ABOUT
BOOK
Decoding
Life is an anthology based on relations, love and human perceptions. The Taxi
Driver depicts the emotions of a young lady on a thunderous night in Mumbai
when she takes a local taxi driven by a fiery driver. A Rain Kissed Tuesday is
a Hindu-Muslim love story where Aditya falls in love with Arisha on a rainy
day. One of the stories, talks about the tension and the excitement of two
people who are about to get married. Two states brings up the small
environmental difference felt by two friends who are living in two different
states.
This
sparkling anthology covers a wide range of human emotions. This would make you
feel good when you decode them one by one. The stories talk through silences
and are very thought-provoking! Enjoy decoding the various codes of life we
live.
ABOUT
AUTHOR
Vikas
Singhal is the Co-Founder of Ribbun Software Pvt Ltd. He is a mechanical
Engineer working in a software company. He has been writing various short
stories since 2010. His first eBook was published in 2014 and it was a huge
success.
REVIEWS
REVIEW BY SUYASH KARANGUTKAR
Rating:
2/5
Story-in-Short: “Decoding Life” is an anthology based on relations, love and human perceptions.
‘The Taxi Driver’ depicts the emotions of a young lady on a thunderous night
in when she takes a local taxi driven by
a feiry driver. ‘A Rain Kissed Tuesday’ is a Hindu-Muslim love story where Aditya falls in love with Arisha
on a rainy day.
Mumbai
One of
the stories, talk about the tension and the excitement of two people who are
about to get married. ‘Two states’ brings up the small environmental difference felt by two friends
who are living in two different states.
This
sparkling anthology covers a wide range of human emotions. This would make you
feel good when you decode them one by one. The stories talk through silences
and are very thought-provoking! Enjoy decoding the various codes of live we
live…
In my view:
The Taxi
Driver
Happenstances
around us, make us susceptible to doubt and we often end up stereotyping
people. But every person isn’t as we perceive him to be. This story highlights the same. It is
an experience a woman has with a taxi driver, and a lesson she learns. An
affable concept that it has, it proceeds well to attract readers; reminds me of
an advertisement going on television these days.
A Rain
Kissed Tuesday
Lovers
come closer and then they are dragged apart by some conservative mindsets. This
story is an acquitted tale of two who fall in love unknowingly and then when
they’re sure of it and about to endorse, something unwanted happens.
Yet, will they stay together or will things shatter. Read to find more.
K.N.Laxman
Certain
conversations and folks have something incomprehensible, which leaves an
indelible mark on us. We do what we can to satisfy our quest to know the deeper
meaning of it, but get it indirectly, nonetheless. Here’s a story
of a one such person and an abrupt and unfathomable conversation.
Good You
Met Me
A clear
conversation, an interaction clears misunderstandings. It helps us discover
mutual interests, likes and dislikes and many more. A conversation is the best
key to explore an entire personality. This story is also about a to-be-couple
and their interaction. A good read with subtle narration.
Switch It
On
Many-a-times
we misjudge people. We wrongly consider people and their suggestions, though
their authentic intention is nothing but for our benefits. This story stands in
conveying the same to readers. Well, this extremely short tale has deeper
things to tell.
Mistake
One
realizes the seriousness of a situation only when in it. Until then reactions
and emotion of others in that situation, look weird and strange. This story is
about two friends who come in a situation one by one and realize what they have
to.
Two
States
The story
ends abruptly and its difficult to comprehend what the author wanted to convey
exactly. It has characters, but it is vague and imprecise.
That Shy
Boy
Shyness
exists until one doesn’t try to get out of it or kick it away. It prevents one from doing
or saying those things which one wishes to, from the heart. But as soon as one
overcomes this timidity, doors of opportunity open up for him. The story has a
good start, but ends subtly and brusquely.
The Train
This
story is about two individuals who meet in a train and a beginning of a new
relationship during the journey. This a well-written story and the author has
expressed things pretty nicely. The narrative is good and strong enough to hold
readers’ attention. Good one!
That
Mystery Girl
This
story is about a girl who befriends a boy during a shoot and then comes over to
stay at his place, along with his friends. She mingles up with them pretty well
and then something nasty happens with her. The story starts on an interesting
note and the word mystery from the title hooks up readers only to be left
disappointed.
