Readers pick short stories for an experience—something new, something enchanting, something that gives them a reason to read. With novels, there isn’t that expectation; except for good writing, novels always offer a journey and expansiveness. Short stories, though an exciting genre, often lack the ability to hold a reader’s attention for long. This is why publishers are often heard saying, “Short stories are hard to sell.”
Life on Mars, a collection of 15 short stories, is the 25th book by Namita Gokhale and serves as the latest example of what all an author can do with short stories. Gokhale’s imprint on these stories, weaving together women’s experiences while developing a sense of timeless relatability, makes this short story collection very absorbing. Gokhale amalgamated mythology and reality to develop some of the most “bohemian” women characters.
Gokhale’s characters meander, make decisions while figuring things out, and act without interference from external agencies or institutions like marriage or conventional morality—they are driven by their own sense of morality.
The story Savithri and the Squirrels follows Savithri, who works at a matrimonial agency. It is narrated by a writer researching the matrimonial service sector for a German magazine. Savithri claimed to be married, but whether her husband existed, had deserted her, or was simply absent was something the narrator never inquired about. She would feed squirrels—believing them to be dear to Lord Ram. She tells Sita, didn’t feed squirrels. Perhaps to convey to herself that she has not been deserted due to a doubt about her character. In the end, she died peacefully on the street.
In Oman, I, Vatsala Vidyarthi is on a journey to Rishikesh for a recce trip, where she is fascinated by every mortal. She had an encounter with a waiter who also robbed her, and she can’t tell anyone. This story is hilarious and also effectively infected with ennui, like some other stories. The second part of the story contextualises the narrative, where Vatsala is perhaps telling the reader about the unwanted symmetry or order that a short story has to follow, as opposed to life, which is full of an “inchoate mess.”
The story upon which Gokhale has titled this collection, The Life on Mars, is amusing due to the presence of a character named Udit Narayan, who is cranky and silent. Until one enters the feel of the story, it appears that the narrator is talking about the singer Udit Narayan.
Some illness serves as the backdrop of some of these stories. In Whatever is Found in the World, a title borrowed from the Mahabharata, the protagonist, “Kunti,” is witnessing another Mahabharata unfold in her life. She is also translating this epic. This story is a reminder of the uncertainty that Covid-19 has imposed. Kunti meets Shashank at an online alopecia support group and forms something more than a friendship. Guilt-ridden Kunti loses him to Covid-19 but publicly acknowledges her love for him.
These stories are heavy with grief. Almost all the stories are written in the first person; sometimes the narrative and the protagonist’s thoughts run simultaneously; some sentences are long, making some stories almost difficult to follow. Also, there isn’t any proper denouement—Gokhale deliberately avoids that. She doesn’t believe a story needs a conventional ending. A story can conclude without a “punchline” or resolution. It ends when it ends.
This collection is refreshing. It’s rare to find such writing in short stories among Indian writers in English.