Author: Virendra Narayan Desai
Edition language: English
Published August 25th 2014 by Ginger Paper Publications
ISBN13: 9788192958804
Format: Paperback, 184 pages
Genre: Short stories, Contemporary, Non-fiction, Biography

Before I even go to the book review I’d like congratulate the author for his tremendous efforts in bringing this book to reality. Not only the concept is quite commendable, the presentation of the book, including the book cover, bookmark and everything else is great. However, one thing that disappointed me was that why did the author forget to mention anything about the ladies whose stories he wrote in the acknowledgement? I mean he might have done that elsewhere, but not in the acknowledgment page where it should definitely have been. Anyhow that was his decision to make. Let’s get to the review.

The book features seven different stories of seven different ladies. Although, these stories do not belong to those who made it really huge in their lifetime, but as the title says these are the stories of common Indian female. Life is a difficult take of most of us, some of us do alright, others really good and some really bad. In these stories author has narrated the stories in the manner of interviews of these seven ladies who were face to face with very difficult phases in their life. When all hope seemed to diminish, and all doors closed these women found their way out like true fighters and not only helped themselves through those difficult periods but also their families. The stories are inspiring; tragical at some points filling your heart with soreness and eyes with tears, but in the end they all did well with what they had. By the time I was at the last story – The Guardian Lady, I realized that how blessed I’m that I never had to face everything these ladies had faced.

As I already mentioned, though the plot/concept isn’t unique, it’s really commendable. I must salute the author for choosing such a difficult and non-commercial concept (while most would choose fiction-romance or fantasy) writing this down. Full points there.

The writing style was good. The author chose a simple, clean language. Although I think that he could have done a bit better. The stories are good, but with a little more persuasive and stronger style it could have been much superior. I’m not sure but I found that a spark was somewhere missing in the narration. And, instead the author went a bit flashy at those moments. Somehow the narration on some occasion seemed more inclined at ‘telling’ than ‘showing’.

The book was paced well, and it was hard to put it down. While reading I was always curious as to what’s going to happen next. What problems might arrive, and how the lady in question was going to deal with them. It was almost thrilling ride.

There wasn’t much about building the characters being true-life short stories, but the Author has written them well enough to express their strengths and weakness (if there were any). It was easy to connect to each of the woman, whether to experience their sorrows and pain, or to relish their achievements and joy.

Overall, a wonderful read. Inspiring, compassionate and yet amusing. I’d rate the book as four stars out of five. And, I would love to recommend the book to everyone who loves to read good stories, inspiring stories.