Sonal Singh On Sonal's Table

‘It happens’ succinctly captures this dynamic as it unfolds in the lives of ordinary people, people who sometimes got caught up in things that were not of their making. Bhaswar has taken snippets from life, perhaps even news reports and woven realistic tales around them. Backed by brilliant language, the stories take you with them on mini-journeys. To me this book came across as a wonderfully aromatic broth, chock full of fragrant ingredients, which when eaten contained flavours that literally exploded in my mouth.

This is the kind of book you should pick up as a late night read when you are sleep deprived. You pick it up thinking – I am just going to read a few stories and then fall asleep - but, you end up staying up longer than intended to finish the book because your fingers are itching to turn over the page to see what the next sheet with unravel.

As the name would suggest, this is a book about happiness, the kind that only touches the life of a few lucky people. However, it is also a book about loss and finding your way out of your grief. The funny thing about grief is that even though it hurts, we grieve loss by finding a sense of comfort in the emotion. We wrap it around ourselves and refuse to let go because within its confines we still find the presence of our loved ones.