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Tales of love, longing and letting go from the Punjabi heartland
Mohali-based author Yuvika Grewal’s stories have significant social import; she deals with the complex themes of flawed beauty standards, honour killing, relation between poverty and godliness
Set against the idyllic backdrop of the Punjabi heartland come a dozen poignant tales of love, longing and letting go from the pen of author Yuvika Grewal.
The intricately-woven stories, which have been bound in the anthology, Short Stories from Punjab, were released by IAS officer Sumita Misra at the Chandigarh Press Club, Sector 27, on Monday.
Many dignitaries including former IAS officer Vivek Atray, Rhyvers Press publisher Affan Yesvi, Ajaypal Singh Brar (author of When Abdali’s Palanquin Trembled: Making of the Sikh Raj), Udta Punjab actor Swairaj Sandhu, and writer-editor Sonia Chauhan were in attendance.
The stories shine spotlight on a gamut of issues plaguing rural society including existentialism and disillusionment, patriarchy, flawed concepts of beauty, honour killings, poverty and godliness, and a daughter’s bond with her maternal family after marriage.
Though these tales are set in fictional lands, it was the author’s native village, Mukho Mazara, which served as her muse. “As a child I would spend two-month summer vacation there, and studied there for two years after school. I continue to have strong ties with my roots and wanted to share slices of village life with a wider audience,” she says.
On whether any story was based on a real-life incident, the author says, “During one of my visits to the village, a great mystery had the residents at a loss. Every few days, someone would set fire to the haystacks in the afternoon. The villagers could not understand who would commit such an act and why? In my take on the incident, I imagined a young girl, Soni, who despite her name is not a stereotypical beauty, to be the culprit and delve into her motivations in the story, A Look Into the Mirror.
Grewal, an English teacher and soft-skills expert, has been influenced by master storytellers RK Narayan, Anton Chekhov and Guy de Maupassant. “I draw inspiration from classics,” she says.
This is Grewal’s second book. Her debut book, 151 Toffee Tales: An Affectionate Confection of Prose and Verse was released during the Covid-19 pandemic.
