A Potpourri of Drabble by Harshita Nanda

I was hearing the word Drabble for the first time. I am a fan of the way Harshita spins her stories, full of emotions, twists and turns, and social messages. It was a no brainer that this would be on my reading list. I had the time of my life reading through the 100 drabbles that are part of her book aptly named A Potpourri of Drabble. 

This collection of drabble brings with it a potpourri of stories filled with social message, highlighting the social conundrum, hypocrisy, irony, manipulation, love in all its form and more. In 100 words she spins a beautiful picture not just about the characters, but also their background, emotions, the event that is unfolding and, in some cases, even the back story. While the stories themselves are complete, it also leaves you wanting to read more about the incidents of the characters who appear in the drabble. 

Cover page of A Potpourri of Drabble by Harshita Nanda

The story titled Kitchen was most gut wrenching and highlights one of the most sinister issues in many homes, yet the least discussed societal evil. While awareness is quite high about what constitutes domestic violence many do not understand how to deal with the issue when it unfolds right up close to them – in their neighbourhood, friends’ homes, within family relations or even inside one’s own home. Understanding the various layers and kinds of domestic abuse/violence and knowing how to address them for self and others is a high time necessity. With just 100 words, Harshita not only spun the story, she also was able to express the trauma that Sheela endured due this societal evil. 

The closest to my heart is The Hidden Power. It highlights the power of Humanity above all. If that is alive, then there is a meaning to our lives on this planet. 

The Red Nail Polish was another one of my favourites, that brought out the importance of guilt free self-indulgence and the humaneness of inclusivity in extending the same courtesy to those who make our lives easier every day. 

The Messy Room brought out the ugly facet of our lives that differentiates based on social status. It was soul stirring to read this reality that is still very much existent even in today’s times. 

In Malini from Who Is Saner?, I saw a bit of myself. To know what I mean, do read this story and then my blog on My Volunteering Journey.

I just could not help but smile when I read A Bowl Full of Gulab Jamuns, remembering my younger days when I used to feel similar urge when I saw a Boondhi Laddoo. Now I would like to think I have a little more control or at least learnt to regulate that urge.

The last few stories that were inspired from the happenings of the 2 years of pandemic life were hard to ignore. The most soul ripping one was Time was Running out. How many families went through similar realities during those two years of lockdown lifestyle enduring hardships that we never thought could be possible. Many lives lost, affected, and damaged beyond repair. A time when many of us felt trapped and stifled inside our homes yet itched to do something to lessen these traumatic experiences of complete strangers, through our network, writing, or any other means. Glimpses of humanitarian efforts gave us hope that the fire of humanity is still burning.

Do download Harshita Nanda's A Potpourri of Drabble, published as part of the Blogchatter's Ebook carnival at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/a-potpourri-of-drabble-by-harshita-nanda and give it a read. You might find your own favourites and relate to a few stories as your own too. 

You can also download my book - Free Rein to Thoughts – a collection of quotes & shorts highlighting the colours and patterns of life at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/free-rein-to-thoughts-by-aarthi-prabhakaran

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge

Memories of my Father by Jayanthi K Manikandan

The bond of a father daughter bond is such a beautiful bond of understanding, protection, hero worship and more, that we all have heard, read, and seen in multiple movies in almost every language. This is a universal affection and bond that brings a warm feeling within us that almost always results in a spontaneous 'Awwwww' from our mouths. If our father was close by, then an unconscious hug, or at least a physical touch is inevitable in those instances. 

Jayanthi K Manikandan’s Memories of my Father is a loving memoire that gives us glimpses of this beautiful bonding between a father and daughter (in addition to insights about her father itself), during her growing up years, as well as her adulthood, the various phases that this relationship goes through and the myriad of changes that happen as the child grows and starts having a mind of her own.

Cover Page of Memories of my Father by Jayanthi K Manikandan

As I was reading through the memoire, I saw a lot of similarities in the life of the author and mine that I could relate to, specifically with respect to the changes that come due to the father’s job, the family structure, and the culture in which she and her father have grown up and more. Through every chapter about her father, I was able to see the admiration that the little girl had for her father, the hero worship that is such a normal part of a girl child's image about her father. Girls are blamed for expecting their father (a version of him at least) in their spouses. This is true to a large extent because they feel well protected and cared for within the loving embrace of their father. This protective shield of care, pride, and trust in them and their abilities is what women seek in their life partner, but many a times are left earning for it. 

