Damage & Other Stories by Poornima Manco - Book Review

Damage & Other Stories by Poornima Manco

Genre: Short Stories

2.5 Stars 

One Liner: It could have been better 

*****

*Long Post Alert* 

*Contains Spoilers* 

*****

I picked up the book with some expectations. Having read two anthologies by the author, I was sure this would work. Sadly, it didn’t. Not because I’m not used to dark emotions. But because many stories don’t reach the mark, and one is subtly ideological. 

Damage: The first story in the book and one with great potential. Yet, it felt like too many themes crammed into a smaller word count. None of it seemed real or relatable. (I don’t move in such circles anyway.) And no full-page introspections, please. 

Samsara: If you are like me, let me inform you that Samsara is a perfume. The word also means family in Telugu (though it would be samsaram). An apt title, in a way. This is a sort of crime thriller with a female cop and the death of a politician’s wife. The plot had merit, but the narration didn’t have enough words. This story required a larger canvas. The female cop had such potential. A novel or a novella would do justice to her character. 

Creep: A creep trying to smooth talk women to get laid. A short piece from the creep’s POV. Does the job but not enough. 

Ma Vie Sans Couleur: I have no idea what happened here. There are too many themes (adultery, racism, mental illness, abuse) left hanging in the air, with faint threads connecting some of them. Too vague. 

Secrets and Lies: The dead grandfather still manages to protect the young grandson. But can the boy find love and affection from this arrangement? The POV keeps the story interesting, as the intentions of other characters are revealed in bits and pieces.  

The Consequence of Contradiction: This was a little confusing in the beginning. It settles down later and packs a punch. A very well-written tale that ends right where it should. One of the best in the book that will leave you thinking. 

The Unlikely Casanova: “Creep is so middle class, Monisha. It’s Casanova!” says Maya Sarabhai. Indians will understand the reference here. To explain, this story is an elite version of Creep we read a couple of stories earlier. 

Swami Claus: The internal darkness of self-declared religious leaders but with a twist. The double track is interesting and makes the storyline fresh. I initially thought it was about that pedophile Ram Rahim, but I’m not entirely sure. Children continue to suffer, be it in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, or America. 

Ugly: A story told in two POVs- the brute husband and a too-loyal wife. Sadly, this is a common occurrence in our society. The story starts with a bang, but the ending is melodramatic and OTT. It would have been more powerful if the ending was realistic.  

Palindrome: Is this inspired by Sridevi’s death? Maybe, maybe not. But an Indian reader cannot help but wonder. The title suits the story- the rise and fall of a famous actress in the film industry. It tends to lag at times but wraps up well. 

Dear Anil: A letter from a woman to the only love of her life. She details the journey from childhood friendship to unrequited love to a relationship that probably wasn’t meant to be. A sad story indeed.  

Unrequited: A semi-erotica presented as a feminist revenge story. It wasn't bad though. 

The Strings That Bind Us: This was bittersweet in its own way. It seemed like the author wanted to use the same story for multiple themes (friendship between cousins, family dynamics, and children neglecting parents). It works because of the two lead characters. 

Fallen: This is Raavan’s POV of Ramayana, and honestly, he deserved a better voice. Raavan has always been a huge (larger-than-life) presence. You are sure to find intense drama when Raavan is around. This version is mild and almost resigned. I don’t remember reading Raavan being this mild, even on his deathbed. And no, I didn’t mind the sly digs at Rama. Those are expected when the story is from Raavan’s POV, but I wish the tone was powerful enough to establish his voice.  Gimme the attitude!

Like a Boss: Okay! This is a sort-of retelling of the Nirbhaya case that shook India years ago. I’m not sure how I feel about this but the writing is impactful. So that’s something. 

The dead girl’s parents had to fight for so many years to get justice for the dead child. Incomplete justice because one of the rapists (a juvenile from the minority community) was released within three years. He was gifted a sewing machine, Rs. 10,000/-, and a new identity away from the public eye. 

Imagine that! A teen old enough to rape someone is being protected and safeguarded even today. What’s worse is that his counselor says there is no change in him. No remorse, nothing. He should have been tried as an adult and hanged with the others, but no. Let’s protect and unleash him on unsuspecting people! 

Love Jihad: This story comes right in the middle of the book but I decided to wait until the end to read this. A good decision, indeed. You’ll know why soon enough. 

