Described as stories of love in the blurb of the book, When Jaya Met Jaggu and Other Stories explores various facets of love from romantic, platonic, familial, to even eternal love. The strength and weakness of a short story are both in the aspect of brevity—the currency of words
The retelling of myth serves as an effective device for simultaneously critiquing the present and locating its continuities with the past, to indicate how orthodoxies and systems of exclusion replicate themselves through the ages, across changing contexts.
The poetry book opens with six provocative haikus. They are tight, precise and fecund with suggestions. Although the essence of a haiku lies in the neat execution of its syllabic structure and restrained release of its deep meaning, each haiku in the book is paradoxically supplemented by a corresponding colorful sketch. At times, the precision of a haiku is invaded by the visual excess of the sketch and the pleasure of delaying interpretation of the form is suddenly interrupted by the diverted attention.
Vaishali Shroff’s Taatung Tatung and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Diverse Languages is an impassioned plea for linguistic diversity, emphasizing the social, historical and cultural value of preserving languages even as she chronicles the impact of languages defeated and lost due to the hegemonic march of dominant tongues across the Indian subcontinent.
Aditi Anand uses simple illustrations to beautifully uplift this sombre subject. Her illustrations are bound to invoke curiosity in a child’s mind. I spent a considerable amount of time fixating on the minute details in her drawings. The figures in the book are etched in a carefree manner, almost from the gaze of a child. The grandfather’s expressions are tinged with a little sadness
In the interconnected web of global politics, the dynamics of International Relations wield significant influence in shaping the trajectory of nations and regions. However, in today’s global landscape, disorder prevails as established rules and norms of International Relations are frequently disregarded.