Rukhsat The Departure by Sujit Banerjie

For all of us bloggers, this book is a shining example of what writing from the heart and writing with discipline can do. It has taken Sujit from a blogger to an accomplished author. With the #AtoZChallenge just concluded last month, this book will inspire many readers and writers.

Well, this book is not just about writing a bunch of stories and publishing them. Many books just tell stories and nothing more. Rukhsat stands apart due to its stories, the twists in the tales, the subject of the stories and how the author has connected them.

The writing style is lucid, easy to read and the thoughts expressed well. The language is good and straightforward so it is a pleasure to read. Since these are short stories I was easily able to read them in between or whenever I had a break. Sometimes I took a break to read them too. 🙂

The stories have a lot of substance and give food for thought. These will stay with you long after you have finished the book. I will be honest, when I had picked this book I was ambivalent. I started reading the book thinking that it would be a book of average, everyday regular incidents. I have been pleasantly surprised that the author has effectively used a short story to share a lifetime in a few of the stories, many lives in fact.

Some of the stories shook me up, they just sort of crept up and ended with a bang!

Farzana – The Needles was one that dived so deep into the psyche of a little girl and revealed the monsters she found. This needs to be read, how dark and maniacal our minds can be.

Lotika – The Apartment was another story that exemplifies the human selfishness and how we ignore things we do not wish to see.

Manu – The Trial and Siraj – Manu Egg rolls were two stories that left an impact as the author explored so many sides of a story.

Finally, I think Zayan – The smell of Green Apples is a reminiscence of The Kite Runner, yes. It has so much depth and emotion. I had a lump in my throat by the end of it.

But my favorite story is Yasmin Bibi – The Second Marriage, the punch in the tale was just so subtle and right. Read the book if you want to know more!

Rukhsat is a well-balanced collection of stories, creative, diverse and emotional. Overall the book is a pleasure to read and the one odd typo ignored since the stories are so good. My pencil lay forgotten as I turned the pages. 🙂

These are stories based on the alphabet, exploring the human mind, the innermost feelings and what depths will a person go to for what they wish. Few stories are straightforward or simple, the layers and endings in most add an edge to them. I also loved the way many stories were interconnected, like two sides of a coin or the view from both the characters.

I read them at leisure and went back and forth to connect the interlinked ones. It was like reading a book with a puzzle laid out and the fun was in finding the links. Go ahead pick this book and you will enjoy them and get motivated to pen your own book. Sujit, hope your next book is in the works!

• Update – I forgot  to share about the sketches before each story – very nice and add to the stories even made me guess about how the picture is connected to the story.

© I received a copy of this book from THE BOOK CLUB / Author and this is my unbiased review.