Sonal Singh On Sonal's Table

To the reader – if you intend to pick this book up then take your time with the stories. I think I have it pegged correctly if I were to surmise that this book is meant to make you feel uncomfortable. The idea is to jar you out of your comfort zone and make you sit up and take note. These stories are a heavy read and scanning through them will make you miss out on the idea behind the book – to challenge societal prejudice, stereotyping, gender discrimination and marginalization. If you fail to imbibe what the author is trying to bring across then the whole idea behind the book is defeated. Fair warning - there is a story that deals with sexual violence.

‘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.