To savour and swirl

Here are stories with amazing insights into human nature.

February 05, 2012 08:07 pm | Updated 08:07 pm IST

Chennai: 29/12/2011: The Hindu: Literary Book Review:
Title: The Purple Lotus and other Stories.
Author: Ratna Rao Sekar.

Chennai: 29/12/2011: The Hindu: Literary Book Review: Title: The Purple Lotus and other Stories. Author: Ratna Rao Sekar.

Ratna Rao Shekar's debut fiction The Purple Lotus And Other Stories makes up a fascinating and enjoyable series of 13 short stories of ordinary men and women who tread on the travails, fears, loss, disbelief and uncertainty of their lives and yet learn to flow with the tide. It also demonstrates Rao's variety of locations and characters, her amazing insight into human nature and her unmatched ability to tell a story in a straightforward way without putting on any airs.

Perhaps my favourite in this collection is the brilliantly funny and ultimately poignant story “My Name is Meenakshi”. The title perfectly reflects Meenakshi's obsession to remain young forever in spite of her old age: She didn't want to be sitting in the house, minding the maids and gardeners. Or be cooking for the family. She wanted to go to the mall with Rasika and her friends, eat ice-cream and buy herself a pair of good Nike shoes.

The idiosyncrasies of her character have been beautifully and credibly captured by the author. This self opinionated old woman amazes us as she desperately holds on to her notions till the end of the story.

Despite Ananda's vows of celibacy in the title story, “The Purple Lotus”, he momentarily gets taken in by a stranger's charm and the flutter irrespective of the circumstances. Yet there is the spiritual aspect and the message is deftly woven into the plot without making it tedious to read.

He questions himself: Was the path he was taking the right one? If it was, would he ever be able to see Anjalika again? Anjalika and her purple lotus flowers. Just that thought brought up the centuries of sorrow contained within him.

By contrast, another story “The Mona Lisa Smile” ends with Kiara being led astray by her passion for Micheal, she doesn't for once feel exasperated with the thought of whether Malvika would ever punish her for her betrayal:

It was a make-believe world, she concluded. And she was going to live all of it, even if she knew she was entering another woman's world. Ratna Rao has portrayed Kiara's character with rare sensitivity.

“A Character In Search Of A Writer” is about a romantic lady Tamaara for whom love can take any circuitous route, becoming something one must chase, hold onto, avoid and idealise: She felt sad that he was leaving the next morning. And she could not even talk with anyone else about this fleeting romance. Who would believe her, or her impetuosity or the madness?

But then, love was a matter of insanity. He had said that too in his book.

Rao manages to hit on all the different vagaries of romance in her stories with amazing amount of insight about this all-too-human aspect of a feeling that many feel should be magical, but often isn't.

Dramatic ones

The other stories in this volume are also engaging and dramatic and every single character has been so well drawn, that for the first time I found myself empathising with these people, loving them, hating them, lamenting for them and genuinely caring about what happened to them.

Her writing is simple, elegant and although the element of fiction is a façade to cover up a part of the story, most of them are complete in themselves. Rao has a knack of grabbing the reader's attention ad revealing a great deal in a single sentence. The flip side to this is that most of the endings of her stories although convincing are a bit negative. Perhaps the element of euphoria is missing which could have bought in some lighter moments. Nevertheless, they don't trail off leaving the reader disappointed.

If you are looking for an outstanding read, these short stories are good to savour and swirl. It will perhaps coerce you to re-read them.

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