Nine on nine by Nandita C Puri

I finished reading this book  in a day. No no, its not too big a feat. I wanted to redeem the points that I had earned on my Citibank Account and this book was one of options. I ordered it and the book has been sitting pretty in my cupboard for quite sometime. The fact that the writer was the wife of actor Om Puri made me even more skeptical - you know these books written by the not so famous spouses of the supposedly famous ones.

But a day of boredom made me pick the book up and I have not regretted. A good read in my opinion. The book is a collection of nine short stories and one lazy day is enough to finish reading it.

All the stories are centered around women - particularly urban women. Thankfully, I feel, there has not been needless male bashing. Stories have been set up in various 

backgrounds - here I see a bend towards stories set in a Bengali backdrop.

A few features of Puri's stories. Some of them have this suspense or climax factor to deliver the punch of the story. The first story titled "Arranged Marriage" is based in a Marathi household. It is definitely among the best of the nine. Another feature of her stories is the way she peppers the stories with vernacular words to give a feeling of belonging and realism. It works at times. At times it is overused.

There is another good story "Pages from Indulata Debi's diary". The female protagonist feels about her relationship with her estranged husband thus 

Marriage had not been a rosy experience for her but she was determined to save it at all costs. 'It is better to deal with one wolf than to be left at the  mercy of a whole pack'

Puri is also not very keen on giving every story a definite ending leave aside a happy one. I like this style because in real life too, each story does not really have an ENDING as such. Overall a good buy and a steal if you have enough points in your Citibank Account