The cover
of the book is well-designed and the title is captivating. The book posses
stories on life and the lessons it teaches one, with deeper insights. The
concepts aren’t really fresh, but yes, the sparkling effect of the stories keep
readers hooked to them.
But
somehow, the book fails to hold one for a longer time as the stories become
dull and extremely lackluster. The plot, characters and the narratives as a
whole don’t have that charisma to keep one stick to the book. Also, those
usual concepts and consistent notions are not promising enough. Some stories
start well, but move ahead only to be tickled, while some start on an unnerving
note but proceed to end perfectly. The stories are all in haste and lack most
of the essentials. Grammatical errors add up to these flaws.
The
author should have extended stories to make them factual and explicit. The
messages put-forward are good, the idea of writing them is fine, but these
don't appeal if the narrative is lackadaisical and uninviting. The narratives
deserve a thorough contemplation. The stories need to be explicit and not
abrupt. They genuinely require vigor and allure to appeal readers.
Having
got very little to praise about the book, I am rating it with 2/5.
REVIEW BY
SMITA SALINS
“Decoding life” by Vikas Singal, is a short story anthology. It has been
published by Gargi Publishers, no compromise on the quality there. The cover,
designed by ‘Amol Karambe’, is pretty interesting and unique.
Coming
back to the stories. We have 10 stories here, all varied. Some sad, some
romantic, some a little thrilling. Let me give a story-wise analysis.
Story 1:
(The taxi driver): This is the story of
a girl (Pooja) and her frightening experience one stormy rainy night, on her
way back home in a cab, with a scary looking driver. This story did get a
little gripping at times, but the end failed to amuse me much.
Story 2:
(Rained kissed Tuesday): It’s a sweet, simple, romantic and yet sad story of 2 people who fall in love, and yet had to separate due
to their different religious backgrounds. Well-written story. It’s one of
my favorite one in the book.
Story 3:
(K.N Laxman): A story of a guy whos genuinely nice to all persons he works
with, including his contractors, particularly a contractor named K. N Laxman.
The story is about how Laxman initially doubts his good motives, but later
realizes that he was absolutely wrong. According to me, this story would have
been better if written as a second person.
Story 4:
(Glad that we met): An arranged marriage situation, where the girl and boy are
fixed up by their parents; how they meet and what transpires between them, how
they ‘click’. Nice story, trying to highlight that arranged marriages need not
be bad.
Story 5:
(Switch is on): It’s a ‘moral’ story, portraying the fact that everyone in this world is not
selfish, and there are still some good people out there who genuinely want to
help.
Story 6:
(The mistake): This is a story of a beautiful friendship between two boys-
Jatin and Nikhil, and how their friendship turns sour because of a silly
misunderstanding. Nice read.
Story 7:
(2 states): Mukesh and Pulkit are two
friends- one from Delhi and one from Mumbai. Their thoughts differ being from
different states and all, but yet, it’s this very difference that brings them closer as friends. It goes
to show that friendship is not bound by religions or states or anything for
that matter.
Story 8:
(That shy boy): It’s a cute tale of an introvert boy (Ravi), who is shy even in front
of the girl he admires and adores, but when the time comes, he bravely stands
up for her and fights to protect her.
Story 9:
(The train): This is a typical bollywood kind of story of two co-passengers,
Peter and Patricia. They get off on a really bad start initially; but later,
this hatred slowly transforms into a sweet friendship once they get to know
each other. This is another of my favorite stories in the book.
Story 10:
(That mystery girl): A story of a girl (Riya), who is smart, bold, beautiful
and very forward. She happens to stay as a paying guest with a few other guys.
These very guys think of her as a slut just because of her carefree attitude.
This story focuses on the typical dirty Indian mentality, that if a girl is ‘bindaas’, she has
to be a whore. A nicely written story.
A good
attempt by the author, but could have been even better.
My rating
for this book: 2.8/5
REVIEW BY
SONAL
Writing
Style: 4/5
‘Decoding Life’ is a short story collection by Vikas Singal. There are ten short
stories in it which are woven around our daily life. They are simple yet
affective in language. You would be able to relate many of the stories in some
incidents of your life.
