One must learn how to utilize ennui to one's advantage from Ravi Valluri. When the entire world was sulking and condemning lockdown due to coronavirus, the writer was contemplating over ideas to pen stories and snippets. Here's the creative manifestation of that incubation and contemplation in the form of ‘Heartbreak at Coffee Shop’.
Ravi's innate spirituality has a fecund element. That's the reason, reading his stories, snippets, anecdotes and plays, one can relate to the overwhelming richness of experience, elevation and enlightenment of the author's mind. In short, his fecundity speaks for itself and mesmerizes you. The author is gifted with the art of reinterpretation and story-telling in a new milieu and a different context.
The message of a myth is not lost on him. But he also knows how to contextualise that in changing circumstances. So, the spin-offs and branch-outs from his quill don't lose relevance. He has gimlet eyes and a sharp mind, a sine qua non for a raconteur. A good writer is always insightful and s/he gets to the roots of the subject. Ravi's personal experiences blossom into universal creativity and reality.
English biographer and critic Peter Ackroyd's exhortation, 'From the confines of privacy, write out for the legacy,' manifests itself through Ravi's tales. Whether his short stories, viz, 'Healed', 'The Buddha', 'A conversation' or his exiguous but exquisite pearls (drabbles), all bear a stamp of experiential exclusivity. I recommend his 10th drabble, 'Looking back' to the readers.
Stunningly poignant, it smites you with its sudden density. All tales are enriched with introspective depth. The Sanskrit word pragalbh (densely cerebral) can be applied to his tales and tailpieces. To use an oxymoron, his 'Heartbreak at Coffee Shop' is a heart-breakingly beautiful collection of perennial wisdom. Read to feel elevated.
Book: Heartbreak at Coffee Shop
Author: Ravi Valluri
Publishing House: AKS Publishing House, New Delhi
Pages: 213
Price: Rs 199
