Seven Stories

by Ravi Bedi

Save the Words
While waiting for his flight, a chat window opens on a man’s laptop. A lady
friend from Ecuador he’s met only on the net starts describing his dress? He is flabbergasted and starts searching frantically for a lady with a laptop…but finds none. Who could it be…?

Nude Portrait
A man discovers a nude portrait of his wife in an art gallery? He is shattered and confronts her for having posed in the nude for some unknown lover in her past. But she never posed!

Drifting Shadow
An ex-Army officer turned artist takes up residence with an old lady in a posh area of Bombay. Deserted by her daughter as a consequence of her indiscretion, the lady lives alone. Having had an abortive relationship with a married woman, the army-man finds himself in a similar situation. The two coexist peacefully until harassed by the land mafia, resulting into relocation into the pristine hills of Lonavala. There they open a resort, and are surprised when visited by unexpected guests.

The Seven Wood
Shattered by the infidelity of his wife, a man devices an ingenious plot to get rid of the lover, his subordinate, without leaving a trace.

Lady with Long Hair
A beautiful girl in distress, in a running train, seeks the help of an ex-military man to hide her jewellery from the clutches of her greedy mother-in-law, who plans to gift it to her daughter. The girl has managed to replace the original box with a dummy. Does she get away with it?

The Great Escape
The murder of a prosperous jeweler in a running train leaves five passengers in a rail car suspecting each other in total confusion. No one could’ve come from outside. The jeweler's briefcase containing precious jewels is missing. The culprit, the least suspected, has ingeniously put away the briefcase out of sight. Before the police arrive at the next station, pretending to release his bladder, the crook walks away with the briefcase never to be seen again.

The Last Puff
A young fighter pilot shares a cigarette with a friend before dashing away for a dual sortie. Within minutes there’s an explosion. The cigarette he shared is still smoking in the ashtray!

201 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2016

About the author

Ravi Bedi did Chemical Engineering from BHU (1962), and joined the Indian Air Force for the lure of its blue uniform than for any patriotic fervor. But his heart was in the creative world, composing music on digital piaon being his first love. To quench his creative thirst, he became a self-taught painter with moderate success and, when his basement started filling up with all the trash (read paintings) he decided to become a writer. With his first novel, “Lovers’ Rock” (published by Rupa Publications - 2014), he has earned a pass to join the club.
He has since added seven more titles to his credit:

Seven Stories
Mail Order Bride
Perfect Imperfect,
The Roots
The Equals
Dark Chocolate
The Grand Piano And Other stories.

Ravi Bedi loves his golf, enjoys his music, runs a hotel in town to put meat on the table, and lives with his wife of 57 years in the historic city of Jodhpur.

Reviews

[Sharmishtha Shenoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story is defined as prose shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot. Ravi's Seven Stories fit the definition perfectly. They are seven gems. Wonderfully crafted, evocative, sympathetic tales of life. There are humorous clever bits and heartbreaking bits, and it all has the ring of truth about it. Each story is unique and simple in its own way. The stories are interesting mainly revolving around people and relationships. All genres are touched upon. The Nude Portrait is my favorite in this collection. A man enters an art gallery and finds his wife’s nude picture being displayed there. The story is narrated with humour and yet with sensitivity. I loved the author's sense of humour displayed in most of the stories.

[Ruchi Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Seven Stories’ is like precious seven pearls of a necklace. Author has touched upon almost all genres—romance, suspense, crime, literary—in this story collection. I loved all of them but ‘Drifting Shadow’ with its high emotional quotient and ‘The Seven Wood’ are my favourite. Language and narration is almost perfect. A highly recommended read.

[Rubina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An author with a distinct writing style is always a pleasure to read. Bold and vivacious the words of Ravi Bedi’s Seven Stories leap out of the pages and for a first time reader of books penned by this author, it’s a treat. All the stories are written keeping different emotional quotients in mind. Personally, I reacted to each story in a different manner. A woman, a daughter, a wife and most of all as a human being. The pull of the stories is great. Some of them leave a mark and some just give you just a momentary pleasure. But after reading all the stories, one can’t deny that this author has a few tales to tell.

Save the Words strangely appealed to the writer in me. As a writer, I have dreamed something like this happening so many times. I am sure many of us have. Though I would have loved to have a linear path followed in this story for the ending became a bit far fetched but still, it is a page-turner. What would you do, as a writer, if you are stranded in an airport and you suddenly find out one of your greatest critics present in that airport?

