Daily Times

Aspiring authors are using flash fiction as a form of storytelling across the world. Sukanya Basu Mallik incorporates the same in her book, Mocktail. The short stories comprising this book discuss human emotions through such stories that bring the reality of life into view. Sukanya’s style of writing is as simple as it could get; however, there is an element of maturity when it comes to discussing sentiments.

Sukanya, an aspiring young author from India, with several awards and recognition under her belt, reveals her writing prowess through stories that discuss life and the chaos that is a part of human life. She uses emotions such as that of love, loss, happiness, grief, and the mere feeling of being who they are – human.

The book comprising over twenty short stories is well crafted with each having a rising action, climax, and a smooth character revelation and development. Sukanya blends in her creative thoughts with the realities of life to present stories that are fictional yet tend to make readers believe in their authenticity.

She does have the ability to lure the readers’ thoughts with how she presents her ideas. For instance, in the story “Mr. Insane and Ms. Lunatic” she writes, “The night was alluring; moonlight flooded the sky, horizon to horizon, reaching corners with its beauty. The moon seemed to inhibit an exceptional calmness, like no other, not only beautiful when full, but in all of its phases and fractions and ivory pieces. It is as if a collection of intoxicating stardust, dried petals and poems; realizing why the wolves loved it so much, crying every full moon for that- which they’ll never get their hands on.” Such sentences by Sukanya goes to show her capacity to use the right words at the right time. She carves out meaning while impacting the readers’ minds with a narrative that is clear, smooth, and memorable.

In the story Capital Vices, Sukanya shows how elegantly she can explain a moment while presenting the action with words. She writes, “She opened her bleary eyes when the cat, all seven pounds of squirming flesh, climbed onto her belly. Squinting into the sunlight streaming in from the open window, she discovered that she was now the weary possessor of a pounding headache, and at some point, had managed to lose both a tooth and a spouse.”

The stories included in Mocktail by Sukanya vary in length. While some are only a couple of pages long, many are more than three to four pages long. Each story, however, presents a different feel to the readers. It is the lives of the people – fictional as they may be – that Sukanya has explored that become the centre of attention and discussion in each story. One must praise the simplicity used by the author in keeping the stories move forward without a break. From the first paragraph to the last, the stories are filled with action, thoughts, and dialogues that also keep the readers glued to its pages.

However, embedded in this simplicity are such sentences that you may want to read twice. This is because Sukanya chooses the appropriate words and structures the sentences that do make an impact. In the story “A Situation Inside the Train” she writes, “The small unreliable bulb in the train compartment flickered on and off, casting eerie shadows on the metal body of the train and on us, through the openings. I felt the train rumble beneath us with its rhythmic and elegant, yet not so elegant motion as we continued along with our musings trying to dawdle off the time.”

Every author needs time to evolve into a better version of themselves. Sukanya too has a long way to go before she can reach the epitome of excellence as an author. However, she is on her way. Mocktail is a reflection of her views and feelings that she has explained and shared in words. It is a warm heartening read with bits and pieces of emotions scattered across to make it a holistic reading experience.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. He can be reached at omariftikhar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @omariftikhar