Akhilesh Panigrahi has very perspicaciously brought to life multiple characters with multiple stories through his compilation. Instead of focusing and draining out a few characters and stretching them into a book, he wanted to make his debut indisputable. These little shots of intensity, fire, love and lust definitely has an appeal to draw but also not drag the reader into a dark space. His book has intoxicated the media and got everyone talking about him.
This book is a great volume of Indian attraction and a myriad of feelings that will immerse you until you have been made to dive into a whole new ocean with the next story. The short stories are gulps of romance and longing, homosexuality, an ecological heart to heart and whether you believe it or not, there’s also a short dose of the tribal community in India.
The poetry is simple with emotions that we’ve all once felt and therefore, there is no scope for any double entendres that normally keep you spinning while reading poetry. You don’t have to keep scavenging for that deeper meaning; it comes to you automatically.
There’s a poem called “stupid sassy sweetheart” where the poet depicts an unmoved devotion towards a woman who might not even love him back but he reminds us that love goes beyond that.
Here’s a small part of that poem, “For my love for her is an unconditional knot; All I wish is to always see her wearing the mortal smile, Coz with her it’s really momentary and fragile, I swear loving her always the same, Even if she breaks my trust to shame, I’ll breathe my last blissfully chanting her name.”
The Green Guy is a very intriguing story of a man’s destiny being determined by the industrial pollutants. The Dilkashi Damsels is a material story of the complexities of two sisters, where one of them was god gifted with sound features and the other was born deaf and dumb, and their struggle as they set out to achieve the same goal. There are various other stories where love amalgamates in different forms. It’s always a comforting feeling to read about the chase, and that’s what the writer has kept in mind.
The book is the kind you could finish in a day, but also the kind you could let linger around on your tongue and reopen from time to time. It’s definitely recommended!
Baani Kashyap
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