Vividity - Book Review

Vividity
By Neelam Mishra
Review By Ila Garg

Vividity, a collection of 6 short stories by Neelam Mishra is published by Rigi Publication. The cover has a backdrop of pinkish hues and looks surreal. There are vivid and colourful birds sitting together on a branch. The subtitle—Not Your Usual Short Story Collection—does kind of catches attention.

Neelam Mishra was born and brought up in Steel city Bhilai. She completed her primary education from Mar Baselious Vidya Bhawan and higher secondary education from Krishna Public School. She did her graduation in B.Com from St. College and later on did Post Graduation diploma in banking & finance. After working as a deputy manager on ICICI bank for almost two years, she quit her job to start something of her own. Now, she is self-employed as a mutual fund distributor and also trying to take her childhood hobby, that is writing short stories to a next level.

The blurb reads as, “It is a collection of short stories, indicating the different layers of human nature. Many a times a normal looking situation turns out to be an unusual experience which is actually the outcome of our own actions. We, the human are neither completely inclined toward positive nor toward negative. We fall somewhere in between. Likewise, we cannot be described as black or white. Each one of us possess a different shade of color, making this world VIVID.”

The 6 stories are centred on the theme of the diverse human nature. The various hues of human nature are brought to fore by each story in the book. Some are happy while others sad. Each story is well written. The book offers a roller coaster ride of emotions including instances of suspense, secrets, lies, hopes and dreams.

The six short stories compiled in the book are:

1. Regret
2. Strangers at the Cliff
3. Take My Advice
4. The Dream
5. A Debt
6. Tahaari Village

All 6 stories bring out a different aspect even after being based on one single subject, that is, human nature.

The author has successfully portrayed deep and hidden realities of human nature. The language is simple and easy to comprehend. Readers will find the stories quite interesting. However, there were just too many grammatical and punctuation mistakes, in addition to spellings errors.

There’s thrill, there’s a dark side of emotions, fear, pain, regrets, sad and happy moments… it can be easily seen as a slice of life and human nature. It also gives a lot of reflect on if you can ignore the poor editing of the book.

Further, this 103-page book is good enough to expose the various colours of everyone’s personality—how we are different from each other and have different shades within each one of us. It’s a light read and overall a compelling book.

Ratings: 3/5

Buying Link: Amazon