Like the
girl of ‘The Taxi Driver’, many of us feel unsafe while travelling in autos or taxies
during late nights and yes the story is eye opener in certain way but yeah, for
knowing it you must read it.
People
started following particular person’s beliefs and thoughts in ancient times. With passing of time
these people formed in groups and these various groups are known as Religions.
Religions divided people and are deeply rooted in minds of people that
everything is divided in name of religions. Same is in case of Love and here is
what the second story ‘A Rain Kissed Tuesday’ says to us.
‘K.N.Laxman’ is a story which perfectly depicts our mentality. If someone is
being very nice to us then we start thinking that there must be some hidden
benefit of the person I doing so.
‘Glad That We Met’ will bring the feeling of Déjà vu to those who are in arranged marriage.
’Switch it On’, ‘The Mistake’, ‘Two States’, ‘That Shy Boy’, ‘The Train’, ‘That Mystery Girl’ are also the stories with
same gist. Wonderful stories taken from life around us. Many of you would have
feeling of Déjà vu, while enjoying them.
Wish to
read more works from Vikas Singal in future.
My
overall rating for this work is 4/5.
REVIEW BY
MEGHANT PARMAR
Ten short
stories, decoding life's frivolous and strong connections and one common aim to
rebuild the faith in humanity. It's up to the readers how much they want to
accept the harsh truth of life and up to what extent they want to take this
forward.
The
stories no matter what try to build a relationship with the readers and leave
an ever lasting impression. Some through emotions and some through barriers,
yet circumventing the exact nature of human hypocrisy or ideology. There's a
method to approach the tiniest of the drama and what better than life and it's
lessons to exaggerate and present it through the medium of short stories. Some
bitter truths and some untapped emotions also pass through the eyes and mind of
the readers through the medium of this book.
The book
lacks a solid punch as many stories fail to gather the momentum. Grammatical
mistakes too are part of the book which needlessly spoils the entire setup.
Then there's a lot of unsaid and unfinished type of stories which though try to
make you feel like the best judge but with their mediocre presentation don't
give the impetus to the genre.
All in
all the book could have been explored in different horizons with more
vividness. From where it stands the ground is shaky barring few momentous applause.
There's a lot of promise in the book but the author fails to find the right mix
to put it through to the readers. It's an average performer under rigorous
conditions.
REVIEW BY
ABHILASH RUHELA
This is
the second work of Vikas Singal that I have just completed reading. 3 months
back, I had read the e-book released by him which comprised of 3 small love
tales. I had a complain that his stories were too short to communicate anything
and I'm bit happy with the progress he made in this anthology named "Decoding
Life". It comprises of 10 short stories which are based on different
topics and it's surely better than his first attempt. Generally, with
anthologies, you find that they aren't edited well but I congratulate Singal's
publisher- Gargi who have assured that the book isn't badly formatted and
grammatically incorrect.
The first
story, Taxi Driver, shows how out of fear a girl runs away from a taxi driver
when he halts for a few minutes. Later, author shows how all men are not the
same. For me, the best story is "A Rain Kissed Tuesday". The emotions
that this story carries is almost similar to what many Indian authors are doing
with their 225-pages book. Author managed to do it in few pages itself. K N
Laxman is another good story in the book which shows how people think everyone
is selfish even if few people are genuinely good and caring. Glad That We Met
is another story which will make you smile at few scenes. The Mistake serves
its conclusion well. Two States is the worst attempt according to me. Author
could not link the two situations together perfectly. I was expecting little
masala from The Train but it ended being too sweet. Book ends with That Mystery
Girl which is quite similar to Taxi Driver where author tries to tell how every
girl isn't flirty and date-friendly.
The
attempt by Vikas Singal is honest and you can find the same in every story. To
release a book with 10 short stories by a single author is a wonderful idea but
then it should be taken care of how many stories are par excellent. I found
almost 70% of the stories mediocre. I was expecting little more length from the
stories even this time. Author had a conclusion in his mind and he wanted to
reach to it in as less words as possible. He should attempt long version of
short stories now. But I genuinely liked 2-3 stories and they shall remain in
my mind for days. My favorite is A Rain Kissed Tuesday, The Train and The
Mistake. I give the book 2.5 stars out of 5.