This dual plotline has two couples- one in London and another in Jaipur, India. Both tracks have a Hindu girl falling in love with a Muslim man (the eternally romantic love story), but with different endings. The London track has educated and ‘liberal’ families, while the Jaipur track deals with the poor. 

On the surface, it appears perfect, with two contrasting endings that show two sides of the story. But is it really unbiased? Let’s analyze the execution and find out. 

London Track- The guy is handsome, so handsome that every woman (married and unmarried) in the heroine’s office wants nothing more than to screw him. Should I feel pity for objectifying the guy, or should I be worried that the trope matches the H-M porn sold on Amazon? 

The girl gets pregnant and marries her lover. Then, we get to know she may not be treated well and may have been forced to covert. Nothing is explicit in the narration. It’s all between the lines and gut feeling. When the girl’s family and a friend try to get her back home, they find out that the guy’s family has left the city.

Jaipur, India Track- This is where the author’s intelligence comes out in full force. The H girl and M guy are high school kids from a poor background. The girl’s brother (wait for it) goes around campaigning for a saffron-robed Guruji who ‘spreads venom against Muslims’. The author takes great pain to show the ‘hatred’ and ‘bias’ in explicit detail. After all, how else will the reader know that they are reading about Hinduvadis? 

The girl’s possibly uneducated mother speaks more like an upper-class woman about her ‘Hinduvadi son’ and the ‘hate-monger Guruji’. Finally, the story ends with the girl’s brother burning her M boyfriend and posting the video on Twitter. He is a ‘maniac’ Hindu burning a Muslim boy for daring to love his sister. We have almost no information about the clothes the characters wear in the story. But we most certainly know that the Guruji wears saffron. Such detailing! 

Now, let’s shift the scene to real life and look at a few reports from recent times. Mind you, these are limited to the guys who were murdered. Don’t even get me started on the cases about women who were abused, raped, kidnapped, converted, butchered, and packed into suitcases. I’ve been following the reports for more than five years. I know exactly what I'm talking about. 

Mithun Thakur was killed by his M girlfriend’s family. 

Vijaya Kamble (25), a Dalit, was killed by the family of his Muslim girlfriend in Bangalore. 

Nagaraju, a Dalit boy, was killed by his M wife’s brothers for the inter-faith marriage. The girl repeatedly blamed her mother and brothers for the murder (there was already a case registered in the police station seeking protection from them). She chose to live with her dead husband’s family. The media, of course, wants you to believe that the upper caste Hindus are somehow responsible for it when they are not even involved in the first place. 

Dablu Singh (22), Sanjay Kumar, Rahul (20), Ankit Saxena, and Ravi (17) are just a few names where Hindu boys have been murdered for falling in love with Muslim girls. 

This 14-year-old boy from the Schedule Tribe community was butchered because the boy spoke to a Muslim girl. 

But then, who is to blame in fiction? The Hindu fanatic brother, of course! 

Let me make one thing very clear. I am under no stupid illusion that Hindus don’t kill or commit crimes. I would have had no problem with the story if the girl’s brother was a maniac by default. He could have been a wastrel who couldn’t digest his sister loving a boy from another religion. He could have been anything, literally, and the storyline would still hold strong. 

What I object to is the blatant ideological thrust on readers by describing the guru and his activities while only hinting at what could have happened in the other track. Why not show them both the same way? Why go into detail about Guruji but not Mohsin and his parents? 

I’m reminded of the intellectual’s idea of a good Hindu. A good Hindu is someone who bends backward to appease others but has zero self-respect. This good Hindu, with a minus-level understanding of Hinduism, mocks their own culture and relates to a foreign culture. 

Do you know who a bad Hindu is? A bad Hindu doesn’t appease others and is proud of their rich cultural heritage. A bad Hindu asks for equal rights and takes a firm stand, declaring that respect is a two-way street. The story pretty much pushes the idea of a good Hindu to the readers. Too bad I am not one of them. 

I’ve read Eight - Fantastical Tales From Here, There & Everywhere and Holi Moly! & other stories by the author and enjoyed the stories. This one, however, is an exception. 

The book feels like it has been written for people who are not comfortable with dark stories but want to try if they can handle grim and disturbing. The themes are hinted at, but there’s nothing graphic or detailed in some stories. This makes the Indian track of the Love Jihad story rather apparent. 

To sum up, Damage & Other Stories could have been an outstanding collection if some stories were more fleshed out and personal ideologies were kept away from sensitive topics. 

I should have rounded it off to 3 stars (which would be more accurate considering the stories), but I can’t make myself do that. So 2 stars it is.