Lockdown Longings is a short, tight selection of 10 short stories written for these times, the culmination of a short story contest that happened just afte the March lockdown. All 10 are almost uniformly well written, keeping the reader trapped in a bubble of unease with no let up. My favourites were three exceptionally tender ones: Ajay Patri’s ‘Rose’, where two strangers meet over a misdialed number; Malini Gupta’s ‘Benedict’, where a small act of kindness becomes a life-changer; and Sucharita Dutta-Asane’s ‘Interlude’, about being old, frail and alone in the time of a pandemic. There are others that are just plain chilling or unbearably sad: two pieces of speculative fiction (one about Kashmir, and one about air that comes at a price) and another about a woman bravely facing hospital time come to mind. The authors’ notes on what inspired them to write their stories are relatable.
And therein also lies my problem with the anthology. There will no doubt be a time — hopefully in the not too distant future — when we are over the worst, when writers will put on record our struggles, individual and collective, with the pandemic. It has already given us so much painful fodder. But how many of us want to drown in the mood stories of Lockdown Longings when we are still in the throes of the current uncertainty? For those struggling with mental health issues I will flag a trigger warning.
The small volume is available as an e-book with a somewhat misleading cover — bright red with a heart shaped lock at the centre. This, combined with the tagline, “10 stories of love and recollection,” might cause it to be mistaken for another kind of collection altogether.
The reviewer is the author of Jobless Clueless Reckless and its sequel, In Now & Then .
Lockdown Longings: 10 Stories of Love and Recollection; Various authors, Roli Books, Price not mentioned
