Why should we celebrate Life? What for? Is Life worth living?

For any optimist,these questions may not be worth taking note of.

Yet, when you have to take a daily dose of insulin;when you want to practice at basketball court for long hours and have the compulsion to visit some body’s house or work as a maid,life can only mean to have reached a dead-end.

There is no dearth of cases showing marriages were based on compromises. Many live-in partners had ‘failed’ relationships.The pristine love between father and daughter was difficult to spot.Even the social trappings prevent you to acknowledge your poor childhood friend.Against this backdrop,you can only brood and crib.Right?

Meghna Pant’s Happy Birthday !And other stories incorporated in this book brings into the open woolly threads of life and times of contemporary human bonds and feelings linked with them.Each of these stories touch you and make you come face-to-face with harsh realities,charging your heart and mind and prompting you to do some soul searching.

The stories like Lemon and Chilli ,The Gecko on the wall, shock you and force you to look at yourself, as you see your reflections in some of the characters while blindly chasing your dreams of being rich and up in the social ladder. You search for an answer how the protagonist in Lemon and Chilli would have managed to take care of himself and his grand-daughter with a meager pension.

The Gola Master and Clip and Cane shows human selfishness when in the former the protagonist is unable to shake off the cobweb he has spun around himself. In the latter part of the story,Parvati tries to take advantage of blind Gyan by playing with his emotions.

Each story has its own charm.Each has a text different from the other. The overwhelming emotions tug your heart, sometimes you feel a lump in your throat.

Its last story Shaitans makes you wonder-Can a child,who was deaf at birth,speak? It is quite jarring and comes as an anti-climax.

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