A Journey Beyond The Bounds. Review on The Wedding Trousseau And Other Short Stories

Who said stories should have a beginning, a middle and then a fitting end with a twist in the tale to boot? Now, I can safely ask this question to all and sundry. But a decade back when I had sent my short story to one of the leading women’s magazine, the editor had very kindly rejected my unsolicited contribution along with a free-ka-advice on how to write a story threading through a conventional format predictably from one stage to the other from start to finish. Was I disappointed or angry at his over-solicitousness? No. On the contrary, I took my incompetence for granted, confirmed that I should not be nurturing any further pretension of being a story teller.

A decade later, having extended my reading list from conventional to non-conventional writings, I now understand how short sighted the respectable editor was and how quick was I to put my weapon down. That brings me to the most crucial point. What exactly is a story? Is it mere fiction or it has a larger motive? I would put my finger on the latter. A story is just a means to convey what the writer feels and wishes to express to society at large. Here I am not confining the recipient of the message to the clan of readers alone. Why? Because of the simple fact that the writer now has many ways at his/her disposal to convey his/her message to readers and non-readers as well. It can be through word of mouth(of readers and opinion mongers as well), cinematic adaptation of what he/she has documented(if he/she is lucky enough), debates and discussions on the media(if the subject is sufficiently controversial or novel), online and print reviews(which is increasingly becoming a necessity these days) etc.etc. In all this paraphernalia what comes as the most important aspect of writing is the writer’s conviction that whatever he/she is attempting to do will be talked about if not accepted wholeheartedly. Many of the great classicists of yore got acknowledged posthumously. In today’s age of media hype and net fad, the furor over literary experimentation kicks up as fast as it dies down. However, the good thing is that there is some kind of noise even if it is short lived.  And the patient one always waits for his/her chance. Is that not so?

I lacked courage of conviction and gave up. But authors like Ankita Sharma have the grit and the gumption to forge ahead and voice their views. That is why her debut collection of short stories “Wedding Trousseau and other Short Stories” comes as a bit of a surprise, not because of lack of substance(which is veritably overwhelming to say the least) but because the statement that it makes – bold, becoming and arousing!

All the eleven short stories take non-conventional route of conveying messages that underscore values which our generation thought was lacking in gen now. She talks about class disparity, preferential treatment, insensitivity of the human race, corporate exploitation, novel ways of dealing with death and bereavement, the larger mission of reposing love and care in a world that survives high on callousness and cruelty, relational complexities, non-compatibility in marriage and above all how the wrong ‘uns reconcile with ease to their criminal conscience without a dreg of remorse, all in one breath of an anthology!

The narrative is unique. There are glimpses of exceptionality. In The Pink Card, One More Bite and Curse the dialogic narration takes a U-turn when the pivotal characters are made to appear sheepish as the truth gets revealed. In quite a few of these stories, the central character(s) is either reticent or silenced or conspicuous by their absence. In the Wedding Trousseau, the emptiness and longing of a neglected wife is cleverly denoted through the flaunting of “an insanely expensive wardrobe”. In some of the stories, a whole gamut of experiences and emotions take up the pivotal role whereas the characters remain unnamed. In The Site Visit the paranormal interaction - the bringing to light of the painful rift in an adulterous marriage - again highlights experientialism rather than story telling.

Ankita is an artist and it shows in her word craft too.

“At one corner of this country side town, a vast expanse of land was converted into a place where dead could be laid in all their peace. In the southward direction there, under an old mango tree, a small mound of mud lay covered with a glittering cloth. It was as lonely as the tree and it seemed that both kept each other’s company….The tree and the mound seemed to have no identity of their own.”

I am all at once reminded of Ruskin Bond…

“….Am I not trapped in this time warp, ” he cried, his pale, thin and cracked lips throbbed like anything and suddenly it seemed that his torso began dissolving like a ballooning  smoke and he appeared darker than ever. His eyes filled up with a sooty darkness as if whole of the moonless night was absorbed into them and his sunken rough face became all smoky and sort of unrecognizable in the flickering dim light.”

I could almost picture the fast vanishing form in front of my eyes….

The descriptions are brilliant. There are glimpses of maturity which are pleasantly surprising as well as promising and a welcome change from the rut of colloquial exchanges that is in vogue in the mainstream narratives which reach the bestseller mark faster than we inhale and exhale. In contrast, Ankita’s stories are linear, remain very loyal to the thematic content and leave a lot of scope for individual interpretation, especially, the endings.

Ankita wants to make a difference in the present crop of literary dabblers which is evident in her maiden achievement. Her forte is humanism. It goes without saying that a Virtual Coffee

Session with such a promising author was inevitable. Click on this link to savour the same: https://panaecea.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/over-a-virtual-cup-of-coffee-with-anki
ta-sharma/#comment-1561

Without deprecating the uniqueness of the collection in its entirety, I am tempted to pick a few favourites. Given my fetish for the hauntings, I took to The Site Visit as naturally as fish takes to water. However, the show stealer is the Leaves which is contextually so uncompromisingly new that I am yet to find an apposite parallel of the same in my recent “Read List”. “I sat there for some time flipping a leaf that shone like a scaly fish and returned home to hide it forever between the pages of my diary” sums up with brevity the fate of going through an incredulous ordeal which does not find credibility in the eyes of a society that is hell bent on nullifying one who may have beliefs different than the preconceived notions and pre-established schemes of things. Just Perfect, the last of the garland, is simply a heart conqueror which urges human compassion to encompass all living beings on this planet Earth.

I am very hopeful that in Ankita’s future ventures her penmanship will shine with sharper skill putting in words thoughts higher and deeper, having the power to convert the most casual browser into serious thinker and the most insincere bloke into feeling hearted humanist.

Here’s wishing Ankita all the very best!