Book Review - Santosh Bakaya
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Dr. <strong>Santosh</strong> <strong>Bakaya</strong>’s <strong>Review</strong><br />
Of<br />
A Turn of Events<br />
By Avijit Sarkar<br />
Published By Ginninderra Press<br />
Adelaide Hills (Australia)<br />
www.ginninderrapress.com.au<br />
Dr. <strong>Santosh</strong> <strong>Bakaya</strong> is the author of<br />
internationally acclaimed ‘Ballad of Bapu’<br />
and ‘Where Are the Lilacs?’
This collection of 14 short stories<br />
has been written with a raconteur’s<br />
lip-smacking pleasure, and an<br />
artist’s sensitivity. The stories are<br />
succinct, surrealistic, satirical, and<br />
even scary and spooky (The Hand<br />
and Mistletoe Creek). The<br />
goosebumps that these stories gave<br />
me during the day, continued to be<br />
there even during the night.<br />
Armed with a keen sense of<br />
observation, like the proverbial fly<br />
on the wall, nothing escapes<br />
Sarkar’s vision. The delightful book<br />
is remarkable for its authentic<br />
dialogues, authentic characters, and<br />
authentic scenes. He has done a<br />
commendable job of weaving<br />
stories, culled from every day<br />
mundane happenings and in his<br />
dexterous hands, the ordinary becomes extraordinary; and by the<br />
time one finishes reading the book, one’s face is wreathed in an<br />
unending smile, and the wonderful after-taste refuses to go. One<br />
can, in fact, visualize the scenes and almost stretch one’s hand to<br />
shake the hands of the myriad of intriguing characters in the<br />
stories; they are so palpably real.<br />
With effortless élan, Sarkar has managed to juxtapose the<br />
ordinary vignettes of everyday life with philosophical ruminations<br />
about people’s behaviour – weird, abnormal, normal, abnormally<br />
normal and also absurd. There is a simple majesty in his style,<br />
which remains with the reader, long after the story is over.<br />
I could almost glimpse a naughty twinkle in the writer’s eyes as<br />
he talks of the charlatan in The Holy Man, a smirk lurking behind<br />
his smiles as he writes about the shenanigans of The Street<br />
Hawker, the comeuppance waiting in the wings for The Healthy<br />
Man, and the outcome of The Prediction. The story that went straight
to my heart was the intensely poignant All In the Family, and I<br />
almost found myself strangulated as Jennifer and Gurdas are<br />
caught in the twist in this tale and indeed, the tail.<br />
I am sure, O. Henry would have been delighted at the many<br />
twists there are in the tales presented in this enchanting book.<br />
There is nothing contrived or superficial about these surprise<br />
endings, which jolt you, and make you gasp by the sheer power<br />
of the surprising denouement. O. Henry loved sketching the people<br />
who frequented his pharmacy, where he worked as a young man,<br />
and Sarkar also enchants with his artistry and drawing skills in<br />
this wonderfully illustrated collection. The cover of the book is also<br />
done beautifully by the author himself.<br />
It is indeed a must read for all the lovers of short fiction,<br />
embellished aptly with clever word play and heart-warming<br />
witticisms.