Short, Not So Sweet-Jatin Khandelwal

Book: Short, Not So Sweet: A Collection of Short Stories

Author: Jatin Khandelwal

Publisher: Notion Press

Short, Not So Sweet by Jatin Khandelwal is a collection of 14 short stories that cover a myriad of stories, ranging from bone-chilling thriller to plain old crime fiction.

Biryani is the story of how a man falls in love with a girl’s Biryani, and every birthday, she makes the same Biryani for him, with a twist. Time’s Up tells the story of Majid, a person for whom life itself is a fight, how things that seem normal, rarely are. Chitrakaar let is meet Akash, a wannabe painter who is dejected and is a complete failure in life, until one accident changes his life, forever. Every Valentine’s day, a lot of couples break up and a lot of couples take vows to stay together forever, which way does Neha’s story goes we find out in Together Forever. The Other Half is a cryptic story tells the story of Amar and his Other Half and how situation separates them. Birthday is a conventional story of a hopeless romantic who gets a call from his crush the day of his birthday and she tells him that she has news for him. Hopeful that he finally had his chance. He goes to her house, only to find out a surprise waiting for him. They say that love is magic, and so tells the story Abracadabra, love that transcends time and age. They say all relationships are Imperfectly Perfect, and so is the story of Rohan, Mark and Debbie, and how Mark’s death opens up old wounds. Metro is a story about a conversation between 2 people, and how positivity is infectious. Everything happens for a reason, and despite the actors doing their part, Merry Christmas is the story of hoe destiny gets realized for 2 people, by the actions of one. Sometimes you take a vacation and everything changes, Lost and Found is the story of how a person who was lost on her way back from a fort, finds her way back and in turn helps a lost soul find his way as well. The Invisible Lines is a story drawn from the politics of hate and how a line drawn hundreds of years ago, present only on paper, can divide people and spew blood. With the difference of class, two children, who couldn’t have been poles apart, meet on the Middle Ground, and truly somethings are bigger than social classes. Technology, while being a boon, can be a cruel Mistress. Sarah is a story that deals with human interaction with technology and how that is affecting our lives.

Short, Not So Sweet by Jatin Khandelwal is an interesting read, with the plot twists at unexpected points and story taking a completely new turn at every step. Each of the story was amazing in the way it was told and executed. While I loved the story Biryani, The Invisible Line, and Middle Ground, the stories that didn’t work for me were Sarah, The Other Half and Birthday, just because the twist in the plot wasn’t engaging enough and the initial stories had set the bars quite high.

The stories have good characters, one that are relatable, and one would have seen around them.

Overall, the book scores a 3.75/5 for me.

Get a copy of the book here.