Book Review: Panorama by Shilpi Chaklanobis

Panorama: A collection of short stories

Author: Shilpi Chaklanobis
Publisher: Notion Press
Rating: 3/5

Summary
Mother Teresa has rightly said- Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

‘Panorama’ is a collection of short stories that aim at touching the heart of the readers and making them realize the importance of living the moment and finding happiness in small nothings. The stories can be related to the day-to-day life and the feeling of empathy is sure to be felt.

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My opinion
Life is a continuous process but dare you say that everything works like clockwork. It is very difficult (sometimes) to get the ducks in a row and sail smoothly through the floods and tempests. ‘Panorama’ is one such book that offers an insight into different stories that have emotions and morals attached to them. The cover of the book is catchy. The title is well suited. The blurb is fine but the incorrect use of grammar leaves an overall negative impact. The font (style, size) is fine. I would like to compliment the author’s ability to finely tune all the stories and achieve a specific objective with every climax. For an instance, after reading ‘Wok’, I was instantly reminded of the TV commercial in which a child buys tongs for the mother. I had almost left the book on the table and had already made up my mind to read it after some time when the climax hit me hard. It touched my heart. The ending was fabulous- so creative and heartwarming. My special favourites include:

Wok– story that speaks volumes, strong plot and superb climax

The Thirst– beautifully executed, the title could have been better.
Mirage– average story but superb modelling with the title.

The book lacks proofreading and editing. Time and again you can spot grammatical errors, typos and other errors for which I account the author responsible. This is because some of the errors are merely due to ignorance. There are missing commas and incorrect use of tenses as well. The use of vocabulary is also erroneous. For an instance: Ensuring not a single drop of tea in left into it; sari plates, etc. The correct expression for ‘raising the speed’ can be increased her pace or paced hurriedly. Frequently, the semicolon has been substituted with a comma and that makes the sentence ambiguous.

Overall, the book is a compilation of heart touching stories, with a nice plot and a twisted climax (in some of them).

Best wishes to the author!

Buying Link: Amazon