BOOK NAME- SONGS OUR BODIES SING
AUTHOR- Lindsay Pereira
PUBLISHED BY- Vintage
PRICE-Rs 499
Songs Our Bodies Sing is an engaging book. Containing nine short stories, the collection studies the innumerable ways in which the ‘clash’ between the East and West have taken place. Set at the points of intersection of this interaction, the stories explore such diverse themes as music, jingoism, racism, loneliness, and trust. These fictional accounts highlight commonalities, rather than differences, among the various protagonists and their situations. The characters on the opposite sides of an imaginary social and political divide find themselves trapped in the circumstances of their
own making. While the plots of all the stories are engaging, the storylines of some of the accounts are quite sad.
Stories like “Have a Nice Day” and “Oxford Comma” engage with the twin feelings of abandonment and despair. In the former, Lindsay Pereira attempts to examine issues concerning loneliness and homesickness through the experiences of Sakshi Thakur at her workplace. Thakur, who, we are told, is part of a customer care centre in the United States of America, yearns for kindness and calmness from her customers: her character is well-fleshed out by Pereira. Thakur’s everyday struggles, including her attempts to protect herself from sexual harassment at her workplace, have been described vividly.
“Oxford Comma”, too, is about an Indian immigrant — but based in Toronto. Themes like homesickness and loneliness figure prominently in this narrative too. The story is also set in a workplace -- a publishing house. A major part of the narrative concerns the observations that the protagonist makes about the working style of his manager: this facet makes the story both hilarious and poignant. Through the depiction of the daily routine of the anonymous central character, the author shows that migrating and settling in unfamiliar lands are acts tinged with emotional challenges. But while these Indian immigrants, irrespective of their age, were afflicted by loneliness, they also found unique ways, ranging from music to books, to cope with it.
The story that stands out in this collection is “Butterfly”. Centred on Karthik, an office-going young man living in Mumbai with his mother, it narrates a typical day in the life of this individual. Karthik, like many people of his age, leads a life which is marked by monotony. His love for Elvis’s music, however, keeps him going. This attachment increases with the passing of his mother due to Covid. References to popular Elvis songs, including “Love Me Tender”, add colour to this engaging story.
Deftly written, these stories testify to the fact that the struggles to belong and other challenges to the human condition are universal.