V Sanjay Kumar set up a finance company and a software enterprise, and partnered with an art gallery before he began writing at the age of 50 in 2010. Now, he has authored his fifth book – a collection of stories most of which have featured in award lists in the UK and Australia.
The stories in “Ruffled Feathers”, published by Bloomsbury, attend to men and women making their way through a grim world filled with sharp corners. But they do so with deep tenderness and wry amusement, exquisitely balancing absurdity with pathos.
“The Forecaddie”, the opening story in the book, won the Bridport Prize for Short Story in 2018. It is about Yuva who had grown up as a caddie who goes ahead of golfers to see where the balls fall.
“The Gymkhana was his home course… During practice sessions, players stood in a line and teed off, shouting fore. Yuva and his young friends ran holding their heads, picked up the balls and placed them in buckets,” the story goes.
Yuva also liked going on rounds as a forecaddie.
“The Gymkhana was a links course with evil rough, tall, unkempt grass where balls could easily get lost. Yuva stood a hundred yards ahead of the players and tracked where the ball went. Golfers employed a forecaddie because the cost was lower than the cost of a new golf ball. A lost ball also meant a penalty, and on occasion a penalty meant a lost bet,” Kumar writes.
The story goes on to say how Yuva like his father became a full-time caddie, got a retainer from Big Man (who used his money and fame to try to become the best player but all in vain), and most evenings he drank himself into a stupor.
Among the other stories in the anthology are “The Scarecrow”, which talks of an old man who is suddenly able to curse to death those who annoy him, and “Acid”, which is about an English-speaking thief who has long conversations with his tied-up victims.
“The Accountant” follows a forensic accountant who becomes obsessed with bringing down dodgy start-ups, and “The Writer” is about an online troll who suspects he is going to be shot dead for his political views.
Source: PTI
Photo: Internet
