Author- Prathap Kamath
“Blood rains & Other Stories” by Prathap Kamath is a book which reveals the peculiar & unusual aspects of life. As the blurb says it is a collection of 15 short stories which revolves around several mystifying & anomalous situations of a human’s life.
The foremost story i.e. ‘Blood Rain’ is a story in which author talks about nature’s bleeding from man’s severe devastation through a story which is about a woman named hamy who is mistreated by her husband. How nature menstruates from man’s ravagement is depicted in the story!
The second story i.e. ‘Jacoba Came to Conquer’ is a story about Jacoba & Amal. Jacoba was a prominent dutch admiral descendent who came to re-enact the ancestral battle in a very unlike way. It is interesting to know that how amal’s life was affected by it when Amal realizes that Jacoba Von Gues is not an ordinary tourist.
The next story i.e. ‘Camus guest in kashmir’ deals with the visit of a soldier named Gopikumar. This visit eventually brings a huge transformation into the life of a poet named Jose. After receiving a letter from the soldier , Jose understands the philosophical dimensions of that letter & was distressed about his behavior towards the soldier. Later, the author describes about how that near stranger i.e. Gopikumar demands a remarkable favour from Jose.
The next story i.e. ‘Flowers of Evil’ is a very unfamiliar story of a man named Raju who suffers from an incurable disease. Eventually he realizes that as the new flower bud grows on his leg ,some hazardous circumstances take place with the people around him. He couldn’t appreciate the mythological effectiveness of his flowers.
The next story i.e. ‘Friends who met in the news jungle’ revolves around the lives of two best friends named Mahesh & Raghvan. After several years, Mahesh’s unexpected re-entry into Raghvan’s life change the course of the story. The author described about Raghvan’s reminiscences of their early days in college, while on the other hand Mahesh’s feelings were propelled only by the thoughts of his career.
The next chapter of the book i.e. ‘Policing her’ is a story about a runner named Devika.P who becomes a victim of his coach Ramesh sir’s unethical behavior. The story then depicts how Devika P. goes through the brutal & harsh treatment of policemen. The policemen accused her of an immoral conduct towards his coach.It depicts that how a woman gets decieved by his own coach.
The next chapter i.e. ‘The citizen of the world of objects’ is a story about a boy named Nithin who relates himself to machines & considers himself as a cyber organism. His parents realize that their ignorance towards their son had led to his escape.
The next chapter i.e. ‘The Cricketers’ deals with the life of an ambitious cricketer named Neelan. The author described how neelan’s father gets anxious & disturbed when a cricket match between Jamal & Neelan takes place. The match takes a very unexpected turn later.
The next story i.e. ‘The Equestrian Interlude’ describes an incident which made the author realized his amazing equestrian skills. He meets a house lender named Mahalingam. They make a journey to Lesley’s bungalow which reveals some of the outlandish facts to author.
The next chapter of the book i.e. ‘The Scream & the kangaroo’ that deals with a man named Mohan who dreams about Edvard munch’s painting ‘the scream’. He has a daughter named Divya who repeatedly insisted him to send the fees for her college. Eventually his realizes his failure & people around him seem like screaming figure of munch’s painting with void spaces in the eyes & gigantic mouths.
The next story i.e. ‘The Seeds of Darkness’ presents the life of a boy named Gopu. His mother gets distressed & upset when Gopu shows a keen interest in the subject pertaining to a killer fruit ‘cerbra odollam’. Ultimately the story reveals that how her mom’s life gets affected by this fruit.
The next chapter of the book i.e. ‘The Strike on the mind’deals with the life of a man named Jayadas who receives a frantic call from his wife related to the new of restricted movement in his colony. He gets worried for his son & hurries to pick him up from his stop.
The next story of the book i.e. ‘Transmigration’ which represents the life of a woman named Anagha. The author described about how her life was entirely changed due to his dog who suffered from a deadly disease.
The succeeding chapter i.e. ‘The Eyes’ which portrays the life of a man named David. The author discussed about his sentiments & affection for his mother, Martha. David remembers the days spent with his mother, & the author beautifully describes martha’s eyes.
The concluding chapter of the book i.e. ‘When white roses first in the prison yard bloomed’ is a sensitive story about a man, Kabeer. He gets imprisoned but he was an ordinary prisoner as he was being kept there under judicial custody. Eventually , the white roses bloomed as an answer to Kabeer’s searching for what brought him here in the jail.
The author brings in notice some of the severe & catastrophic situations in life. These situations are related to ferocity & aggression. Besides that some of tales are pertaining to apprehension, agitation, vengeance & revenge. The book basically reveals a plain-spoken fact that at the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman. The author narrated about the consequences because of these situations that totally depraved the lives of people. The cynical & pessimistic emotions are illustrated in the book. The people who are characterized in the book somewhere were also connected to love, tenderness & absolution. The author introduced some very peculiar & odd cases which are quite effective. He provided considerable empirical evidences to support his thoughts.
While reading this book, I felt that this book is a constitutes non-typical stories which affected me. As the way how he draws the attention of his readers to the unfair side of life is exceptional. The helplessness of humans towards the strange sides of life is clearly mentioned in the book. I felt that this book at times put me into a shock & I was also astonished about the fact that life is not that easy. We need to go through each and every kind of state in our lives. It made me realize that darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. I liked the way how author has put-forward some of the sensitive issues of our society ,like immoral & unethical crimes against woman , which need to be dissipated soon from our society, in a very frank way. Because the results of it are regretful and can affect a woman’s life in an atrocious manner.
This book is a combination of suspense, violence, corruption, revenge,selfishness. So if you are interested in reading a book full of riddles and thrillers this is the book for you. And on the other hand if you don’t have great interest in stories related to anxiety , fear, & suspense this ain’t the book for you.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer- Shivani Chauhan