An anthology I have been waiting for since long. Initially, this collection was packaged in another book cover but the current one is equally effective.

We all have our share of scars and screams but we generally fail to express and share our pain and agony with the society. Here, come the heros – the word warriors, the writers. They have come forward to voice opinions (their’s and other’s) and sensitize the literary world with a genuine effort.

1. Ila Garg: Down the Way

Is a painful poem sensitizing the readers about the tranquility of the environment. It is true that we are ignoring environment in our fastsped race of humanity and outhearing the pain of mother nature and our friends – trees.

Ila tries to befriend one such victimized tree and pens his (tree’s) emotions.

2. Ila Garg: This is Who I am

Is a diary entry of a young chap – Sameer. He has different choices in life but are they different enough to be termed a “taboo”? She questions.

Ila is an undoubted queen of words. I have read a lot from her. I like the way she portrays her characters – strong and sensible. The themes she picks up becomes strong as she attends to it and such is the case with story as well. Learn as she demands justice and equality for all, irrespective of genders.

3. Pulkit Gupta: Karma Returns

Is a reality check for young married couples who are working hard to secure a lucarative job opportunity but at the same time, who are struggling hard to save and sustain their married life. Will Deveika and Rajesh succeed or are they destined to have another twist from Pulkit’s pen.

Pulkit is a wonderful author (and a person as well). The best thing that I like about his write ups is that he gives a sense of reality to all his stories. The time span covered from past to current date, the vivid description of scenic beauty revolving around scenes in the story and the best one being the treatment given to human relations and their emotions as well. This time he invites your attention towards a social taboo – Infertility. He had the power to make you smile in one second and reduce yo tear in another but at the end, he sways along with you, even after the story completes.

4. Tanya Shrivastava: The Last Whisper

Is a slapstick on Indian traditions. Does keeping mum a sign of following traditions and respecting our elders? Is this the correct channel to promote ourselves as educated humans? Unveil the truth with the protagonist – Anuj, as he and his love fight hard till the last breath to fight against the shackles of domestic violence.

Tanya seems to be a strong headed writer as could be easily perceived from the way she has characterised her story and landed on a logical ending. With this story, she introspects the sorry state of victimised women and urges then to stand out to speak and make noise against filthy ‘men’.

5. Abhik Chakraborty: It is Honorable

Is a painful crumpled voice denying the honor and pride, as served by the society and by the family. Family traditions , family honor, family pride – whatever the term be but it is shameful if it is over family itself. Yes, strange but true.

Sadly, the story is not strange and we are not strangers to the concept of ‘honor killing’. A sarcastic description of this devilish act left me heartbroken. Every now and then, we hear news updates about such henious crimes but reading about the incidents surrounding the scene is worse.

Very well written and not to be missed. A brother-sister relation dies a brutal death.

6. Abhishek ‘Atul’: The Curious Case of Missing Brahmins

Is an eye opener. Keshav a young man visits a police station to file a case of missing Brahmins!.

Yes, as the title of the story suggests, I was myself very much curious to learn more about the Brahmins.

I have read from Abhishek earlier and this is another shocker from his pavallion. I am amazed how he excels in writing heavy and serious topics with such simplicity and easiness which is easier to understand and grasp.

Read this story to learn more about Brahmins of India and join his wagon to search for them. The case is still open and can definitely help to build a golden future that we all thrive for.

7. Promilla Qazi: Color of Butterfly

Is a colorful story of life, life completing a full circle. I start with a few lines from the story itself. Life… you hold it or not, will always leave its marks on you. Memories, laughter, tears, everything passes but not without leaving a scar on her lips…

It is an inspiring story that leaves you with a ray of hope that life continues to follow its course and we should learn to live it come what may.

8. Smita Salins: Indira’s Story

Is a simple and straight forward story of a contemporary Indian homely lady. A lady who excels in performing her duty of being a female by hiding tears behind a friendly and heartwarming smile.

Smita has a potential to write nice writings. I believe that such a strong plot could have been packaged differently for a magnified impact.

9. Nitesh Chitranshi: The Corrupt Me

Is about the parasite categorised as corruption and hosted inside us. Yes, leaving apart the influential  beaureaucrats and politicians, we, the common man are a major player in downsizing our economy by following malpractices.

I am confident that you will not be amazed if I categorize saving some currency notes whilst somebody else’s negligience. The author has made a wise attempt to wake up a true Indian and a living human being inside our body and hiding behind the grey cells. He dreams to behead towards a corruption free society through his writings.

10. Sreelekha Chatterjee: The Fatal Pride

Is a mind boggling story that centers on two pivotal points – safety of the elderly in society and acceptance of success and glory of others.

Sreelekha has a firm hold of her wroting skills. This can be perceived very easily as you dive into the ocean of emotions in her story. With this story she attempts to raise question about advocating high social esteem. How someone’s pride becomes undigestible for others leaving a little faith in values and maintaining distance from the world of sympathy and compassion.

A humane story about unhuman act. My second most favorite choice from the collection.

