A Second Cup of Tea - The Hive

Editors: The Hive

Genre: Short Story Anthology

Rating: 3.85 stars.

Most tea lovers swear by the 'Lays' chips philosophy: no one can eat… errr… drink just one! The same idea can be extended to books themed around tea, right? Thus, having already supplied you with “Tea with a Drop of Honey” in 2020, ‘The Hive’ is back to satiate your senses with “A Second Cup of Tea”.

The theme remains the same as in the first instalment; the anthology contains stories to soothe your soul and deliver hope and happiness, just as a hot cup of chai warms your heart and freshens your mind. But there’s a difference in the content, and the biggest indicator of that is in the cover. While the first book had a very old-world, sepia-tinged cover, the stories in the first book were also of that kind – with a quaint charm and inducing a mostly nostalgic kind of feel. This book, like its cover, is more modernist, bright-hued and contemporary. Most of the stories are not the stereotypical kind of tales where you not only know what’s going to happen but also how and when it’s going to happen. The stories here do go in a familiar direction at times but through a path that is distinct from the well-trodden, hackneyed routes.

The anthology contains 22 tales, all of which aim to deliver a pleasant and satiating experience. Some succeed, others come close. There is quite a variety in the time period covered by the book, thus giving you a fresh feel with each change in the tale. Most of the plots too are quite unalike each other, thus further increasing the novelty factor.

I rated the stories individually, as I always do for an anthology. What I mainly used as a benchmark was:

1. Does the story deliver on its promise of ‘soothing your soul’?; and

2. Does the author make use of the short narrative pattern well?

A few stories satisfied the first criterion but weren’t developed properly. A few others used the short story structure brilliantly but didn’t really deliver on the theme. For me, 13 of the 22 stories satisfied both the first and the second criteria well and thus came in the 4-5 star range. Another 6 stories came really close to doing both, but lagged by just a little, thus coming in the 3-3.5 star range. Thus, 19 of the 22 stories worked reasonably or excellently for me.

I obviously can’t mention 19 names in this review, so what I’ll cover is the stories that reached the full 5 star mark for me (either directly or through a rounding up of 4.5 stars.) These were amazing in every way: well-structured, well-written, theme-appropriate, and generated a smile on my face by the time I reached the last para.

👉 Nothing Fishy About It - Narayani V Manapadam - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

What if you fall in love at first sight but also want to make sure that your mother approves of your lady love? This was a sweet story that will bring a smile to your face.

👉 The Cupidian Catastrophe - Pallavi Sawant-Uttekar - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Historical fiction with a twist. Humorous and with a leading lady quite unlike typical hist-fic women. Enjoyed this completely!

👉 The Second Proposal - Gowri Bhargav - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What a touching story this was! It is written in a story-within-a-story structure, quite amazing how the author could pull this off within a short story format.

👉 The Chronicle of Concurrent Anniversaries - Dakshata Kudanekar - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

I don’t know if I would have enjoyed this as much a couple of years ago, but what with the lockdown and two years of having to deal with a husband working from home, I laughed my heart out at this. Excellent and hilarious!

👉 Love in Small Pockets - Manasi Diwakar - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

This one won me over more by its characters than by its writing. It’s tough to show layered characters in short fiction but this one did that admirably. It makes your question your assumptions. And yes, I loved the portrayal of a mother who knows she isn’t perfect.

👉 Invisible Ink - Shalini Rao - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

A cute story that is bound to warm the cockles of the heart of every bibliophile. (A part of me feels that I will someday belong to the category of people mentioned in the story. If you read it, you will know ‘who’.)

👉 The Second Anniversary – Neepomanjaree - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Emotions and relations balance perfectly in this little gem of a story. Loved everything about it.

👉 A Good Day - Sheerin Shahab - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (Rounding down to 5 because it would be cheating otherwise.)

Ever smiled and cried at the same time? That was me for this story. I don’t know what I can reveal about it without spoilers. All I can say is, this tale nailed the theme perfectly and is by far the best story of the book.

All in all, this coffee lover relished this second cup of tea, even more than the first book. As with most themed anthologies, you will get the best results if you remember not to read in one go. Savour it like you would a cup of tea, in small sips and not more than a couple of cups at a time. Allow the flavours to engulf you slowly with their words and richness.

3.85 stars, based on the average of my ratings for all the stories.