KOCHI: Priyanka Kaintura is a writer who believes every noteworthy or insignificant, radical or mundane moment around us is a story - only if watched closely. “A contained expression, a slightly longer pause, an anxious embrace, expectant silence, disquiet farewell; our jiffies can come from anywhere. Life is but a sequence of moments and I call them jiffies,” the writer expounds.
Her latest book ‘My Jiffies: Narration of the book’ captures a string of such jiffies, reciting tacit sentiments or messages turned upside down in everyday life.
And as people are attracted to brevity in this age of WhatsApp relationships and emoji conversations, the author makes it a point to stress on the need that life is not all those bigger moments we savour and enjoy, rather it is a combination of trivial experience and moments we let go unnoticed.
The book navigates through seven different moods narrating diverse emotions and situations, observed by the author. It is a string of jiffies reciting tacit sentiments or messages turned upside down in everyday life, across eras and cultures. Wading through modern day to mythical, romance to pathos, satire to witty humour, it never stops to surprise the reader with every turn of the page.
Like the title points out, the book is a ‘bite-sized’ unadulterated thoughts of the writer and acts as a mirror for an existential soul. “Human vulnerabilities and our tussle to dress them with words or in silence, inspires me to write”, explains Priyanka.
The stories are a combination of bizarre and original thoughts of the author through which sometimes she grasps attention through rhetoric’s and irony in the story. In one of the stories, the author applies the Theory of Uncertainty to human relationships and in another, acts as the devil’s advocate to Bhima and questions the nature of Arjun.
“Strange are the ways of love that Draupadi could shut her eyes to all that Arjun did not do and still love him. She could also shut her eyes to all that Bhima did and still couldn’t give him the place she saved for Arjun.”
The writer draws inspiration for her writing from everyday mundane moments to her grandmothers memories of the partition. In the stories section, she depicts nine shades of Durga ranging from ‘Netra’ to ‘Sidhi’ through nine stories. The book travels through nostalgia, spirituality, science, mythology, love and lost-love that can make an impression on you and set you thinking.
The author did her Bachelors in Business Administration from DAVV Indore and her PGDBM from IMT Ghaziabad.