11. Prachi Priyanka: The Paradise

Is a story bridging gap between ‘me’, ‘us’ and ‘ours’. Sometimes, driven by insecurity we start building boundaries instead of bridges around us. During this attempt, we unknowingly part ways from people who care about us.

Prachi tries to identify a thin gap between loving and possessing your love. Life is paradise only with love by your side.

12. Shruti Mall: Nature’s Revenge

Is a work of fiction from the debutante writer. Her story is inspired by a famous rape case in recent past.

She has truly done justice with her story by providing a captivating start and resonating closure. The story deciphers a hidden message that the Almighty takes care of us. He has planted nature around us to keepan eye on our deeds and we get prized or punished, as the right time approaches.

13. Nitin Soni: She was Raped

Is a poetic homage to the rape deceased.

I am not well versed in commenting about poetry. Therefore, with due respect to the poet, I limit here.

14. Harsh Rai Puri: The Crescendo of a Grand Symphony

Is inspired from the book – Man’s Search for meaning. Though, I donot know much about the work, I am not the right person to comment on the respective perspective.

If I consider it to be an exclusive work, it is a sweet story about old age romance. The distributed timeline discussed adds up to the magnitude of passion of beloved.

15. Sandeep Sharma: The  Letter To God

Is an emotional story of a girl who reconnects with her lost mom through the channel – education. We all who belong to an educated strata generally accept education as a medium of earning mounts of money, but then, it has other purpose as well. It connects, it connects hearts to hearts and hearts to soul. You need to read the storu to know how this happens.

16. Nibha Gupta: The Eighteenth Birthday

Is an emotional story of an abondoned child – a girl. The story digs deep into the reason behind parting ways from an innocent child. It details the pain hidden beneath the sheets and the joy of reconnecting with the world. It’s about bonding with the family.

You should read the story to learn that ugly is not always the bad!

17. Durgesh Shastri: The Indecent Profession

Is a shocking story about a honeymoon couple – Rohan and Megha. Megha, is a simple girl weaving fancy dreams about her newlywed life. Her life shatters her belief when she gets exposed to the indecent profession of his husband and she pays for it.

Durgesh is a writer of recent times whose writings I enjoy to read. He weighs his characters and story very well. His stories are not mere stories that should be read and forgot but they are strong messages with layered questions that readers start answering as soon as they head towards reading.

This story is no ecception and read to find out how the actual culprit gets punished with the hands of destiny. An intelligent story of internet mis-usage and being webbed.

18. Shrruti Patole Clarence: Light

Is a hope enticing story of a rape-victim girl. Usually we read the stories wherein writers try to unleash the pain and the terror hidden in the minds and hearts of the victimised families. Nevertheless, this is an effort to move a step further.

A step further towards light wherein the author guides the readers to stand up for the right cause leaving all the inhibitions and terror of darkness behind. Indeed, a nice concept and a fresh perspective to rape-victim’psyche.

19. Ketaki Sane: Freedom

Is a refreshing read. We all live in a society which dreams of crossing the boundaries but very rarely we, the females are provided with equal opportunities as our male counterparts.

This story is not just about females it is about the artists yje freedom of expression; the freedom to live freely. You will love reading this.

Ketaki is an enriching writer who brings the freshness of morning breeze through her works. I have read her work earlier and this qualifies as one more accolade to her kitty’s share.

20. Gayatri Aptekar: A Second Chance

Is a food-for-thought types story. She raises an important parenting question. Is earning money the only driving force of our lives?

Written with a child’s perspective, she brings out the inner voice of an ignored child who doesnt need lavish house and expensive belongings but what he needs is love. It is about indifferent parents and about family,  togetherness and bonding.

The story is full of catch words that I admired, personally.

21. Chandrapal Khasiya: The Newspaper Reader

An action packed emotional roller-coaster. An eventful story. I will not say much about the story just this much – a touching and sweet conversation.

22. Priyanka Bansal: Together We Can Make a Difference

Highlights the ignorance faced by H.I.V. infected patients. It is not only entertaining but an educational read at the same time. She emphasizes how education is a powerful tool to curb the menace.

23. Priyanka Bansal: Don’t Decolorise Me.

Ironically, a colorful poetry that introduces to different shades of acidified brutality. You will feel the burnt as the acid flows between the lines, paragraph after paragraph.

Needless to say, an impressive collection of intelligent and inspiring works. One fact that all readers will easily notice is that this time the writer’s wagon doesn’t stop at describing the pain and agony rather they have come up with solution and practical plan of actions. No wordly preachings anymore; now its time to act.

Praise for the talented editor, who has packaged every story and every emotion justifiably to the purpose of anthology. Each story carries the correct tone and language to intrigue your inner concise.

Another person, who needs to be praised is the compiler, for it is him actually, who sieves through all the stories and hears crumpled voices in order to put forth the ones, which need immidiate attention and suffice the word space. Pulkit is a hard working and dedicated professional and it is being clearly reflected in selection of works for publication.

I congratulate him and wish him success. Apart from the people who would like to entertain the theme of the anthology, this is something that is recommended to aspiring writers should look upto for brushing up their artistic tools and skills.