Review: Down the Road
After the success of Urban Shots, edited by Paritosh Uttam, Grey Oak Publication’s next, Down The Road, is indeed, a good follow-up. The book consists of 28 stories which have contributed by 16 authors. Edited by Ahmed Faiyaz and Rohni Kejriwal, the central theme of the book is related to ‘campus life’ or school / college-oriented stories.
The book does justice to the theme but at times, falls flat because all the stories are not consistently ‘as good as the last one’. Naturally, it would take many such attempts for all the stories to be equally good. However, the book does do quite well when it comes to creating larger-than-life, vivid characters in most of its stories. A noteworthy aspect here is that some of the contributors are first-time writers who have found a way of expressing themselves through this book.
The stories range from bullying school teachers to failed college romances. Some of them do manage to even take you back to that time at school when you had a ‘thing’ for someone. That ‘someone’ could have been anyone – including your chemistry teacher! There are few serious stories and few stories about independent living in college. The stories are diverse and not at a single point of time would the reader feel that they are repetitive in nature. Basically, they have been shaken really well but thankfully not been stirred. Thanks to that, a dentist shares her experience as a fresher just out of dental college.
The book plays well with space and time and are grouped into four sections: Attendance Is Compulsory, Festivals, Elections and Placements, Lights Out and Looking Back.
Here are our personal favourites
Aniket’s Top Five
Down The Road, Ahmed Faiyaz (Simply because it reminded me of my time at Bishop Cotton Boys’, Bangalore)
Knock Out, Ahmed Faiyaz (The characters were so relatable)
The Music Room, Ira Trivedi (The beautiful language)
One Bump Does No Harm, Naman Saraiya (The story itself is impressive and it is written well)
An Accidental Start, Kunal Dhabalia (The idea is beautiful apart from the way it is written of course)
Lipi’s Top Five
Just A Moment, Nikhil Rajagopalan (Subtle and realistic)
Knockout, Ahmed Faiyaz (Again, relatable characters)
The Music Room, Ira Trivedi (Beautiful plot)
One Bump Does No Harm, Naman Saraiya (Nice concept, better ending)
Bellow Yellow, Chinmayi Bali (Very different concept, beautifully thought)
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About the Author: Aniket Dasgupta
