Thoughts & Review on Story wallah by Neelesh Misra’s Mandali


Thoughts & Review on Story wallah by Neelesh Misra’s Mandali

छोटी सी कहानी से, बारिशों की पानी से
सारी वादी भर गयी
न जाने क्यों, दिल भर गया
न जाने क्यों आँख भर गयी

This beautiful song written by Gulzaar saab captures the perfect essence of a story & monsoon. Stories, lyrics, novels are the only everlasting magic for us.

Neelesh Misra’s Mandali spins that magic yarn for us and shares us with heart-warming, earthy stories, to make this very moody monsoon a bit tolerable for us.

I heard first about Neelesh Misra on Twitter reading his lyrics/poems in Hindi on Twitter ages ago. Now when, I got this opportunity to read his book- Neelesh Misra Mandali’s Storywallah, I took up the opportunity to read it. 
There is something about short stories, they engulf you in their world for a short time & yet stay with you with forever.

Neelesh Misra’s Mandali’s –“Storywallah” is the collective efforts from different authors who have written 20 stories.

Each story comes from a different background, a different city and set of different characters cloaked in emotions, their insecurities. The stories are from mountains, flowers, letters tinged with rose scent, a ghost in love with young daughter-in-law, a single nail, divorced girl’s idea for independence, a MIL’s stand in her home, the story behind an overcoat and many more.

All the stories will tug at your heartstrings some or the other way. The first story “Wildflower” is about  letters to a daughter from her mother asking to understand her daughter not as her mother, but as a woman. It’s a beautiful story, a bit clichéd, but penned in a beautiful way.

Few of the stories, explore lovers tiff, family getting estranged or getting back together, old secrets unearthed and new relations earned. In the third story, the nostalgia era of Pen friends is revisited. Author Anulata Raj Nair has penned this story and three more others for this book. Her stories “Letters”, “Home”, “the seal”, “Amaya” are actually about powerful role of relationships that play in our lives. Anulata’s stories are in a way inspiring & brings a wistful smile on the reader’s face while reading her stories.

Umesh Pant’s magnificient two stories written “Nails” & “Muffler”  are strikingly different in their own ways. “Nails” definitely remains one of my favorite stories from the collection. It explores a dilemma of a newly engaged girl where a silent argument is brewing on a long nail dispute between the girl & her fiancé.

Kanchan Pant’s“Munjhi Palace”& “Our people” beautifully narrates the emotions of a woman in love Munjhi& a young girl  named Aarfa in “Our People” who is devastated by the communal riots in her hometown. Both the stories touch the core of our hearts & as a reader my heart was with both the female protagonists.

“A divorced girl” by Jamshed Qamar Siddiqui again explores a divorced girl’s dilemma on whether to remarry again & mulls over thought of independence, relationship & love. Another unforgettable story by Jamshed “Together” is about old aged lovers getting together against all odds and defying society traditions.

The Last story in the book by Snehvir Gosain “A bird in flight” describes a father’s pain in selling his childhood home & the memories associated with it. An excerpt from the story deftly describes the emotions:-
“”Home..The place the word conjures up is the place you will always call home, the place where you left behind some important part of yourself. The rest are all stops & resting places. Shivshankar’s self was in this old house in Alipur, where his childhood swung from an guava tree.”

Translator Khila Bisht has done a commendable job in translating this Hindi stories to English. The language doesn’t seemed contrived. It’s precise, to the point and yet retains the original element and essence of the stories. Looking forward to read once again the stories in Hindi & probably a second book by the Mandali. 

Neelesh Misra has excelled in mentoring the writers and I am looking forward to read  hopefully a future second part of this collection.

These stories has definitely spiked my interest again in reading more about Indian Short stories. I do remember some amazing short story collections by Satyajit Ray, Mahashweta Devi, Rabindranath Tagore. There are stories everywhere to be found and stories waiting to be told.

Name of the book :-Storywallah

Author :- Neelesh Misra’s Mandali/Various Authors

Genre :- Short story/fiction

No.ofPages :- 214

Publisher :- Penguin Random House India

ISBN- 9780143445777

Book Source :-Flipkart Review Program

You can buy the book from :-Flipkart | Amazon | Infibeam

Lyrics link to Choti si Kahani

Youtube link - Choti si Kahani  




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