An Unusual Book Launch

Last Thursday I attended a book launch that was not only unusual but also special to me in more ways than one. Unusual because it wasn’t just one book that was launched but, simultaneously, two books (Urban Shots and Another Chance) were launched. Unusual again because there weren’t the usual frills, drama and big names associated with book launches and readings in Hyderabad. Another unusual thing was that one of the books- Urban Shots- was a collection of short stories written by more than a dozen writers half of which were people I knew since long which was one special thing. Another special feature was that one of the names was that of a writing friend - Vrinda Baliga who happens to be a member of ‘Writing India’ group on Yahoo. There were other familiar names too- Kunal Dhabalia (fellow blogger), Abha Iyengar, Hasmita Chander (founder of Writing India), Paritosh Uttam, and Biswanath Ghosh, journalist, blogger, and author of the bestselling travel book ‘Chai, Chai.’ The other special feature was that this was the only other book launch where the author or one of authors happened to be a friend of mine. Since this was such a special launch I couldn’t afford to miss it at any cost and so ended up at the Crossword Bookstore in City Centre Mall in Banjara Hills to root for Vrinda along with Hari, Rasana and Umashankar.

In Hyderabad, book launches in bookstores are rather different affairs. First, there isn’t much of a crowd. Second, half the crowd melts within ten or fifteen minutes of the launch or reading. But on Thursday, the crowd stayed put until the event after almost an hour which was something of a record. I couldn’t see any familiar face I see at book launches or readings here. Everyone in the gathering was a new face. It began without much fanfare though the three writers- Vrinda Baliga, Kunal Dhabalia and Ahmed Faiyaz appeared a bit nervous which is expected of first time writers. They launched the book and soon got down into an interesting discussion with Vinay Verma of Sutradhar about how they wrote the stories featured in the book.

Published by Grey Oak and edited by Paritosh Uttam, ‘Urban Shots’ is a collection of short stories by thirteen writers. The 28 (not 29 as mentioned on the cover and elsewhere) short stories are arranged according to theme in five categories- Relationships, Love, Friendship, Angst, and Longing. I have read only a few stories in the book so can’t make a general statement about it. The first stories I read were Vrinda Baliga’s ‘Stick Figures’ and ‘Dialects of Silence.’ Both stories are well written proving that Vrinda is a short story writer to look out for. Then there was ‘Liberation’ by Malathi Jaikumar which was also good. Of course, I also read Biswanath Ghosh’s stories too and found them interesting enough though the topics are those that he writes about on his blog.

Though the quality of some of the stories in ‘Urban Shots’ is uneven with some stories sounding amateurish it is a welcome change from the slew of books being written by just about everyone. I feel that it will trigger the publication of many such collections of short stories. It will not only add to the growing list IWE but also give the necessary exposure to many writers whose talents have not yet been recognized.