I was thrilled to read the name of the place called Virudhunagar, a place that is as much a part of me as Chennai, Lalapet, Lyon, Groton, Harrow, and Alexandria are. Virudhunagar is a small town to the south of Madurai. Though a business town, not many people are even aware of its existence. 

As the chapters move on, I saw the happenings that was common in almost every home, in the state of Tamilnadu. Culturally, the entire state wasn’t so different in what each family wanted for their children and their wellbeing, and how they implemented and executed these visions and ambitions by supporting, guiding, nudging, and paving the way for their children. 

In Jayanthi, I saw every child who had multiple dreams during their growing up phase that came nothing close to the path they chose for themselves (or in many cases their families chose on their behalf) with respect to their studies and career. I saw bits and pieces of my grandfather, my father, father-in-law, and every other father figure I have seen while growing up, in the various habits, incidents and events that Jayanthi narrates. 

Reading the Memories of my Father was mixed bag feeling for me, especially considering the formal relationship that I had with my late father.  

One small thing that bothered me while reading the book for the formatting of text, which probably is an occupational hazard as a documentalist & facilitator, writing and reviewing multiple documents and presentations as part of my job role. In many sections I found myself automatically trying to place the cursor and remove the additional line spacing or the indent that was a bit out of place. 

You can download Jayanthi K Manikandan's Memories of my Father, published as part of the Blogchatter's Ebook carnival at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/memories-of-my-father-by-jayanthi-manikandan

My book - Free Rein to Thoughts - is also part of this Ebook carnival. 

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge

Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal

The title of the book and the cover page were what intrigued me a lot to start reading the book of short stories. Humpty dumpty is a nursery rhyme character that I always felt bad for, as a child. Even today, when I hear (or see) the rhyme, it makes me wonder why the illustration of Humpty Dumpty was egg like? This visual representation painted by the rhyme gives a very gory image of the person – Humpty Dumpty - as the progresses. The phrase 10 Hats… though Humpty Dumpty also wore a hat in the illustrations, this brought the image of the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit, from Alice in Wonderland – probably the result of the cover image where a woman is walking towards a grand archway that looked like a gateway into another world…. Rightly so. 

Cover page of Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal

The 10 short stories transported me into a different world than my home, through its narration. It elicited a rainbow of emotions, feelings of fear, smile, laughter, awe, affection, love and more. While this was for the words that one reads, each story has layers to them highlighting the societal hypocrisy, duality, reality in each of the events that unfold. The people in the short stories feel like they were one among us, our family, friends, neighbours, conmen, godmen, and leaders whom we might know, and probably also met in our real life, who think like us, and sometimes we might probably also see a reflection of ourselves in one or more of the characters from these stories. Some we might accept while some we might be against. It was pleasure to read names that I have been used to hearing from my everyday life, experience the beauty (and eeriness of) locations that I have visited with family and friends during my school excursions and family vacations, all over again.

My favourite story from the 10 short stories was Phantoms on a Desert. I loved the way in which it brought out the uncanny similarities of emotions, needs, and behaviours of two people who were poles apart even with respect to their gender (among other things), which highlights the stark reality of life, that underneath all those layers of exhibitionism, barriers & boundaries, wants & needs, likes & dislike, at our core, we all are one and the same, especially when we are at the safety and security needs level in Maslow’s theory of hierarchy. The other reason why I loved this short story was the coinage of the words Musanghies & Kirshangies. This is the first time I am hearing these words and the explanation for them had me in splits, pulling me completely out of the fear/horror that I was still experiencing after reading the first two stories (just before retiring for the night). 

After a long while, I was motivated to read through a book, without wanting to break away from it for any reason. It was an absolute pleasure to read the narrative style of the fiction stories that brought out political, societal, and communal lack of standards, the mind and it’s complex working, the beautiful shades of people that we come across in our everyday life – good, bad, ugly and the myriad of other variations across these three. 

I would surely go back to these short stories more than once, and maybe it might also become a bedtime read that I would read with my children too whenever that happens (now that they are older and overlap time for bedtime reads have considerably reduced).

This e-book, Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats, has been published as part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival 2022 and can be downloaded at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/humpty-dumptys-10-hats-by-tomichan-matheikal 

My book - Free Rein to Thoughts - is also part of this Ebook carnival. 

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge