Friday, March 23, 2012

Urban Shots (book review)


Urban Shots is a bouquet of 28 urban tales by 13 diverse writers from all across India, edited by Paritosh Uttam. Every story touches different relationships in a very uncomplicated way. Each story represents a tale of relationships of present urban life having cosmopolitan background.While reading the stories one can feel the closeness of the situations and characters to real life, one that you have seen with your best friend, or colleague , a fellow passenger or maybe an experience with your own self.

The book in broken into five different sections from "Relationships", "Love", "Friendship",to "Angst" & "Longing". Each story describe the emotions of Betrayal, Jealousy, Love &, Longing This book will take you to a journey from high streets of Delhi to Bangalore , taking a turn to Bandra in mumbai to lanes of Alibagh.

This book showcases Shweta's transformation of a woman from a girl to Chamundi's unique way of ending her struggle to Aman's reminiscence of a forgotten night & many other lives entangled in a web of past & present relationships & memories, dreams & painful experiences.

The stories which appealed to me the most are:

Liberation by Malathi Jaikumar: Its a tale of Chamundi, who is mother of two & an obedient wife of a man who enjoys torturing her  for his own frustrations. This story shows how even after having a difficult life chamundi chooses to have moments of happiness for herself &  the kids & finally how on one of her expeditions she finds a solution to all her sufferings.
Dialects of Silence by Vrinda Baliga: This is a very beautifully written story of transformation of a girl to a wife,and a mother and how this journey embarks a change in her persona and matures her to see the people, relationship around her and make her learn the dialect of silence.
A Cup of tea by Paritosh Uttam: Abhijit & Susila caught in a monotonous (love ) marriage are not able to find any chord of interest in each other , frustrated because of living a life of adjustments while dreaming about a virtual life filled with their decide to put an end to the marriage, but end up sticking together for their own unknown reasons.
Apple Pie & Grey Sweater by Prateek Gupta: Its a story with background of Bangalore, a story of Prayas & purvi, a simple story nothing superlative but nice as it is about two friends who are in love with each other & express at the end in their own sweet way, an Indian version of My best friend's wedding, without the much   masala.

I would recommend it to be a pick-up read for a journey do not expect a classic or a fiction which will take you to a rollercoaster of emotions , some of the tales that I mentioned above are well written,  well some like- Just Average, Driving down the memory lane, are good enough to read while others like Heartbreaker,Trial & error, Woman in Love don't leave a mark on the readers.


Rating: 3/5


This review is a part of Book Review Programme by Blogadda.com.Participate now to get free books.




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