It Happens : Stories of Human Relationships by Bhaswar Mukherjee

 

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my blog- I am Cheshta!

Today I have an amazong novel for you all- It Happens : Stories of Human Relationships by Bhaswar Mukherjee

About the Author

What is it in the DNA of bankers that makes them gravitate towards writing at some point of time in their lives? There appear to be no easy answers to this conundrum. Perhaps it’s the sheer herd mentality. Bhaswar denies this generalisation and calls himself a reluctant and an accidental writer. His first short story ‘The God of a Lesser Child’ was submitted as a lark and was selected and published by Notion Press in 21 Tales to Tell in March 2014. His next ‘Unrequited’ was selected by author Neelam Chandra Saxena in a contest launched by Readomania and was one of the two winning entries. ‘EFIL’ found place in Readomania’s anthology Chronicles of Urban Nomads. ‘Acceptance’ was selected by author Sudha Murty and published by Penguin India in their anthology Something Happened on the Way to Heaven. Another story ‘Garib Rath’ was picked up by author Ravinder Singh for his anthology Tell me a Story and published by Penguin India. ‘Guest of Honour’ in the Long Short Story (Notion Press), ‘The Introduction’ (Story Mirror), followed and his contribution ‘Leap of Faith’ featured in Crossed and Knotted (Readomania), India’s first composite novel. In 2016, his short story ‘It was not their war’ was selected by author Ashwin Sanghi as one of the winners and published in the anthology by the Times of India in the Write India Contest Season 1 (TOI-Season 1). Another story, ‘Karma’ was among the top ten for the submissions for author Tuhin Sinha.In 2019–20, his short stories for TOI-Season 3 were shortlisted for the top ten by authors Nayantara Sahgal, Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee and Vivek Shanbhag for their respective prompts. Bhaswar has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. After close to eighteen years in multinational banks (Bank of America and HSBC), he quit in 2005 to set up his own company Bridgepoint Solutions Pvt Ltd, which provides consultancy and learning solutions in the banking domain. He is passionate about theatre, having acted and directed many. He and his wife live in Chennai, India, empty nesters; their only daughter works in the US. Bhaswar strives to live by the maxim ‘Carpe Diem’ or ‘Seize the Day’. He can be contacted at: m.bhaswar@gmail.com.

What is it that can be your strength, your weakness, your nemesis, or your identity? Relationships. It happenstance of human relationships is a collection about people and their interactions that define the world we live in, either themselves or in the manner they influence us. These stories will make you live the characters and experience their relationships. You can almost reach out and touch someone familiar, remember a similar guilt or a deep Sigh, a know-it-all smirk or a wide smile. So, go ahead, immerse yourself, and let your emotions go on a roller-coaster ride. And prepare to get surprised.

Now the review part

It happens by Bhaswar Mukherjee is a nice bunch of some beautiful tales. There are total fifteen such short stories that talk about different aspects of human relationships and entangled in them are their twisted intricate emotions.

Both Ashwin Sanghi and Amitav Ghosh have endorsed his writing because his short story entries in the Write India contest for their prompts won in the top 10.

Each story is very different from the other having an out-of-the-blue turn in the end . These ends added a complete wonder that remains as an afterglow as the stories have ended.

Like for instance , in the first story named Karma which revolves around adoption , bigotry , acceptance and a secret revealing in the most surprising way . It made the story an engrossing one. The decision by the wife was shocking.

Another story named in The eclipse of a memory , the plot was unique and twistful about a crime , memory loss and later understanding the source of all of these. The ending proved how the world is round.

The story that talked about a relationship between two colleagues that had overlapped hues of romantic and Platonic love , I found it as good , little ordinary but the lines in the last paragraph of the email touched my heart.

Our society has separated beautiful souls in love with the sword of caste system and religion . The story of Loved and Lost again is spun around this fact and as usual as other stories it unfolded suddenly the truth between the characters .

Narration is beautiful , riveting . The stories were created thoughtfully .