Quirky Tales by Sharmishtha Shenoy

Edition Details:
Format: E-book | Page Count: 46 |  ASIN: B07TH26WF1

Book Link: amazon.in | amazon.com

Quirky tales is a collection of four stories by Sharmistha Shenoy. A dictionary describes quirky as something which is unusual but in an interesting way. If you consider this definition of quirky then we can say that it is a quite apt title for this collection. The stories in this collection do have some different themes and there are some twists in most of the stories which does increase your interest in them.

The mills of the Gods is the first story of the collection. The title of this story comes from the proverb the mills of the gods grind slowly which means that there would be divine retribution for what ever wrong you've done. This is also the theme of the story. 

The story is narrated by Ravi who's a journalist living in Delhi. When Ravi befriends Pratap, a retired police inspector, he thinks Pratap may have some intersting but bizarre case to share with him. After being pestered for a long time Pratap finally decides to tell Ravi the story of Ram nath singh. Ram nath singh was an alcoholic who was living in  the area where Pratap was posted at that time.  He could barely eke out his living. So when one day Ram nath comes drunk into the station and asks Pratap to arrest him for a murder that he had commited some eight months back, it does surprises Pratap. What had made Ram nath come to the station forms the story.

This is a story about guilt. Most people when they do wrong tend to feel guilty. They try to forget it but only some of them can completly forget it. So when something or other keeps happeing to remind one of his wrongdoing it's bound to affect him. This is what happens in this story. I enjoyed reading this story. The writing is good and manages to keep your interest till the end. The twist in the end looked too far fetched to me though and could have been better written.  

Deadly Desires is the second story of the collection. Alia and Ajith had love marriage but now Ajith is not that happy in his married life. Although he is still in love with Alia but they do keep fighting with each other. When Sonia Bajaj comes into his life he thinks she's a regular client but then they end up sleeping with each other. Now, something has happened which makes Ajith believe that he'll get arrested by the police soon. What has happened that has led Ajith to form these notions? How would these things affect his marriage? These are the questions that would be answered in this story.

I found this story to be an okay read. I think the story could have been better. I know the story focuses on the relationship between Alia and Ajith but i think the way writer had extricated Ajith from his predicaments could have been executed in a better way. Right now it seems too easy. 

There are times in our lives when we tend to think that some people are necessary for our happinees. Our whole world revolves around these people who are not right for us and we forget that only we are responsible for our happiness. The collection's third story Life is beautiful is about a such girl Madhu who had once loved Abhishek from the core of her heart. When Abhishek left her she found out that she was not that important in his life as he was in hers. But that was in the past. Now Madhu has found herself in a position where she has to choose between Abhishek who wants to come back to her and Vishal who loves her for what she is. The choice that she makes forms this story.

Life is beautiful was my favourite one in this collection. Human relationships are complex and there are times when we take some decisions for which we have to regret in the future. This is about those decisions. Madhu had once taken such a decision which she had regretted. Now she is at such juncture of her life when she has to take another decision. I liked the option that Madhu chose in the end. Although Sharmistha Shenoy usually writes murder mystery i would really love to read a novel like this story written by her. 

Rajbir's story is the fourth and last one in the collection. The story is about a 23 year old Rajbir who's was in Indian army and died fighting for his country . The story is told by mysterious narrator who is well acquainted with Rajbir's life. The story is about how war affects people and how it's wrong to glamourize it. I liked this one too. The only think i didn't like the way the narrator end the story. It ends with the narrator giving a lecture on the futility of wars which i think was not necessary. The story in itself was conveying it.

To conclude it's a decent collection. The first two stories could have been better but still this collection can be read once.

Book Link: amazon.in | amazon.com