often done by hanging but the author here shows prisons using electric chair for execution. After reading these two things one can easily say that using the term warden and showing electric chair for execution means that the story is not occuring in India. But then author does something else which in turn again confuses the reader. The author as the story progresses says about a character that he was a police Inspector which is a rank of police official in India. I don't think there are police inspectors in USA.This makes me suppose that the story is set up in India which would explain so many Indian characters but then that doesn't explain the other terms he's using. All of this leads me to believe that author was confused as to where he needs to set this story. I think he should have set this story in America which would have easily resolved this issue. I don't know why he needed to use all Indian characters. He could have used American characters or a mixture of Indian and American characters and the story would have been no less different.
Next issue i have is with the diary. This is an important part of the story. It is used by author for two purposes. The author uses diary to tell the reader what had happened that had brought Ritwick into this jail and how did he manage to escape. There is a twist here which should have suprised the reader but it's so weak and illogical that all it does is gives the reader a relief that the story has ended. And he can move on now. Here i'll only say that if one have successfuly escaped from the prison why would then he or she will leave a diary behind. And even if one does that so as to gloat, why would one reveal the name of the person who has helped him/her escape.And that too to the person in authority. That's stupid, right??
Summing up, i would just say that it's a very weak story that should have been worked over a lot before being published by the author. The idea had potential to become a really good story but right now it seems wasted. I think this is one drawback of platforms like Juggernaut which lets it's user publish anything. The reader can't be sure what he'll get next.
Book link: E-book
