The sixteen stories deliver on the author’s promise to tell tales. The micro-stories are like appetizers and whet your appetite for the longer tales. You may take a quick bite of the title story or ‘Spit for Spat’ to taste the interesting offering and anticipate the diversity and complexity of the main course. These stories tell you of Albert Einstein, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Shakespeare’s Juliet, the charismatic M. N. Buch, the mysterious Mr. John, a sailor-soldier-patriot, a child in a village pond, a thief but with many a principle, of Lord Ram, Hanuman, Vishnu and Vishwakarma; and take you on a roller-coaster ride from a small village across continents, from Balasore to Badaling via Beijing, and from Australia to Japan to Italy. The author tells his tales in his signature style of wry wit, sardonic humour, and gentle satire. His prose is direct, unostentatious and steers clear of unnecessary verbiage. The result: a bouquet of crisply told interesting tales. A book which you might be forced to read in a single sitting.
