Tea-20 by Vinod Kumar S.

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TEA-20 - Perfect companion for your tea time : Fiction, Short Stories

AUTHOR: Vinod Kumar S.

BEST SELLER: Tea-20 (Debut Novel)

SYNOPSIS (From Back Cover): This book is a collection of 20 simple fiction short stories, which will serve as a good companion for your teatime. This anthology will not only entertain you, but will also give you a generous dose of laughter; it will make you think and contribute to the society, teach simple things about life which are easily missed in our ever-hectic routine and also take you by surprise. Each story is unique in its way, with the impact it leaves in you being the common feature.

A fictional and motivational story that reveals the secret of Sachin Tendulkar's success; a funny narration about the day-to-day life of an IT Professional; the suspense of what happened when it rained that night and stories that revolve around simple things like how 50 Paise could teach you an important message about life; they are bound to impress you irrespective of your age, gender or profession. Read on to know more. 

EXCERPT: 

I heard the sound of her bangles and other ornaments first. Not sure why, but immediately I remembered a Tamil proverb which translates to, "The sound of the bell tied to an elephant reaches even before the elephant", I tried to focus and within a few seconds I became an atheist again when I saw a girl in plain pink sari and green blouse walking in. It was as if the post card size photo was magnified to the size of a poster. This time her weight reminded me again of the same Tamil proverb. Only now I understood its real meaning. 

MSM Speaks: With due respect and appreciation to Mr. Vinod, an IT professional of 29 years, for his debut novel, I would like to say, his Tea-20 was totally not what I was expecting. I read other online reviews and people seem to love it, because it’s humorous (?). May be software people have a humor, which lawyers like me will never understand. I apologize for the quip. As I was saying - NEVER judge a book from its cover, they say. I did that exactly. *Rolls eyes* Cup of tea/coffee on cover, has always betrayed me. (Ref. to Of course, I love you – till I find someone better) Sigh. Anyway, this book is a collection of 20 fictional short stories – which are aimed at bringing the reader, a realization of morale values he/she might have forgotten or does not care about, any more.

The stories are in this order:

•  A Cup of Coffee (A good start. Gave me hopes)
• A Beauty That Turned Dirty (I personally HATED this one. It's so... chauvinistic! No wait, stupid! Let me tell you - the beauty here is a girl holding a sandwich and she becomes dirty because she says 'I wish India was like America.' to someone on phone. Before she said this, the guy was practically devouring her sandwich and I think her as well, with his eyes. Creepy Stalker!)
• Bye (Innovative. Mr. Vinod really told me the value of a goodbye. I totally agree with him on this.)
• Drunken Genius (This was an all guys version of Jab We Met)
• Frosted Hearts (Cute little story of a Mother and her ever curious daughter)
• A Great Escape (The above excerpt is from this one. Believe me, the guy here thinks he is a Hottie...)
• Go Straight and Turn Right (Brilliant Story. Sachin's Secret to success, beautifully penned down.)
• Happy New Year (Encounter with an intellectual beggar who held magic within)
• It Rained That Night (Okay, I was really impatient! I read it from the end. It's a shot at suspense and humor. I felt like a pedophile.)
• Life of an IT Professional
• My Dog - An Amazing Teacher
• My First Love (I thought finally! This man has fallen in love. But yes, I will give you one guess at what he falls in love with - It moves on wheels.)
• Nowhere to Run
• Signature
• Take the 25 Rupees (Such intriguing conversation with an auto guy)
• The Perfect Murder (Heart breaking story of a Friend-zoned guy)
• The Silent World
• Two Sides of a One-Sided Love (Topsy-turvey story.)
• Who Am I?
• 50 Paise (Sigh. Please pick it up if you need to know more!)

For others, which have escaped my detailing...Oh Sweet Jesus!, I had to jump from page to page, skimming through and I sort of understood what the stories were about – sort of predictable. As a first attempt, Mr. Vinod has kept the stories really simple, which is a key to good writing. However, there were inadvertent grammatical and printing errors, which I could not ignore. Anyhow, the stories are short and it’s actually something you can pick up when you are travelling short distances. (If you have nothing better. And if you can read anything) What was I thinking? *Asks herself* Oh, since this is one of the books I chose for my birthday, I am not going to bash the author anymore. I would not recommend this but you can pick it up for a light reading – well, like he says – with a cup of tea. And some sedative for me. Hmpf. Oh wait, this is one.

My rating: 2.5/5 

Tea - 20@ Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd./Frog Books (2012)

ISBN 978-93-81576-99-1

Pages: 125

flipkart Price: 113/-INR