The book comprises of 29 stories  by 13 authors. All these stories are aimed  to  give  a glimpse  of  the  life  of  Urban India.  The  book encapsulates  people  from  different  backgrounds,  cultures,  ethnic origins and yet  their lives somehow seem to converge in the pages of this book.  These stories focus on  various aspects of  lives of these character – love, life, longing, relationships and angst. The foreward of the book is written by a young blogger and aspiring writer, Rohini Kejriwala, who builds a beautiful premise for the book. And adding in her words is something which I felt absolutely fitted with the book,

Turn the pages and enter the weird and wonderful urban world the way these writers see it, keeping aside all preconceived notions, clichés, and any emotional baggage you may have, since you’ll be having enough of theirs to carry on your shoulders.

To start talking about the book, I feel that the first story “Hope comes in Small Packages”, written by Kainaz Motivala, builds up a fantastic start to the book. Priya is unable to get over the loss of her first child. Even after an year, she still gets the same nightmares and wakes up in the nights to the frustration of her husband, Sumit. They have been steadily growing apart since the tragedy. And, suddenly, there comes a puppy in their life who becomes their ‘Hope‘ and brings back their love and their smiles.

Another story involves a victim of domestic violence, Chamundi, and her struggle to ‘Liberation’. ‘Replay’ brings the dilemma of Lata as to forgive her estranged husband’s perfidy or to begin a new life with him again. This dilemma gets solved by a beggar in the local train by which she travels everyday. You will find Abhay and Aruna start a new life owing to their inability to break each other’s heart in ‘Heartbreakers’. A beautiful story of friendship turning into lifelong love is portrayed in ‘Apple Pies and a Grey Sweater’.

Don’t you look forward to ‘A Cup of Tea’ awaiting for you after a long and tiring day at work? Abhijit is frustrated with his wife who has grown fat out of proportion and doesn’t take care of her appearance where as Susila is tired of her nagging and demanding husband who doesn’t even let her sleep properly. They both think of leaving each other and still at the end of day when Abhijit comes back home, the only thing he ends up demanding is ‘A Cup of Tea’.

On the other hand, ‘The Enlightened One’ brings the story of a man who has lost everything in his life owing to his mother’s death and finds himself unable to bear his rights and wrongs and responsibilities and tries to run away from the world by seeking shelter with God. He becomes a hermit but his past keeps on haunting him and he seeks enlightement through his devoted disciple and an old man who seems contended enough even after losing his wife and his beloved dog.

And, the most ironical story, according to me, is ‘Serendipity’. Abhishek and Protima, unknown to each other, are the perfect for each other. Their common love for Dostoevsky and his Crime and Punishment, their constant longing for their perfect mate (both have a very strict and very selected list of their partner’s desirable qualities) and their need for each other brings them within proximities but they never get to know that they are their perfect mates.

Each of these stories bring different facets of life and relationships. Some of the stories are bang on and hit the nail too hard and some of the stories do devote unnecessary time and energy to define the need of sexual desires of their characters. But, each of them will definitely make you think, if you want to, and the book is still easy enough on the mind to make a comfortable coffee table read. I definitely loved reading the book.

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