Love Stories of Shimla Hills by Minakshi Chaudhry released

कंवर जी को बधाई। स्‍टोरी में राकेश कंवर जी का जिक्र नहीं आया। कंवर जी फोटो में है कंवर जी हिमाचल प्रशासनिक सेवा में है और स‍ाहित्यिक रूचि रखते है। खैर पुन पुस्‍तक प्रकाशन के लिए कंवर परिवार को बधाई

I wish Meenakshi stuck to her travelogues. I read Meenakshi first with her ghost stories. While I appreciated her research work, I wish she had got a ghost writer to help her write the stories. She is not a fiction writer or for that matter a literature writer. She is a research writer and I was disappointed that she ruined the flavour of stories in her book. Meanwhile I reiterate that I respect for the courage she showed for her research. I know that she was even arrested by the Army for and was almost tried for spying while on her pursuit to feel the ghosts at the burnt down Army Hospital in Shimla.

Now when I heard about the Love Stories…. my immediate reaction was O not again. And I was not disappointed with myself when I read the book. Again the research work is exemplary and she got Shanta of the O Laadi Shanta fame to narrate the truth.

Since the love stories have a myth around them and folklorish in nature, I wish Meenakshi had a more understanding of English literature and more command over rhyme, metre and prose. It would have helped had she maintained that folklorish rhyme in the book. She breaks between personal narration to some other arbitrarily throwing literature nuances to wind. Though her Ghost Stories book had a Foreword from Ruskin Bond, but a lot was desired to reach the level of Mr Bond. In fact my suggestion to Meenakshi would be to read Plain Tales From Hills by Rusyard Kipling to see how narration, folk and the hills go hand in hand.

My wishes are with Meenakshi, but I hope somday she can go back and come up with a revised edition of her books with much lyricism in her book. may be I hit the nail. Her love stories are devoid of lyricism. May be she can even take inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose” or even ST Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” how fantasy like ghost stories can be taken to heights. Get reminded of the spooky stories by Indian writer Satyajit Ray as well. She can read him too.

Meanwhile, I’ll suggest Meenakshi to not rape literature and restrict herself to travelogues, which she is good at. Particularly research work.