Decoding Life

by Vikas Singal, Ila Garg (Editor)

Decoding Life is an anthology based on relations, love and human perceptions. The Taxi Driver depicts the emotions of a young lady on a thunderous night in Mumbai when she takes a local taxi driven by a fiery driver. A Rain Kissed Tuesday is a Hindu-Muslim love story where Aditya falls in love with Arisha on a rainy day. One of the stories, talks about the tension and the excitement of two people who are about to get married. Two states brings up the small environmental difference felt by two friends who are living in two different states.

This sparkling anthology covers a wide range of human emotions. This would make you feel good when you decode them one by one. The stories talk through silences and are very thought-provoking! Enjoy decoding the various codes of life we live...

74 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

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Reviews

[Nirali Khoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Book there is 10 short stories With different Perspective but I feel It is not fulfilling The Title totally.

[Abhilash Ruhela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second work of Vikas Singal that I have just completed reading. 3 months back, I had read the e-book released by him which comprised of 3 small love tales. I had a complain that his stories were too short to communicate anything and I'm bit happy with the progress he made in this anthology named "Decoding Life". It comprises of 10 short stories which are based on different topics and it's surely better than his first attempt. Generally, with anthologies, you find that they aren't edited well but I congratulate Singal's publisher- Gargi who have assured that the book isn't badly formatted and grammatically incorrect.

The first story, Taxi Driver, shows how out of fear a girl runs away from a taxi driver when he halts for a few minutes. Later, author shows how all men are not the same. For me, the best story is "A Rain Kissed Tuesday". The emotions that this story carries is almost similar to what many Indian authors are doing with their 225-pages book. Author managed to do it in few pages itself. K N Laxman is another good story in the book which shows how people think everyone is selfish even if few people are genuinely good and caring. Glad That We Met is another story which will make you smile at few scenes. The Mistake serves its conclusion well. Two States is the worst attempt according to me. Author could not link the two situations together perfectly. I was expecting little masala from The Train but it ended being too sweet. Book ends with That Mystery Girl which is quite similar to Taxi Driver where author tries to tell how every girl isn't flirty and date-friendly.

The attempt by Vikas Singal is honest and you can find the same in every story. To release a book with 10 short stories by a single author is a wonderful idea but then it should be taken care of how many stories are par excellent. I found almost 70% of the stories mediocre. I was expecting little more length from the stories even this time. Author had a conclusion in his mind and he wanted to reach to it in as less words as possible. He should attempt long version of short stories now. But I genuinely liked 2-3 stories and they shall remain in my mind for days. My favorite is A Rain Kissed Tuesday, The Train and The Mistake. I give the book 2.5 stars out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!

[Meghant Parmar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ten short stories, decoding life's frivolous and strong connections and one common aim to rebuild the faith in humanity. It's up to the readers how much they want to accept the harsh truth of life and up to what extent they want to take this forward.

The stories no matter what try to build a relationship with the readers and leave an ever lasting impression. Some through emotions and some through barriers, yet circumventing the exact nature of human hypocrisy or ideology. There's a method to approach the tiniest of the drama and what better than life and it's lessons to exaggerate and present it through the medium of short stories. Some bitter truths and some untapped emotions also pass through the eyes and mind of the readers through the medium of this book.

The book lacks a solid punch as many stories fail to gather the momentum. Grammatical mistakes too are part of the book which needlessly spoils the entire setup. Then there's a lot of unsaid and unfinished type of stories which though try to make you feel like the best judge but with their mediocre presentation don't give the impetus to the genre.

All in all the book could have been explored in different horizons with more vividness. From where it stands the ground is shaky barring few momentous applause. There's a lot of promise in the book but the author fails to find the right mix to put it through to the readers. It's an average performer under rigorous conditions.

[Sonal · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Decoding Life’ is a short story collection by Vikas Singal. There are ten short stories in it which are woven around our daily life. They are simple yet affective in language. You would be able to relate many of the stories in some incidents of your life.

Like the girl of ‘The Taxi Driver’, many of us feel unsafe while travelling in autos or taxies during late nights and yes the story is eye opener in certain way but yeah, for knowing it you must read it.

People started following particular person’s beliefs and thoughts in ancient times. With passing of time these people formed in groups and these various groups are known as Religions. Religions divided people and are deeply rooted in minds of people that everything is divided in name of religions. Same is in case of Love and here is what the second story ‘A Rain Kissed Tuesday’ says to us.

‘K.N.Laxman’ is a story which perfectly depicts our mentality. If someone is being very nice to us then we start thinking that there must be some hidden benefit of the person I doing so.

‘Glad That We Met’ will bring the feeling of Déjà vu to those who are in arranged marriage.

’Switch it On’, ‘The Mistake’, ‘Two States’, ‘That Shy Boy’, ‘The Train’, ‘That Mystery Girl’ are also the stories with same gist. Wonderful stories taken from life around us. Many of you would have feeling of Déjà vu, while enjoying them.

Wish to read more works from Vikas Singal in future.

My overall rating for this work is 4/5.