Five short stories, five lives and you’ve got a winner of a collection! It’s short, as it should be, with each story holding forth on a life- its tapestry, its intricacies, its backstory and then its hero- the fabulous telling. Well done Mira Saraf,! Her foray into the world of storytelling is recent,  yet her style belies its newness.

Mira Saraf has done a commendable job of wrapping each story in a narrative that captures your mind and heart from beginning to end. Needless to say she saved the best for the last:

‘The Storyteller‘- story Five begins somewhere, and you go with it, imagining it down a roadmap that she has drawn for you- down a path strewn with grief and misery. Does it? Nope, on the contrary it notches up the tale to an extraordinary level- to that of a storyteller’s, as its title promises. I was as happily surprised as I was taken.

Story 3 : Senseless Worries- brings us to just that conclusion, that worries are senseless when they can well be put behind us and a sparkling future awaits us, and our fate is in our hands, we can help it shine even if it was dull for a while. This is a story that begins with hopelessness and ends on a more than optimistic note.

Where Saraf’s strength lies is in the core and at the heart of each yarn she handles with dexterity. The characters, oh yes, they are all rather well formed and relatable. Surely one might have met any one of them along life’s meanderings. She weaves in and out of emotions with practiced ease, carrying the reader along. Her style is mature, and captivating. She does not use fancy vocabulary, she does not use tools that take away rather than add to the story- what she does is tell the story like it is, threading us along- with just enough information about the character and where he/she might be headed, both within and without. Her writing throbs with words chosen with care to imbue it with lifelike qualities.

“Later that night, stomach raw from hunger, sinuses sore from tears, she reached for her laptop. In spite of the fact that she did not have a day ‘filled with joy and family,’ she desperately wanted to belive the promises her horoscope made about the next day.” Simple enough? Tells us about the mind of the protagonist in a simple phrase. That’s Saraf all along for you.

When you love the first story of a collection of short stories, you wish to keep reading, and Saraf hooked me from the beginning, with ‘Solitary Confinement,’ which was almost spiritual in nature, with a dystopian feel: a lone girl- getting over her addictions. Now we are locked in with her, and her world- a lonely world, yet it’s made up of so many little beings, that the girl (she) befriends and collates to make some sense of her state. Is there freedom at the end of this unique experience? You must read the tale to know. There is enough drama, and yet with a quietude to it, that belies Saraf’s rather novel foray into the world of short stories.

The Mirage is the other story that is a favourite. Mind-games, truth, untruth, what is and isn’t….all of it well-packed into a story that makes you sit up and wonder, and it packs a punch- both mysterious and psychologically-riveting! If I say anymore and quote from her stories, i’d be guilty of taking away her punches.

I hope Mira Saraf is busy penning her next lot of tales, because I can’t wait to see what else this young writer can produce from that fertile mind and sharp pen of hers.