Writing from the heart

For lovers of short stories written by women, there could hardly be a better collection than the ‘Meetha Such’ written by Farheen Chowdhry. Her short stories begin from the heart.

Short stories are widely read and immensely lauded. Some of the most exceptional writers have dabbled in this form penning beautiful, unforgettable stories. Farheen Chowdhry’s short story is a pleasurable read and a quick hit. Short stories are small windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner. This is an entertaining, diverse and well-put together collection of short stories written by Farheen Choudhry.

Her short stories are a series of dramatic events and dialogues featuring a rich variety of characters intended as negative and positive moral examples. She is fond of conveying her message, which has sincerity and vitality, through a chain of contrasting incidents and reactions to these incidents.

A piece of literature by all accounts makes its most direct claim upon our sensibilities, but even a short story wholly given over to the contemplation of women’s lives implies a certain way of looking at the world and a certain scale of values. In any event, our sensibilities do not exist in isolation but are integrated with the personality as whole. The overall thrust of her work is on women’s problems. The passions epitomised in her short stories are realistic. Her kind of writing is life giving. Her stories seem quite breathing on the page, not airless and self-referring. Her stories are not show-offs but entertaining, not self-important but interesting, not guarded and self-conscious but gloriously open, and best of all, written for readers.

Talent cannot help itself; it roars along in fair weather or foul, not sparing the fireworks. It gets emotional. It displays its stuff. If these stories have anything in common, it is that sense of emotional involvement. Just as the heart is the life-giving organ of our body, so do the innermost personal experiences become the life-giving inspiration. Tucked away neatly inside Farheen’s innermost thoughts and feelings, the truths deep within her gave the inspiration and initiative to produce wonderful short stories.