Details About the Book
The Book was released as a part of Blogchatter’s ebook carnival. In the very same event, my book Life in the Time of Coronavirus was released as well.
Book Name – Five Petals
Author – Chinmayeee Gayatree Sahu
Genre – Fiction
Pages – 31
Language – English
Download Link – Five Petals
Analysis
Five Petals is a book of five short stories. The characters in each of these stories are from different walks of life and different age groups. This has enabled the author to give us a varied spread of stories, keeping them all interesting. The book has only 31 pages which makes it a one sitting read.
The Book begins with a college story wherein Piyush, a reserved boy develops feelings for his classmate Ridhhima. As Piyush struggles to confess his feelings that he has kept hidden for over two years, Kunal Kapoor joins the college and gradually gets close to Ridhhima and they fall in love. As they go their separate ways after school, life happens in a full circle and they meet at crossroads again. In this story, Chinmayee portrays how our lives are all inter-dependent and how the right influence can uplift us and turn our lives around.
In the third story of the book, Vinod, a hard working and ambitious young man decides that he needs a break from his family to enjoy his bachelor days. He gets posting as a Chemical Engineer in a different city and decides to take it up. This is where he meets Deepa, a coworker and for the first time in his life, falls in love. However because of the conservative nature of her family, she is wary of sharing her whereabouts or her personal details with Vinod. If her family knew about their relationship, she would never be allowed to work. The author lays out the thought process and the difficulties faced by the protagonist so well that we understand him like he is our own. This lays the foundation for the way the story unfurls.
Among the other three stories, one gives us a glimpse into a family in lock-down during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Another takes us through the lives of a couple who own a resort in Philippines. The one that will tug at your heartstrings would be the story of a grandfather and his two grand children, especially if you were close to your grandparents.
The author has tried to keep all the stories different from one another. Chinmayee’s weapon is emotions and human relationships. She has used them so beautifully to weave the stories. Relatable situations and simple language makes it a breezy read.
As much as the stories are crisp, in some places the author could have elaborated on the characters’ emotions since all these stories have the scope for working more on the emotional aspects. This could have helped the readers develop more connection with the characters.
Conclusion
The book will take you through different states of mind, and keep you hooked. Here is an excerpt from the book that applies to us humans as much as it applies to plants:
“A plant can be given any amount of care, fertilizers, timely
exposure to sunlight but unless it takes up the effort by itself to absorb the nutrients it is
of no use. If it did not know to do so, it won’t be able to survive the test of time.”
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My Book Life in the Time of coronavirus is available for free download. It deals about how our lives individually and as a community changed due to the pandemic while taking a closer look at some personal anecdotes.
A Few Handpicked Things in Life 