By Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh (retd)
Short stories are a genre that couple of writers have been capable to master effectively. The art of telling a tale in just a couple of pages, encapsulates the art of storytelling. Ajay Singh in his newest supplying – ‘The Final Draft’ – has presented a collection of twelve quick stories of distinctive themes and settings, that captures this type beautifully.
The essence of a fantastic quick story is to inform a fantastic tale. And every of the twelve stories are tales of wonderful energy and imagination, lyrically told. The author has interspersed poetry involving every story, which adds to its appeal. As the stories unfold, you are drawn deep into an intricate world – and frequently left gasping at the shock ending.
Each of the stories have distinctive themes. The title story, ‘The Final Draft’ is a highly effective story of a dying writer who is focused on generating his very best work, when battling cancer with the help of his wife. The interplay of these two principal characters and how they pursue their personal desires with the shadow of death looming more than them, ends in each triumph and loss. And the ending hits like a hammer stroke.
‘Night Vigil’ is a sensitive story based on a accurate incident, a dying father and a son maintaining vigil more than him. The father – a proud old Army officer waits for his son, an officer in his personal battalion. The son who arrives from his unit in the valley spends the evening holding the old man’s hand playing a masquerade that unfolds only later.
In ‘The Well’, the author requires us deep into the insurgency hit Kashmir. In the rugged and inhospitable terrain close to the Line of Control, a terrorist rapes a young college teacher who is now carrying his youngster. What are the feelings that go by means of the thoughts of an expectant mother dealt such a cruel hand and what are her indicates of receiving her revenge? The horrors of insurgency and the collateral harm it creates on the nearby population exposes the reader to tragedies of their lives.
The’ Cloistered City’ reminds one of George Orwell describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices. Only now the setting is akin to what the world has witnessed when confronting a pandemic. The concern is how society bargains with “an exhilarating feeling of freedom in an eighteen year old.” Is it “a perfected well-ordered society” created to safeguard its citizens or preserve itself and what is the illness that is becoming incinerated?
The inventive impulse types the backdrop for pretty a couple of of the stories. ‘The Completed Canvas’ tells the story of Nayantara, a effective artist who is now going by means of a inventive drought. “The paint did not flow freely and the brushes no longer moved on their own accord”. She then goes to a remote resort in the Garhwal Himalayas and there meets an old lover who aids her to create her masterpiece. As Leonard Cohen stated “there’s a crack, a crack in everything and that’s where the light comes in.” The light does come in, but what is it that comes with the darkness? Is the ‘Completed Canvas’ genuinely hers?
‘The Patrol’ exposes the reader to Second Lieutenant Anil Palta major his very first patrol across no man’s land, “carefully placing his feet on the boot marks” of a battle-hardened soldier as they crossed a minefield. The patrol unexpectedly bumps into the enemy “a hair’s breadth on his sten’s trigger, away from him.” The fears of the young officer and his reactions is a story of each war and humanity. Both set of soldiers, facing a related predicament on the cold desert evening. Human traits emerge about a tree that is a symbol of life in a desert. However, can humanity transcend the barriers developed due to war or is it only momentary?
In “Flight 640 is delayed…, ” – a story with sturdy autobiographical overtones – two people today, Aparna and Varun, meet in an airport lounge. As only intimate buddies or total strangers can, they confide deeply in every other, and in carrying out so find out a component of themselves. This possibility encounter bring to the fore anything that is deeper in their sub conscious thoughts, but how does it have an effect on their lives? “Would their trajectories carry them higher and further still to a common destination they had glimpsed in the waiting room of the night”?
The last two stories of this exquisite collection, ‘Moksha ‘and ‘The New Calling’ are centered on the exact same characters. Nivedita an artist, and Kartik, a writer working on his crime story. The reader is then introduced to Burjor Jamshedji the Director of an Art Gallery and the craft of Majid Bhai who could open any lock. Which locks are opened and which hidden character traits unravel, progressively unfolds as the author requires us to an art heist that does not go pretty as it was planned.
The supernatural comes out in ‘The Ring’ – a harrowing story of a gorgeous young lady who awaits her dead lover by the seashore – till the trademark shock ending. And, a child’s world is illuminated in ‘Rainbows in the Night’ a light hearted bedtime story told by a father to his daughter. The complicated relationship involving Nandina, a model and Salim, an Art Director – are explored in ‘The Happiest Day in Her Life.’ How does their Special Day unfold for them? Only the last line of the story reveals it.
Ajay’s prose is uncomplicated but highly effective, his characters are a mix of artists, writers, lovers, soldiers, and also involve terrorists and their victims. They are stories how ordinary people today confront extraordinary scenarios. Of course there is each birth and death, the two extremes covered virtually in one story. More importantly it is the manner in which the characters decide on to confront their situations.
The characters are each seen and unseen and words are stated and left unsaid, but at the finish of the rainbow there is ‘a big pot of gold’ and a ‘sense of fulfillment’. There are lots of inquiries but you want to search for your answer. Finally, it is left to the reader as to how they perceive these quick stories. But to paraphrase Jeffrey Archer “There is a twist in every tale”.
(The author is an Indian Army Veteran. Views expressed are private and do not reflect the official position or policy of TheSpuzz Online. )