Vanilla Desires and Other Stories

Hello,

The book is out and it would be nice if all of you can get your hands on the publication. The book contains 34 short stories encompassing the kaleidoscope of emotions from love, lust, hate, helplessness, pain and dejection.

The stories follow the confusing and complex thoughts of the protagonists, as they struggle with the strangeness in their ordinary lives.

The book contains prize winning entries of the 2009 UNISUN Short Story Competition and short stories by several other well established authors.

As expected I am proud to be part of the book.

My contribution to the anthology is through ‘In search of Durga’ a story where the relationship between man, woman, child and friend travel through a roller coaster along with the Durga Puja celebrations. The story is based in Bengal and has references to all my favourite places, the places which bring back special memories.

It is an attempt not only to document what I felt was plausible but also to give permanence to my memories of the places I love and people I know.

My writing short stories is an accident and every time I write my thoughts go back to Pandit Rameshwar Mishra, my great grand dad who was once upon a time considered to be the first writer to have written in ‘Khadi Boli’, the language of Bihar and UP at the time of independence. I believe he is the great guy who passed on his writing genes to me.

Unfortunately not much is known about his writing except for the word of mouth stories that have travelled in the family. It is understood that all copies of his book ‘Balwant Bhumiyar’ was put into a bonfire on the day of the publication and only a few advance copies/ drafts survived.
I have been trying to trace the book through my sources but have failed till now. It is but logical that all references to his name too have been removed from the history of Hindi Literature. I wish I will be able to do something about this matter as well.

While having a book of short stories on my own is part of my agenda my higher aim in life is to get back the story of ‘Balwant Bhumiyar’ in print.

I hope I succeed.

Best wishes,
Manoj