Margaret Atwood says, ‘Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be.’
Maybe that is what ten talented authors felt when they saw their short stories published in Love Can Kill and Other Stories, an anthology that explores the most tangled feelings known to the same human race. The feeling of love.
The authors are quite a heterogenous group, from a decorated, retired army officer to a 12-year-old school girl from Delhi to Bangalore to Goa to Mumbai…to London. The only thing that bound them together was their decision to try out the mentorship program for creative writing offered by Sutapa’s Studio founded by Author Sutapa Basu. They integrated learnings, applied them and labored hard to structure their stories. Eventually, those stories that they created saw the light of day in Love Can Kill and Other Stories published by Readomania Publishers.
To whet your interest, here is a bird’s eye view of the tales and the authors’ take on the entire experience.
Only Time Can Tell by Deepika Bhalla explores the paradox of alternate realities where a love relationship does not work out but what if you were married in another time? Would it work?
To quote Deepika, ‘Sutapa’s Studio was an incredible experience. I learnt, discussed, discovered and wrote.’
Chiselled Under Fire, by Colonel Shyam Vijaya Simha, is about patriotic love and is a highly immersive, authentic and action-packed story…almost autobiographical.
Col Simha says: ‘Sutapa is a brilliant mentor and helped in my growth as an author to pen down a gripping narrative.’
14-year-old Surabhi Srikruthi’s The Smiley Mystery takes a sharp left-turn into the warm embrace of a clique of young girls who solve a kidnapping. Love forged through friendship is the key theme here.
Serendipity, by Alka Nayar, delves into deep psychoanalysis and love for her hilariously-named dog, Bacardi. The last line will certainly get to you, “Miracles do occur. Life does come a full circle… dots do connect and yes… there are happy endings.”
Of her writing experience, Alka declares: ‘Exploring and unraveling all those mysterious, magical, imaginative threads within one.’
Prohibition is by Neil Nagwekar. That’s me! Set in Goa, it intertwines a speculative-future setting with a love story that is tragic or happy, depending on what you believe.
My take: ‘Sutapa’s Studio helped me understand how to build three-dimensional characters. Sutapa is an incredible mentor and I’d recommend the course in a heartbeat.’
The next story, The Woman in the Mirror, is an incredibly moving tale about a newlywed couple. It is among my personal favourites, not less because the author Aarrnaa Singhvi is just twelve. This story does not deserve to be spoiled. It deserves to wash over your mind and make you feel more than think. Suffice to say, the main protagonist Iraa will remain immortal in my head.
My Shirt is in the Laundry by Lagnajita Chatterjee is probably the most road-twisty tale of the anthology. It flits between a comedy, a thriller, a tragedy and a mature character study before you know it. Chatterjee manages to weave these plot threads while keeping Goa alive as a backdrop, which speaks of her skill with the pen.
Devika Chaturvedi’s The Maverick and the Muse is a period piece about Bollywood in the 50s and 60s. I love the use of POV characters during the narration. Chaturvedi also has a deep understanding of what happens behind the tripod when a Bollywood film is made, and it shows.
Devika says: ‘In addition to honing my creative writing and lateral thinking skills, Sutapa’s Studio also led to the fruition of a long-held dream, that of being a published author.’
Marriages are not Made in Heaven, by Priyanka Singhvi, is aptly titled. It deconstructs a supernatural concept (like love), crashes it down to earth; to mundane reality, and then waits to see whether love can sustain through the muck and toil of everyday life. A must read.
Priyanka says: I am thrilled to be published alongside my daughter and my niece. So proud of both of them!’
The last story whose title has been adopted as the book title, Love Can Kill by Gaia Daga, in the form of epistolary letters, harkens back to the writing of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding, the first novelists. A nightmarish theme of a post-holocaust world includes a love story and a profound ending from existentialist angst. Daga’s story is rich in gory details, while her mature handling of the plot and characters belie her youth and makes the narrative a worthy end for the compilation.
As you may have noticed, the most wonderful issue about Love Can Kill and Other Stories is its authors do not shy from getting their hands dirty. For love is a messy emotion. Perhaps the messiest of them all! And the most messiest because there are so many facets to it and one never knows how it may evolve or devolve.
Since the threads of this anthology have spun out of Sutapa’s Studio, let me conclude with a few of my perceptions about its features.
Founded by Sutapa Basu who is an author, educationist and writing coach, Sutapa’s Studio provides aspiring writers a safe, open arena for dialogue, experimentation, and analysis. There are creative writing mentorship programs of varied durations and for diverse target groups to choose from. There is an informal and encouraging ambience that allowed me to comfortably ideate and create. I certainly perceived how it helped writers find their voices. And it did seek out the writer hidden in us.
According to Sutapa, ‘Establishing Sutapa’s Studio to help aspiring writers is my humble way of giving back to all those people in the writing and publishing community, who have held my hand, mentored and encouraged me at every stage of my writing journey and continue to do so. Not the least of them have been my association with Mr Dipankar Mukherjee and Readomania Publishers.
My heartfelt wishes go out to my co-authors, Deepika Bhalla, Col. (retd) Shyam Vijaya Simha, Surabhi Srikruthi, Alka S. Nayar, Aarrnaa Singhvi, Lagnajita Chatterjee, Devika Chaturvedi, Priyanka Singhvi, and Gaia Daga for the very best in their future writing and publishing endeavours. I hope we work together, once again.
While we will never know some of our readers, we still look forward to a lot of excitement and appreciation that Love Can Kill and Other Stories will generate in the reading and writing communities.
You can get this book from Amazon: Click Here
This article has been written by Neil Nagwekar.
Comments