I recently read and enjoyed a fresh and lovely collecion of short stories by Parvati Sharma.Parvati Sharma draws us with deft strokes into the everyday lives and loves of urban Indian characters.
Her approach is engaging, humorous and humane, as she lifts their quilts to reveal intimate secrets or point at romantic canoodlings in the kitchen in the opposite flat with a conspiratorial wink. As a group of young partygoers in the story, The Dead Camel, put forth in small talk, “Fiction is what real life isn’t… it stabs at the truth of the human condition…”
Love crops up in various forms and unexpected places, binding this collection of short stories. Love may fade, but memories of past loves crop up and help to make sense of the present.
Re: Elections 2004 the narrator Meera discusses with her landlord ‘Uncle’ and ‘Aunty’ the differences and parallels between the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and the more recent violence in Godhra, memories of which continue to haunt Indians. Meanwhile, Meera remembers with longing a former girlfriend, a Muslim, long after their relationship has died. Read my complete review published in Deccan Herald
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