Obsession: Eternal Stories Of Life And Death | Book Reviews (Part 2)

In the first part of the reviews of the book Obsession: Eternal Stories Of Life And Death we took a look to the short stories written by Stormy and Bishwa.

In this second and last part you will find the reviews for the rest of the stories from the book which are written by Gurpartap Khairah and Suraj Sinha.

Inglorious love, is a sentimental story. It explores the life of a war hero. No, not in the usual way. It explores the – inglorious (not exactly) – segment of his (rather his wife’s) life. Once got hurt and paralyzed, the soldier is now “not fit” for the duty. So he is back at home. The medals and praise will cheer up for a few days or rather weeks. But, then people tends to move on in their life. They eventually forget the sacrifices once made by the hero, and eventually started seeing his family as a victim or bad time.

That is not it. The eyes representing the feelings of sympathy towards his wife even started getting lustful. The lady is able to recognize the change. She got very fragile – emotionally. She also started thinking to move on in her own life. She hence decide to run away with another man! Will she?

The story explores a less visited, emotional and very realistic side of a war hero (or anyone who sacrificed for the nation or society)’s life, once he is not able to perform (or got bed ridden). The situations faced by his family, especially the spouse, are explored well. At first glance you may think the stuff written is bitter, but it is true. Human emotions of a bed-ridden person and the one who is taking his care are written well.

It is a nice literary experience. Though, it is only for those who love to read realistic stuffs and accept it despite of its bitterness.

A small tale exploring the time of riots and its after effects – In Liue of Love – is quite heavy, tough to understand story. The descriptions are realistic and are sure going to touch the emotional cord in you. The riots are never a good experience for anyone and it will disturb your senses – the story explores it in the same way. The reader start expecting something different coming out in the second half of the story and it lets him down.

This story is about an undertaker who dug graves. One day his own son met with his death and he have to do very tough work. He used to see some creatures which talk to him about the dead person and his/her last moments. He was eager to know abut his son. But, he was unable to see any of them that night!

For its literary attributes, the story can be read once.

This is a story for you only if you like ghost stories or stories which haunt. The first half of the story is better written then the second. The emotions of a mother and the feelings of a ghost are well written. The story have some emotional quotient in the first half. The character of the protagonist is explored well in the beginning, though we kept losing interest in most part of the second segment. You may like to avoid this story.

It is the story of a murder. A murder of a wife by her husband, who love(d) her more than anything in the life. The memories of their good times are passing a film reel flashback amongst his eyes. The writer succeed in writing those in really interesting manner. The metaphors of hot and cold are really nice. We expect the story to be lengthy and explore the things in even better manner and in more detail. The author is having good knowledge of human psychology and it is seen in the story, which could have been better.

A knife’s fate is a story for adults. The central character (apart from the knife of course) is a young girl. The girl was got married at very young age. Her husband is a person who was married twice before and both his wife found dead in shady circumstances! None of them were able to deliver him a baby. Under some circumstances the girl does her bits for the betterment of her own life and the society. Her husband met with his death. However, she was pregnant with his child. Over the period of time, there came a situation when she needed to take a decision which was very tough for her.

The story is good in pieces, but it is unable to create the consistent interest. Some readers may find the traces of famous Hindi Movie – Mother India – in the climax of the story.

It is a story of a how a happy-go-lucky, full of enthusiasm and energy, girl turns into a cold woman. Of course she achieves the modesty and so called respective place in the society but her life is missing the joy of living. And most importantly, the transformation was done by her husband so thoughtfully, progressively and systematically, that she didn’t realize it! Towards the end when you witness the scene when she feel embarrassed by seeing a photo showing her own gesture and public show of happiness and joy on winning a game, and burns the photo to get rid of such a embarrassing(!) moment of her life, you really feel for her.

This is a long yet interesting tale and we must say Gurpratap wrote this story with passion. We see his observation skills in the long description of the scene(s) and character(s). The writing is interesting and the writing style prevents it from being boring, which is a positive point. The main character is of wife and second lead is the character of her husband. Both of them are portrayed really well. Apart from her transformation, the conversation of her husband with his friends is interesting read. If you like stories which explore human psychology and emotions you will enjoy reading it for sure.

It is one of the most interestingly written story from the book. A couple have lost their only son recently and now how they react towards the situation afterwords is weaved interestingly in the tale.

The first segment explores the female point of view to deal with the emotional baggage; or rather her natural way of reaction to such situation. She find the male counterpart probably less emotional and responsive. The story moves ahead and the memoirs of the son keep flashing.

The best part of the story is remain for the climax where we see her reading the diary of her husband and react afterwards.

The story is gripping and well written. The writer tried to combine two writing styles, standard linear way of writing and the diary; and he succeed at both.

Telling more may contain spoilers. it is not to be missed. Especially the message it convey, is very important in real life.

We have seen it mentioned at various articles, talk shows and other places that once getting married, the husband and wife mostly have a common problem to deal with. And that is with the man’s friends. Most of the women think that their husbands are giving more importance to their friends rather than the wife. And the male counterpart have his own vision for the same. The story explores these approaches realistically. Interestingly the author remain unbiased. Most of the conversations are taken from the real life.

At the same time the story explores the issue of homosexuality as well. And there it goes into a little adult zone. Though writer kept control on himself and drawn his own boundary to mention the stuff in as normal manner as possible, it prevents the story from being erotica.

The emotional journey moves ahead with ups and downs and we see various events happening and proving the worth of one of those relationship which are made based on one’s choice – friendship.

Comparatively long but interesting story which is appealing for young readers mainly.

This is quite a different kind of short story. There are no characters introduced or even named. There are small communication pieces are given which are self explanatory that it is a conversation between a young couple which just have started “living in”. The dialogs are mostly a few liners. You can however see the (mostly) realistic advancement in a relationship.

It will be found interesting mostly by the teenagers or young adults. Though it is a good literary experience to go through for everyone (if you don’t mind a little adult stuff).

Seems Gurpratap likes to play with psychological attributes. In yet interesting another story he explores “the home-breaker”. Till the last segment of the story you think about a lady who is responsible for breaking someone’s home as as cause of earning for living. But, the end gives you welcoming shock.

Ask the elder generation they will agree with the facts represented at the end. We have often seen that “this homebreaker” takes the most important place in the family, and gets attention more than any of the family members. Quite realistic and satirical story with literary attributes. Go for it.

Again dealing with human psychology – Killing the Lizard – is about how the things took over our mind. The story have several punchlines e.g. “if we start killing everything we don’t understand, very small amount of the world will remain” (not the exact phrase, just the heart of it). The descriptions are quite long here, and the subject is less interesting. But the author does his efforts to make it as interesting as possible. A little adult stuff is also there in the second half of the story. But it ends with the message: “we should open our mind and start accepting the things which are not in our control”.

You may like to read this story once.

For the stories by these two writer we can say they vary in quality and content. Some of them we like and some of them we don’t that much. However we can say overall the stories are readable. You will enjoy reading a few of them.

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