16

Jan

MY BOOKSHELF

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‘Normal is not normal’

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Book Review

Swansong

Author- Vandana Jena

Price       -Rs.295

Publisher-Rupa Publication Pvt Ltd

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About the author

The latest release by Rupa Publications at the Book Fair in Delhi yesterday ‘Swansong’ is a collection of 24 stories by Vandana Kumari Jena, a retired IAS of the 1979 cadre who has served in various critical departments of the Government of India.

Being born in a family of educationists, father Dr Santosh Kumar being a professor in Philosophy in Delhi University and mother Dr Padma Srivastava being a Political Science professor in the Daulat Ram College of DU, it comes as no surprise that Vandana Jena had topped in Political Science in Indraprastha College for girls in DU in 1972, being the second highest topper of the University.

What gives her book a special place in contemporary India is her experience in working in the social sectors involving education, health, women and youth empowerment.

 

The review discusses Swansong by Vandana Kumari Jena, a collection of 24 short stories published by Rupa. A retired IAS officer with a distinguished academic and administrative background, Jena draws deeply from her experience in social sectors such as education, health and women’s empowerment. The book is praised for its variety, emotional depth and suspense.

My Bookshelf

By Amitabh Srivastava

The opening story shocks with a revelation about a woman discovering her true parentage through a DNA test, setting the tone for a series of gripping narratives involving mystery, guilt, loss and memory. Stories like Maya, The Parcel and The Murder I Solved keep readers engaged through drama and psychological insight. Influenced by writers from Enid Blyton to Jhumpa Lahiri and Gabriel García Márquez, Jena’s storytelling combines suspense with sensitive exploration of human relationships.

 

It is a tribute to her commitment and a mission to communicate ideas beyond her calling that with such hectic tenure of 36 years which also took her to Naxal affected areas, she has been able to churn out nine books (this being her eighth) that include two novels, four collection of short stories and a collection of Middles. 

Swansong

Normal is not normal

What is most fascinating about this book of 192 pages is the variety it offers to readers.

The opening story Swansong, that looks like a page from a secret diary hurtles the reader into a shocking revelation. Imagine being told on one’s birthday that the mother’s name one is carrying on the school marksheet is not true.

Only when the mother plunges to her death from a mountain cliff does she come to know that she was not her biological mother but had been stolen from a couple years ago.

And all this explained very reasonably and confirmed through a DNA test.

After this opening over in a T-20 type match you would expect a slower over but she would not want her reader to get out of her spell so quickly.

Her next encounter is with Madho Singh, offering her shelter and hospitality in a village in Rajasthan turns out to be the killer of her best friend and her mother in an accident when a truck he was driving hit their car and he fled in panic.

And so the thread continues from one to another in the stories that follow Maya, The Parcel., Childhood Monsters, The Sound of Silence, The Murder I solved and so on.

There is no respite from the suspense, the drama, the playing with emotions and of course with vocabulary as the book ends with a Question Mark “Why did I forget”.

You realise it’s no big deal but you can’t even smirk because you have allowed yourself to be driven to it. Its only about forgetting the birthday of her mother.

But this art of storytelling is not easy, unless it is hereditary but I am not competent to comment on that.

One thing I can say with certainty is whether Vandana Kumari Jena had taken history or even Chemistry as her main subject, she would have come out with such literay gems.

Her growth from Enid Blyton mysteries (I still get engrossed in it if I get hold of one) to the later influences of Jhumpa Lahiri, Gabriel Garcia and Kazuo Ishiguro would not let her sleep-in peace till she had taken it all out on paper for those who care.

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