Author: Suraj Sriwastav
Pages: 92
Year of Publication: 2021
Price: Rs 300
ISBN:
978-81-953583-8-0 (9788195358380)
About the Author
Suraj Sriwastav has been a high school Principal and English teacher for twenty-five years. He has been writing short stories for newspapers and magazines since he was a teenager. He hoards books and vinyl records, and is an avowed lover of all things old and antique. His story, “Twilight Turncoat”, featured in this book, won a commendation certificate in the annual short story contest of the Chandigarh Literary Society in 2018.
About the Book
A book for young adults, the 12 stories in this collection move between themes like survival, occult, artificial intelligence, murder mysteries and whodunits. They are set in urban locales in Kolkata, Delhi as well as in smaller towns, and explore how contemporary city life (and eerie afterlife) throw up challenges for the characters. Do they overcome them? Read the book to find out!
Teaser
‘I felt sheer pride at my cat-burglar skills after climbing over the high boundary wall and landing feet first on the outside pavement. I had tiptoed out of the bedroom a few minutes ago, dropped my shoes down into the lawn below; I lowered myself cautiously onto the narrow first-floor parapet below the balcony. My thirty-five-year-old wife Sarita was fast asleep, and our pre-teen twin sons slept soundly in the next room. Sheru, the robust family tomcat, was chasing mice in his dreams, curled up in his basket on the floor. Barely breathing, I dropped down to the garden in silence and slipped on my footwear in the grey twilight. I had no trouble making my way to the perimeter wall and clambering over it as I had worked out the escape scene many times in my mind.
Fishing out my smart phone and texting my friend Sahil, my accomplice in this getaway plan, I walked briskly to the traffic intersection. I waited in the chilly October dawn with my hands deep in my jacket pockets. Soon, his white Maruti Alto car rolled into sight, and I got in beside Sahil. I was relieved to see my framed rucksack and gear bag snug on the back seat. From my suburban nest in Barrackpore, it was a forty-minute drive to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport in Dum Dum, Kolkata, where my friend dropped me off.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Avilash?” Sahil was trying one last time to test my resolve.’
[Excerpted from “Grey Ghost”]
Contents
Survivors / 9
Blind Man’s Bluff / 15
Speed Dating / 22
Twilight Turncoat / 29
Sleeping Dogs / 33
First Crush / 39
Quest for Knowledge / 44
The Man in a Hurry / 51
Nature Knows Best / 57
Playboy’s Playbook / 64
Grey Ghost / 70
For Your Eyes Only / 78
