Book Title – Wind Chimes by the sea
Author – Beetashok Chatterjee
Publisher - Readomania
Beetashok Chatterjee gets it right with the title itself, which says, “Stories blown ashore”. For the stories have truly been blown ashore by the master story teller, whose vast experience of travelling the seas in all corners of the world comes handy, and combined with his tremendous story telling skills, he conjures up tales of every hue, weaving them into a web of words, in which the reader loses herself only to emerge at the end, with a smile on her face.
The stories show the entire range of human emotions and characteristics. 11 tales, and no story is similar though all connected to life at sea. When a seaman is on a ship, his mates are his family but he is still, all alone on a watery prison which can test anyone’s mental toughness.
While ‘Service to the nation’ explores a patriotic theme, ‘In the heat of the night’ makes the reader pray for the protagonist’s life.
‘Island in the sun’ takes you back to the middle ages, the 16th century, where the protagonist is a pirate living precariously on the edge, and whose love is doomed. Does he survive the battle with the authorities? Does he find love at the end?
A seaman always dreads the fury of nature, which quickly turns the peaceful waters into monster waves, helped along by fiery gales and everything comes alive in ‘The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’.
A seaman, after a lonely long trip always looks forward to a shore leave, wherever he may be, but if this shore leave is forced by a medical emergency in an unknown country, then what happens. Please read ‘Shore leave’ to know more.
What happens when a ship’s captain is irresponsible and doesn’t follow basic SOP of navigation? Read ‘Okinotori Shima’ to know more.
Anyone would love to have his family on board, especially a young seaman. But how does the wife, accompanied by her newborn child, cope with the challenges thrown at her by the lonely life at sea? Read ‘There and back’ to know more.
If sea life is challenging, a Captain can add humour to it, with some eccentric schemes, however positive the intention may be. Have a good laugh with ‘The GM Diet’.
The Covid pandemic affected the entire humanity but hardly anyone gave a thought to the challenges faced by those involved in “essential services”. Do read ‘The forgotten’ to understand what the seamen went through.
If the weather can challenge a ship with violent storms, it can also confront with extreme cold. Read ‘Frozen’ to discover artic winter at its worst.
“All’s well that ends well” lives up to the title to wind up this great anthology of sea faring stories.
Pick up “Wind Chimes by the sea” to lose yourself in a topsy turvy sea and enrich yourself with the effortless language of a gifted author.
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