Radhika Jha
Radhika Jha is perhaps one of the most unique authors I’ve ever read, even if I had to judge only from this book. There is a vividness in the prose that I’ve rarely experienced before. The book consists of 6 stories. ‘The Wedding’ gives us a peek into Delhi’s high society, as portrayed by a wedding that stops just short of bizarre. This would be my least favourite. ‘Hope’ uses two characters – the narrator, who represents a typical middle class migrant to the big city (Delhi) and Shibu Mondal, a roadside beggar with a cruel past, and their experiences, to describe facets of the city’s relationship with its inhabitants.
3 characters and their unique relationships with ‘Beauty’. This one is set in Bangalore and features Koshy’s. ‘The Elephant and the Maruti’, is a chain of events set in motion after an elephant steps on a Maruti in a busy Delhi traffic junction. The story takes us through a cross section of social layers, and seems a hat tip the ‘circle of life’ as well as the ‘butterfly effect’. ‘Sleepers’ is set in the remote village of Mangladi, and the narrator’s experience with the role of blind faith and religion in individual lives and the community. ‘The Cook’ is the story of a chef whose family realises that he has lost his skills. The chef feels that his family is plotting against him. What follows is a maze of betrayal and counters, which ends in a neat twist.
The stories are all a mix of vivid explanations and layered mysteries, often leaving a lot to the reader to imagine, and fill. Worth a read.