12 January, 2015

#BookReview :: Emotions Unplugged by Vishal Anand

Emotions Unplugged is a collection of 15 short stories based on different genres. Diksha travels through the roads of Mumbai a day prior to her divorce with her husband, Virain; Gauri steals the money from her master’s locker and runs to her village; Rizwan works as a laborer in construction sites at Dubai in spite of being the son of a rich man from Bangladesh; Samar gets last gift of love from his grandmother after her death; Patrick believes after visiting a state that he has visited a country, he still had to visit 27 more countries in India; Rajat spends the night in different bars with a friend to meet a lady, Palak; an old lady who believes in her religion and hates Muslims finds an indigestible truth when she visits her daughter’s home; Vinit falls in love with a veiled girl while travelling in Delhi metro to reach his office everyday and a lot more. 

Numerous emotions pluck in to bring a thought provoking cocktail. Indeed pen is mightier than sword, and words have potential to bring the change. And surprisingly you never know when it does… 


In, ‘A day before my divorce’ two people decide to spend some time together before their divorce is finalized. It has a taste of romance in it and Diksha and Virain feel quite real. 
In ‘Theft’ we meet Gauri who steals some money from her master’s locker and runs away. This story has a very important message that highlights the fact that nobody is born a thief.
In ‘Granny's Last Gift of Love’ Samar gets a surprise. This is an emotional one that will touch your heart. ‘The First Love’ explores the age old funda of a school boy with a crush. It lacked the depth and quality of the other short stories in the book. 
‘The Improbable Truth’ gives us a look into Madhu’s life – the past and the present. This story has a kind of ‘draw your own conclusions’ sort of feel that made it interesting. 
‘A Country with 27 Other Countries’ is about a foreigner’s experience in our country. This is a well narrated story. 
‘After College’ is about how a girl’s life changes once she finishes college and gets married. A woman’s perspective is captured well in this story.
In ‘And God said yes’ the issue of caste system is captured well through a woman and her experiences.
‘The Veiled Girl’ tells us the story of Vinit who falls for a girl while commuting in Delhi Metro.

There are a couple of more stories in the book aside from those mentioned above. Overall, there are fifteen stories in the book. Each story is unique and offers something different to its reader. So no matter what the readers’ preferences are, they will find at least one story that they will surely love. Though I have to admit that one or two of them felt like old stuff in new packaging. For me it was ‘A Country with 27 Other Countries’ that takes the top spot in the book.

The best part of this book is the fact that the author being a man has captured women’s perspective really well. He has not only explored some of the issues of women in our society but also given us a look into the minds of some of them. Also, he has shared some messages through each and every story. It is upto the readers to decide how much they would like to take away from the book. The level of depth in most of the stories is admirable and the author has dealt us just enough emotions and sensitivity.

The writing style of the author and his language is simple and the book could do with another round at the editor’s table. It is his narration style that takes the stories up a notch. Another thing that I just have to comment upon are the titles of the story. The titles are too simple and mostly giveaway what the story is about. 

Overall, this is a good attempt by a first time author. He holds some promise and I will be watching out for more from him.





Review copy received from the Author



1 comment:

  1. Thanks a lot Debdatta for your honest views about the book. Really appreciate it. :)

    ReplyDelete