Short stories are always a delight to read if they are written in a flow, if the characters develop effortlessly and when the message and the plot are clear with no confusion in the story progression. Anjum Hasan’s ‘A Day in the Life’ presents such stories that are close to reality and are a complete world in their own regard. Hasan, an Indian poet, currently living in Bangalore, India and the author of ‘The Cosmopolitans’, ‘Neti Neti’ and ‘Lunatic in My Head’ writes 14 short stories in ‘A Day in the Life’ which captures the reader’s attention and imagination because while the prose is effortlessly put on paper, it does make sense and sends readers into introspection. Hasan offers much life, despair, anger and hope through her various narratives in her stories. Each story, however, depicts a different time, a different world while delivering a distinctive message each time around. What intrigues me as a writer and a critic is her expression and style that reflects throughout the book. It seems she wrote each story with a different frame of mind and pondered on all aspects of the plots and characters to make them feel different. I really enjoyed reading the story ‘Sisters’, which depicts the love and bonding between two sisters while also showing their friendship. In the story, ‘The Stranger’, Hasan takes us in the life of a retired official trying to adjust to the stillness of his retired life after leaving the hustle and bustle of his urban existence behind, Hasan has done justice to the stories by using the right set of vocabulary and sending readers into the various worlds she has created in her stories. Interestingly, nothing fancy or extraordinary happens in the lives of her many protagonists. It is, however, in this simplicity and sort of mediocrity that readers will find something spectacular, something that will keep them glued to the book. In her stories you will get to know a man residing in a village after giving up on his job in the city, there is a woman who is ill, there are a couple of girls searching for elegance, there is a mother juggling between taking care of her daughter and completing her research paper. Hasan dwells on the very lives of her protagonists. Amazingly, Hasan’s protagonists are real in all essence, living ordinary lives, but there seems to be something extraordinary in how the character blends in with the story She creates a connection between the readers and the characters and that is magic. At first, some stories may seem to be a drag; however, each story makes sense at one point before making the readers accept the writer’s narrative. Some stories are witty, some are thought provoking; some instill sadness while are sort of a character’s mini-biography. There is aptly used prose and an exposure of Hasan ‘s thoughts felt through the character’s eye that does seem real and true. Hasan’s protagonists are both men and women, showing her dexterity to think both as a man and a woman while penning her stories revealing each character’s thoughts, emotions, dreams and ideals. It is in Hasan’s efforts of placing both men and women as protagonists that let her add value to her stories, make them a compelling read and showing the point-of-view of both genders. An excerpt from her story ‘The Stranger’ reads, “There were no new ideas to be found in the city so I retired last year to this small town-an experiment to see if I could live in a house with a tiled roof that sometimes leaked and little storybook windows that muffled rather than let in light. Four months straight it rained with pounding urgency, bookended by two of drizzle. Sentences that I thought had no currency anymore, not in the twenty-first century, still applied here, in this drenched hill town. It was a dark and stormy night. Or, the wind howled in the trees and loudly rattled the windowpanes.” Hasan creates a mental image of an old home with monsoon being a continuous weather and that a gothic mist surrounding the narrative of this story makes it simple yet creepy. Amazingly, Hasan’s protagonists are real in all essence. The readers will find them to be neighborhood people living ordinary lives, however, Hasan’s way of revealing the characters and binding them with the plot creates the difference. Even when her character is leading a normal life, there seems to be something extraordinary in how the character blends in with the story. The writer, an independent researcher, and an author is a columnist writing on diverse topics including current geopolitical affairs Published in Daily Times, November 12th 2018.