Friday, July 26, 2013

Book Review : Dented & Painted (Tirupathi Khemka)

Book:  Dented & Painted
Author:  Tirupathi Khemka
Publisher:  Notion Press

These days if you ask me to read a short story or a short story collection, I will be more interested in it than I could ever be. It is because of the short story collection I am working for these days. However, that is not the reason you will find me biased towards this short story collection. 

Somewhere in mid of May, Notion Press organized a contest and the winner was to receive a copy of “Dented & Painted”. To my hunger for free copies, I participated in the contest and like most other times, I won it. The copy of ‘Dented & Painted’ written by ‘Tirupathi Khemka’ reached my address in no time.

Businessman, industrialists, leader, visionary, innovator and philanthropist, Tirupathi Khemka, is known for his Midas touch. He added panache to everything he undertook; be it creating and managing multi-million dollar businesses, revolutionizing the power generation industry, pioneering the concept of airline charter in the country, breeding industrial relationships or generously supporting social causes. He has extensively travelled across the globe and has observed different societies, cultures and people as a profound enthusiast of human character.

Dented & Painted is a book that talks about 23 independent women who were oppressed, abused and used, and stories of women who avenged, repelled or survived in author's own word. Let us find out what it has to offer to its readers.

We live in tough times. Manhood established his world with his set of rules; womanhood strikes back, unfortunately playing by the same rules. Here is a collection of touching true stories of modern women and their lives in a contemporary society.

The cover page has an image of a woman, half wrapped in a saree. It is one of the covers that cannot be described in words. The cover page is capable of attracting you towards the book.  As you further turn the hard-bound cover, the page quality has been marvelous. It is one of the best page qualities that I have read in recent days which give a feel of its own. 

Language of all stories is crispy, engaging and touching and narration too has been good. There are a few typos that appear at the end of the book but that can be ignored. Just a few stories are normal wife-husband stories but they are very few and most of the stories are good which make you forget about them.  In recent months, we have found rape as an inhuman act but I believe the author has done its best in attracting us towards other issues faced by women. Few stories really showed how a man can go out of humanhood to play with a daughter/lover/wife's feelings. I am mentioning few of my personal favorites for your reference:

1. Prerna: Prerna story appalls me. It squeezes my heart and makes me think why should a child be pushed to the edge where the only option left is repulsion/withdrawal? And what should the society do to a man who pushes a child to the edge by molesting his/her body and soul? And what should be done to the man who does that to his own child?

2. Nikita: Nikita knows what she wants and she uses all her charms to get it. Fair? Unfair? Who’ll judge?

3. Chaaya: Why are woman suppressed? What Kind of a father would treat a little girl so brutally? What kind of a man treats his wife so inhumanly? What makes these men beat, rape and suppress woman in their lives? And how can a woman change this?

4. Tasha: Every decision has a price to pay, are you prepared to pay the price commanded for this choice? What will a child conceived in an orgy be like? For people who attend orgies, what age do they think would be good for their children to start attend orgies themselves? 

5. Mrinalini: The thing that keeps bothering me about this story is, why victimize faith?

6. Jhanvi: Why did she go back? She had the chance to get out of it. And why was she clinging on to Ritz? She knew he had got her into it?

At the end, I must say ‘Dented & Painted’ is a must read. I would rate it 4 on a scale of 5. The stories take you to every color of womanhood. You can feel the need to change your thinking that has been ruining the life of woman in many ways, may it be her father, her lover or her husband. The author has done a tremendous job in showing all the characteristics of woman. He leaves us with lot of questions in our mind. Do we really have the right to call us civilized with these questions? I really don't have an answer.

The only drawback I found with this book is it's price i.e. Rs 450/- Although, the book is hardbound but still I believe the author as well as publisher should have lowered the book price to make it reach the masses because many stories needs to reach to every mind.. every soul.

On a personal note, I’d like to wish Notion Press all the best for providing such a platform to many writers who are now heroes among their friends. And, I wish the author, Tirupathi Khemka best of luck for the book. I would love to read any future books by the author.