Sunday, December 13, 2015

Heat and Lust


Dear Friends,
My e-book journey continues.
This time, it is a collection of adult short stories.
Here is the link:
And here is the preface: 

Most of the stories in this collection were written by a younger self. This self grew up in Kolkata and came of age in the 1980s. At that time, India was conservative and sexually repressed. Intermingling between the sexes was not easy. There were no Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Whatsapp and Google hangouts. Or mobile phones. And yet, we managed somehow. We all had a few affairs… only the memories remain. 

Some of the stories are based on gossip that I heard of people I hardly knew anything about. But I tried to flesh them out in my imagination. So, there are tales of the rage caused by impotence, the sexual frustration of fat people and how they try to solve it, and the metaphorical stabbing of one spouse on the other when an extra-marital affair comes to light. 

The themes are ancient but I hope the treatment is different. 

Human beings have behaved the same throughout history. This was confirmed to me by Dr. Irving Finkel, of the British Museum, who spent 30 years studying cuneiform tablets, belonging to the Mesopotamian society of 3000 years ago. And, at that time also, there were leaders who promised a lot, cheating businessmen and husbands and wives opting for divorce because they could not live with each other. 

In this collection, only two stories have been published. ‘The Ageing Lion’ was published in the now-defunct Debonair magazine, while ‘The Inner Drama’ appeared in the Telegraph Colour Magazine in the ‘Fiction Selected by Khushwant Singh’ column. 

Grateful thanks to ABP Private Limited, Kolkata, for giving permission to publish it. 

I am surprised at the raunchiness and the liberal use of four-letter words by this younger self. But then we all go through this youthful phase.  

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