A Handful of Marbles - Patanjali Patnaik

Author: Patanjali Patnaik

Genre: Middle-grade Fiction.

Rating: 4.4 stars.

A delightful collection that is bound to rake up tons of nostalgia for quite a few of us Bharatvaasi!

This is an anthology of twelve stories “celebrating childhood”. All of them are narrated from the third person point of view of nine year old Pushkar (à la Swami of R.K. Narayan’s “Swami And Friends”). Just like Swami’s tales were set in the fictional 'Malgudi', Pushkar’s narratives come from the fictional town of ‘Baardurg’.

Each story delves into a specific hobby or activity or passion of Pushkar’s, thereby revealing to us his thoughts, his innocence, and also his naughtiness. See this line, for instance: “He followed a policy that suited him just fine. If they [his parents] don’t ask, you don’t tell them.” Wasn’t that the golden rule of our childhood? 😂😂 This little guy makes for one heck of a protagonist!

Despite the fact that the mc is a child, I wouldn't call this a children's book. Today's kids won't understand the beauty of stories peppered with nostalgia. It is meant for people of our generation: those born in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, so that we can look at the past with rose-tinted glasses and remark, "Those were the days!" For us, this book will generate a strong nostalgic vibe. There are so many memories the book raked up – comics, love for cakes, friendly rivalries, teachers with a penchant for using the ruler,... I enjoyed going down memory lane with this collection as there’s an old-world simplicity to the tales. There are a few Hindi words but these work very well within the context.

At the risk of sounding gender-biased, let me say that the sentimental feelings will be greater for boys because quite a lot of Pushkar’s antics were ones I never attempted in childhood, such as collecting cigarette packets or making your own “manjha” with glass powder. Of course, this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the collection. All the stories have a touch of humour and cover a variety of emotions. In fact, each of the ‘Navarasa’ (the nine key emotions) are well-represented in the book.

I'm not a writer, so the next point has to be taken with a ladleful of salt. I feel, of all the writing formats, the short story is the toughest to get right as the writer has only a limited space to create an impact. And even within this structure, the toughest thing to get right is the ending. I can't tell you how many times I've read an outstanding short story, only to find it falling flat at the end. This book nails the length as well as the endings. Not once did I feel that a story wasn’t developed well or that the ending was abrupt.

An experienced eye will be able to make out that this is a new author. The writing style is overly descriptive at times, especially in the initial stories. Later down the line, it becomes more streamlined. (It is also possible that I was enjoying myself so much that I forgot to look at the writing! 🙈) However, I'm not going to cut stars for the writing style because a book that keeps me hooked to an extent that I forgot to check it for language-based issues deserves extra credit.

The only suggestion I would like to make to the author is, add a foreword or an author’s note. Not all readers look forward to this, but many do. I love getting an insight into how an anthology came into being. But there’s nothing of this sort in this book, just an acknowledgement and the twelve stories. So please consider adding a personal note from your side to your readers, letting them know something about your writing journey, or how you thought of Pushkar, or simply the connection between these stories and your childhood.

As I do for every anthology, I rated the stories individually. Of the twelve stories, only two stories touched the three star mark (and that was my lowest rating – none went below 3 stars.) Five stories got the full 5 stars, with a further three stories touching 4.5 stars. Doesn’t need a genius to figure out how much I loved these stories!

4.4 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

Heartily recommended to all Indians born in the 20th century. Enjoy this nostalgic journey into your childhood.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and these are my honest thoughts about it. Thank you very much for this opportunity to read and review your work, Patanjali. This was a true pleasure. 😊