Book Review: Eat The Sky, Drink The Ocean

Pages :  240

Read on : Book

Goodreads Rating : 3.75/5

Review:  The first time I ever heard Annie Zaidi speak dates back to my post grad days when she has a special session with us filled with her page-3-kinda-like-ermygod stories. As expected, massive eye rolling happened. Fast forward 3 years later, I see her again, this time with Mandy Ord at JLF 2015. More eye-rolling and subtle scoffing, until she and Mandy spoke about alternate endings to iconic tales in our culture, such as the love saga of Salim and Anarkali. I was like a dog who picked up a new scent. That one story and the epic cliffhanger was sufficient enough to itch my mind and click 'add to cart' on Amazon.

What delightful book. I felt as if I had just won the English Elocution at school and was beaming in pride to take home my 'Enid Blyton' prize. That feeling resonated. The brilliant concept behind  this book is that it re-imagines so many various situations or classic tales that it's can safely be handed to people of all age groups, starting say 12+ and on. The visuals in some of the stories are raw and no nonsense, while some of them are whimsically clever. 

The beauty lies in the little snippets on how the Indian and Australian contributors collaborated. Some of them never even met, but the sense of sisterhood was strong enough to keep them bound to this project. Matters that plague the two entirely different cultures were glued together by this vision for a female-friendly world and I applaud the start. It is not as hard for women to connect as people assume. In most cases, what we have endured, what we see, feel, do and receive remains the same universally and we are ever ready to aid our fellow sisters.

The mix of short stories, classic folk tales, dystopian fantasies, graphic stories make it such a collector's delight. Brag points for the bookshelf. We know 'Zubaan' is the house of feminist themed publishing, nonetheless, the backdrop of feminism was so subtle that it made me want to jump into the book and live in that world. No cliched words are casually thrown around, the concept goes beyond wishful thinking to make it a seeming reality - a very refreshing change. 

One point. And the only point that troubles me is that most of the stories are established centuries after modern times, as though to imply that this idea that they have set up will materialise only after practically everything on earth has stormed revolution after revolution, mass destruction etc. This could be just me but the feeling of a dystopian society was strong and that did make me think.

Regardless, it did leave me happy which my readers would know is quite rare. The attempt is fantastic.

Do pick it up. It may not be the most literary read, but it sure is enjoyable.

Final Rating : 4/5
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Book Review: Suspended Animation by Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Pages :  116

Read on : Kindle

Goodreads Rating : 4.75/5

Review:  Lately I've been on a time crunch and if you are someone who is in the same boat as I am, you will welcome 'Suspended Animation' as a breath of fresh air. For several reasons.I'm a sucker for anthologies. Short stories to me are what summer flings are to most people. They pack so much in a few pages while keeping it simple.  I dream of starting my writing journey, IF ONLY someone approached me to contribute to an anthology. 

'Suspended Animation' as of now, stands to be my favourite.The stories are of ordinary people, like us, stuck in a loop or some memory or in search of something they desire, may be not aggressively in all cases, but still in a rut. It makes me reflect on some incidents that might have occurred in my life, even though they happened years ago, it still managed to imprint my mind and I found more reasons to bring them up in conversations with strangers. This book encapsulates those instances precisely!

The trick with short stories is that you really have to understand the theme behind the words. What the author is trying to convey. They mostly carry the air of emotion with as little description as possible. Focus has to be tight. Here are people who are still living in an unfinished memory, still anticipating closure or completion while time is zooming past by. Yet it is hard for the them to get out of this lull. There's waiting, for something, anything to happen, good or bad and the uncertainty running parallel. 

My personal favourites were all the stories that took place in Kerala, because Southern India makes gorgeous backdrops with added character and the one that takes place in Scotland. Anthologies are quick in reading nature, since they are so concise, the urge to keep going is very high. However, I do feel that one or two of the stories could be exempted from this collection, just to stay as close to topic as possible.

 On another note, it definitely is a highly relatable read, we know the characters, the people and situations very well in all our lives. I'll be re-reading 'Suspended Animation' for sure. Recommended to all.

 Final Rating : 4/5

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