Write India Stories: A Review
I have held myself back for about fifteen months since this magical book, Write India Stories was published for the fear of being called out as a practitioner of nepotism. But now the river has breached the dam and my feelings have spilled over. They refuse to remain unsaid. So what if mine is one of the winning stories? My retrospect is about the 35 other winner stories in this book.
There is no doubt about the brilliance and ingenuity of the entire concept called Write India Campaign initiated by The Times of India. The brainchild of a daring visionary, Ms Vinita Dawra Nangia, it takes the idea of crowd-sourcing short stories by budding writers to a completely different level and standard. And that is not all. Ms Nangia did not just rouse writers from all over India to action by using the gambit of prompts by best-selling authors, she provided each one a veritable platform to air their creative skills. This contest also contrived to connect established authors with aspiring writers. The idea that best-selling authors would read and judge their stories incentivized the participants deliver the highest quality of their writings. I cannot but congratulate Ms Nangia on her excellent understanding of the mental make-up of the yet-to-be-uncovered creative talent in this country and exploiting an innovative way to unearth them. As we know, in a period of 11 months, the contest received a whopping 25000 entries. Participants from all walks of life submitted their stories; scientists, bankers to IT professionals, engineers and even students, home-makers and retired professionals.
Write India Stories is an anthology comprising the stories of the first three winners of each of the eleven authors. As there were some winner-tie-ups, there are a total of 36 stories from 33 writers in this fantastic book. A unique flavour of this collection lies not in the fact that these were the best three stories for each prompt from thousands but the distinctive approach that each storyteller takes to expand the author’s prompt. When one reads the prompt, a certain idea forms in a reader’s mind but when one reads the tales that have emerged from the the writers’ creative interpretation of the prompt, your mind is simply blown away along with its limited imaginative power. An apt example is the prompt by Chetan Bhagat which brings murder, blood, violence before one’s eyes. But when I read Nainesh Jadwani’s ‘Palwasha’s Revenge,’ a tale of compassion and absolution, and I was humbled to acknowledge my failing. Similarly, I read the neutral note in Ashwin Sanghi’s prompt guessing that he wanted to lend wings to the writers’ imaginations. Kena Shree made the prompt bloom with her tale,‘Cherimoya’ that tugs dangerously at my heartstrings. Here, I have been able to mention just a couple of tales but each story in this collection carries a distinctive perception of the trigger texts. One has to read them to admire the insights.
Write India Stories exhibits as many styles of writing as a solitaire with 36 faces; each face cut with exquisite care and reflecting life in all its vibgyor colours. The storytelling, language and touches of individual voices are as vibrant as they are multi-faceted. Compare the old-world style sported by Ruchi Singh in ‘Spirit and Providence’ perfectly matching Amish’s prompt with the racy style that Shachee Desai brings to her telling of ‘Love Jihad’. By the way, you must know that when Shachee wrote and won this contest, she was preparing for her school Board exams!
Each tale adds to the flavour of this magnificent anthology but some are definitely my favourites. Amazing are the ones written by Bhaswar Mukherjee, Aarti Shah, Lakshmy Menon, Vasudha Chandha Gulati, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Prapti Panda and Manali Chakrabarti in their telling and in the way they make a place for themselves forever in my heart.
Before this anthology was published, some misgivings did float around about stories that did not make the cut but once, everyone read these gems, all the clouds vanished. I should mention here my own experience. I had written for more than one author’s prompt and did not win each time. But when I read the winning stories for those same prompts, I was transfixed by the soaring chimera of the winner writers and in their artistic analysis. Their tales were far more inventive, discerning, gifted and stimulating than anything that I had attempted. They deserved to win hands down. No question.
Write India Stories, the anthology has become the window to the dreams of many an aspiring writer. I am keenly awaiting the next edition consisting of the winning stories of Write India Campaign Season 2. Aren’t you?
