Happy Endings is a compilation of five mini tales, each revolving around a character who was lost but finds themselves up again, mostly through simple yet profound conversations - the kind of conversations that happens within a mind but gets transcribed into a script through a eBook. If you are kind of a reader like me who likes to deeply delve into thought processes, you would find Happy Endings amazing!
Mayank
When we read a fiction, some strong characters can make us live in that personified personality. Some characters can give us an imaginary twin with who we feel connected with a purpose. Mayank in Happy Endings can be one.
You have everything in life but feel empty from within. You are not a transparent personality that you can walk into a friend's house and start pouring out what you feel. But you know that you feel alone; deeply alone. If this resonates the you, the character of Mayank shall give you company, shall voice out your thoughts on your head, shall speak for you, and shall bring clarity to your being.
What does the sea mean to you?
Honestly, I assumed that the sea would mean vastness and ecstasy to everyone because that is what the sea means to me. And that's exactly how the book can subtly make readers self-contemplate their perspectives for now I know that the sea - and so 'anything' - need not mean the same to people around. I am not going to spill out what's about the sea in the book; if not for anything else, readers should grab this book for this part of Mayank's story.
Of all things mothers are, knowing the conversation in your child's head but not saying or asking it aloud, is seldom talked of. But when the right time arrives, a word or sentence or two they utter can put the child-man to silence, relieved, embarrassed - the feeling of how did I not guess that after all mom knows everything.
The happy revelation, the happy ending that comes to Mayank quietly vivifies this secret endeavour in a mom-son relationship.
Mayank - a character your head wouldn't want to part with even after turning the last page!
Avantika
Until more than halfway through Avantika's story, the plot will keep you anticipating what is it all about Poonam's nephew's sexual orientation, dadi's excitement, the new character of Raj, and after all Avantika's run to the city.
It demanded a close run with the conversations between Avantika and Raj like one would watch a Maniratnam movie :) But of all, I liked the ending that gave the two characters more clarity than happiness.
If Mayank's story was about thought processes put to words, Avantika's story was a little more about emotions scripted to words.
"He had gone from friendly to closed-off to vulnerable in such quick succession she was having a hard time telling herself to calm down. But she couldn’t."
This was one of the author's masterpieces in narrating emotions, I would say!
And no matter how many times one could have read a quote on living one's own life, Raj's words, "But I didn’t know what I wanted so I used someone else’s definition.” will make the reader pause and appreciate what it really means.
Urmilla
Urmilla's tale was dramatic but nailed some of life's realities in a few pages. Not many would confess if ever they were jealous or thought they hated someone in life. But one day, when that person ceases to exist, the emotions hanging can be unsettling at the core of our hearts Urmilla is a fine warning to close the open, turbulent chapters in life.
I am not touching the opening and closing characters, Sameera and Pranjal to leave some newness to a prospective reader :)
What I felt rather amusing in Happy Endings is that the five characters confess or reveal their flaws at some point or throughout, yet make the readers feel that they are not characters to be shunned or hated - a lesson that we might be like one of the five ourselves or be living with one such character and it's important that we converse without prejudice to help ourselves and others to get out of unsettling emotions and stories.
All along reading Happy Endings, I couldn't stop asking why the author did not choose to expand the tales to a full-length novel. Not for just the five tales, but for the strong portrayal of the characters and the dimensions the conversions can take readers to, this is a piece worth to be published as a big project.
Happy Endings by Suchita Agarwal is an opportunity to know oneself better, to come to terms with what one's real self is, to disrobe oneself of one is not, and to come to peace with one's shortcomings.Download the book here.
P.S. This review is a part of Blogchatter Ebook Carnival. The opinions expressed are my own and is not influenced by anything external.
Title: Happy Endings
Author: Suchita AgarwalPages: 129Format: eBook
Download BlogchatterI am glad to share that my ebook, Instilling Social Equality in Children, is also one among the published eBooks at the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival. It is a non-fiction that aims to raise children with a sense of social equality. Click here for free Download