— 'Incident at Abu Ghraib'

THERE is something about the book's subtitle that fascinates. From the day one is born to the day one dies, life is entirely a lesson in transit. Unfortunately, the contents of the book seem to have an unnatural verve, almost as if a student is trying to show off how spectacular her immature prose is.

As clever as some of the stories set out to be, they tend to up against the impact of their premise. It quickly becomes apparent that the author, Kalpana Swaminathan, did not spend a great deal of time developing the story lines; all her focus appears to be on the exploration of the realm of adult emotions.

Fortunately, she uses compelling tales to bring out the emotional interplay, which augments and drives her storytelling, but her prose clearly leaves something to be desired.

The disjointed nature of the prose employed, the startling gaps within the stories and the bland endings make the reader feel cheated; one almost feels compelled to reconstruct the story and plot the appropriate ending. Hidden among the pages (and pages) of prose are compelling stories which the author has simply not focused on enough.

For example, in 'Euthanasia' in the midst of the protagonist's long periods of sorry self-reflection and a disjointed storyline, the author does not give reasons for the conclusion, rather she chooses to merely state the result and leave the readers in awe of the twists.

Though she lacks the skill to make it work, Kalpana does, however, do a fair job of expressing the random madness of her characters even at the expense of circumventing the story. However too much of the story's main pivots were revealed at inopportune moments.

The basic premise of all the 12 stories is remarkably consistent. These are stories with normal and flawed people faced with abnormally painful circumstances who are forced to make choices.

Should a nurse take a chance on love with a terminally ill patient? How do parents deal with the death of a child? There are no easy answers but the human spirit is remarkably resilient and Kalpana repeatedly brings that to the fore.

She delves into the complexity of human relationships by exploring the parameters that lie between married couples, nurses and their patients, grieving parents, giving each of them greater depth.

Although the characters are barely developed, the emotion transmitted through them is universal and the ability to portray them so vividly is a testament to the power of the imagination.

A little more structured input from the author though would have been helpful.

Despite the presence of forced prose the most intriguing offerings in the collection are the passages that highlight the intricacies of the various relationships.

The focus of the book is on that moment of transit in which a momentous change takes hold and self-exploration becomes a painful necessity.

Questions about the past and decisions about a future course of action become reminders of paths taken and ignored; all the characters are ordinary people living with extraordinary burdens and choices.

The complex imagery, however, fails to bring the author's words to life and in the end this greatly affects the impact of the stories.

Kalpana Swaminathan is in fact a surgeon cum children's writer, which perhaps explains the forced gravity of her writing style. Venus Crossing is clearly a result of her desire to break out of her niche.

Venus Crossing Twelve Stories of Transit
(SHORT STORIES)
By Kalpana Swaminathan
Penguin Books, India
ISBN 978-0-143-06686-6
244pp. Indian Rs275