Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1)-Shobhaa De

Book: Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1)
Author: Shobhaa De
Publisher: Simon and Schuster India

What has this lockdown inspired you to do?

Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1) is the first book of a collection of short stories by Shobhaa De, revolving around the theme of the lockdown. This book has 4 such stories. After this, Dubai? is the story of a woman lived the high life, with a plush lifestyle, who realizes the truth about life when her husband loses his job and stays at home. Leaving is the story of a construction worker in Dharavi, who has to comes to terms with the pandemic and has to choose between staying in Mumbai with Suman, a person he has fallen in love with, or to return home for survival. The Man who Wanted More is written from the perspective of a man who considers his wife his ticket to money and chided her on bringing less dowry and is willing to anything to make her suffer. A Whiff of Eternity is the story of a woman who has suffered multiple whammies due to the pandemic, and when it seems as if the things were finally going her way, she suffers another setback.

The stories are written in an interesting, unconventional manner, that adopt the tone and mannerisms of the characters they are representing. The plotlines of the stories are quite simple. They take up the idea pf the lockdown and then show its impact on the characters, both emotionally and physically as they adjust to the new normal. One thing that is common in the stories is the idea of love and how that changes with respect to the time and distance we are at with our loved ones.

Shobhaa is known for bringing in characters that seem real and the same is the case with the 4 stories in the book. Rustic, life-like, emotional, powerful, there are quite a few adjectives that describe the characters in this book. She has made fierce woman characters, who do not shy away from speaking their minds, and a greedy man, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Each of the 4 stories have brought to fore a different perspective of the lockdown and how their lives got impacted by Covid.

Lockdown Liaisons Book One was quite a ride and scores a 4.25/5 for me.

Grab a copy here.