Emphasis Supplied

Year: 2023

Author: Shakala Patil

In a document when you want the reader to pay attention to what you are saying, you underline the words and make them in bold – like this. This book is a little like that, with emphasis supplied through the lives and emotions of its protagonists. Two former lovers keep crossing paths through the tumult of student politics, the “realness” of real life, different countries and finally national elections in modern-day India. Will they ever come together? An idealist, retired government employee reminisces about his entire life and wonders if it could have all been different if he had compromised with his principles. A young woman agonizes over why after a terrific date he didn’t call her back. A disillusioned Indian American decides to quit his “type A” job and immerse himself in teaching primary school children in a village in India. But when India unleashes upon him, does this life teach him any lasting lessons? A thirty-year old, handsome vet never wants to give up his “single” life – he speaks of his many women, in verse. A taxi driver never has any good luck, or so he thinks. Until one day the magazine he subscribes to changes his life forever. A woman recounts her time in London where she stumbles upon the most astounding revelations about her handsome but mysterious friend. These stories are followed with a deeply personal essay on grief – what it feels like to lose someone you know and love, perhaps better than you know yourself. The protagonists of these short stories are like the young people of today. Self-assured, empathetic, ambitious, romantic – yet they are also equally fallible, self-conscious and wistful about what could have been and what could be.

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