Review- Urban Shots by Paritosh Uttam

Goodreads Summary:

Edited by bestselling author, Paritosh Uttam, this is an anthology of 29 urban tales by 13 young writers. Each of these fresh, vivid and deceptively simple stories focuses on an epiphany. The stories are set with the backdrop of our urban metros with their bright lights, sky rises, glitzy malls, tenements, crowds and the chaos that comes with it. A woman tries to come to terms with loss of a lost baby; two strangers, a young man and a young woman, both with a love for Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment board the same aircraft; a woman ponders over giving a second chance to her cheating husband; a young man is in love with his apple pie loving best friend, who is set to marry through an arranged match; a chance meeting between two old lovers after 11 years; the memories of an old woman in love; an illiterate migrant from the village looking for her own kind of liberation; the longing of a married woman for another man; a child and his silent suffering mother and their financially strapped family; a couple once in love, frustrated with each other after getting married;love and relationships in the age of Twitter and fat free gelatos; the morning after for a couple in an adulterous relationship; a man running away from his own life in the city hoping to find salvation; a couple who decide to marry for reasons other than love and many more stories...

REVIEW: 

Not a bad read, but not exactly a great book either. Urban Shots stands somewhere in between. An average book, it is a compilation of short stories by Indian authors. The theme suits the metro and cosmopolitan crowd of today. Some of the stories are really worth reading and nicely put down. Others don't exactly make sense. I didn't quite understand how a few ended. What I thought was that the stories under 'Friendship' were more like love stories and those under 'Love' were predominantly based on extra- marital affairs. But that's my opinion completely. 
Overall, I'd say that this is an excellent initiative by Indian authors, and I have the whole collection of Urban Shots on my shelf. Best part is, being an anthology, you can read it any way, anytime and anyhow. I'm looking forward to reading the others. A huge round of applause for all the authors who contributed their stories.
As for recommendation, I'd say you can read it. The stories are short and sweet and won't take up much time. But it might leave you a little disappointed. 

RATING:

X 2.5

Sarika