The Nude Portrait is my favorite in this collection. A man entering an art gallery only to find his wife’s nude picture being displayed there. While I don’t know the legality of this, still it made a very beautiful read. I loved the way the husband handled the situation. Those sputtering moments, those doubts - each phase is written with conviction and that tad touch of humor is very endearing. What I loved most about this story is the way the author has managed to create that nail-biting moment of wondering what the husband is going to do.

Drifting Shadow could be more aptly named as the Lady in the Cactus House :) Just kidding. Another beautiful tale of a drifter who lands up in Cactus house where he meets another broken soul. Their relationship quotient starts as tenant and landlady and moves on to friendship. The author has managed to capture human resilience, human endurance and the art of forgiveness in this short story.

The Seven Wood changed the tone of this collection. While till now I found the author dealing only with humane behavior, a tinge of negativity is added to this tale. Though infidelity and jealousy form the crux of this story, the ending does not enthrall me. It’s my personal choice but I don’t like stories that are told the roundabout way and if the ending is supposed to be left to the sensibilities of the readers, I would rather have a clear picture where I either feel sympathy or anger towards the murderer. Here I felt nothing. Sam Baxter is a more defined character in this story rather than Mike.And here I feel one goof up has occurred unless I got the story wrong. If Sam Baxtor was screwing Mike’s wife why did he address Claire as ‘Mrs.Baxtor’ on their first meeting. This confused the story a bit for me.

The Lady with Long Hair again shifts my mood. A very honest story of a middle-aged man helping out a beautiful woman. In a beautiful way. I like again the husband-wife quotient here and the way the man was feeling very 'manly' till the problem didn’t crop up and after that, his wife took all the decisions.

The Great Escape is one story I didn’t like. Though it had an Agatha Christie feel, it still lacked the finesse of having a sound conclusion as a mystery should have. Too many introductions to characters at one point in time made me very confused. Though the ending was salvaged, the author’s forte is mainly emotional drama and not a mystery and he should really play more with human emotions that came across beautifully in the first few stories.

The Last Puff was a neat end to the collection. There is one dialogue I took severe objection to though in all fairness it was not written in the wrong light. “Then why don’t you lie down and enjoy rape, if it is inevitable?” Even someone having this thought process, as a character, insults me as a woman. And it was an unnecessary comparison and not using it would not have changed the story in any way.

Concluding on this collection there is only one thing I will say. This author has a strong voice. A strong storytelling inclination. He can play with words beautifully and I felt that his sense of humor is subtle yet in some places a reader will start smiling. Drama and emotion is his forte, at least in this collection.

Recommended read for a lazy afternoon with a cup of coffee.

[Swapna Peri ( Book Reviews Cafe ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Title: Seven Stories
Author: Ravi Bedi
Format: e-book

Book Title:
The title of the book ' Seven Stories ' is catchy and exciting.

Book Cover :
The book cover is a digital image of a white rose which has blue color added to the tips of the petals. The petals may be considered as the stories and the blue color, the mood of the stories.

About the book:
The book, as the title reads, ' Seven Stories ', is a collection of seven extremely impressive, enjoyable and humane short stories. Like the seven colors in a rainbow where each has its own value, each story also has a value perfectly described in accordance with the human behaviour. The author has described the yester year's era in a realistic way and the reader will get connected easily.

--The first story ' Save the words ' is a very strange kind of story. It's a perfect page-turner.

--The story, ' The Nude Patriot ' has a very unique narration with a subtle humor, the dubious mindset of the protagonist and good suspense.

--The story ' Drifting Shadow ' is very endearing and warm with matured narrating elements.

--The story ' Seven Wood ' is a story of sweetness and bitterness in a relationship.

--The story ' The Lady With Long Hair ' is a truly sweet and sensible one.

--The story ' Great Escape ' is decent with few threads missing towards the end.

--The story ' The Last Puff ' is a crude one with some extremely unbelievable sequences.


What I liked:
1. Different subjects
2. Splendid vocabulary
3. Captivating storytelling
4. Decent humor and acceptable mature elements

What I didn't like:
1. Some dragging at few places in one or two stories.
2. The slow pace at few engaging scenes.

My Final Verdict—.
A very decent read.

Book title: 3/5
Book Cover: 3/5
About the book: 3.8/5
Characters: 3.85
Narration: 3.8/5
Language & Grammar: 4/5
I personally rate the book 3.8/ 5

[Gail Baugniet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven stories with seven widely varying topics of interest offers something for everyone in this book of short stories by Ravi Bedi. I met Ravi on an internet writers' critique site and traded many comments with him about our works in progress. I credit him with saving me from several missteps in my stories.

In this work, SEVEN STORIES, Ravi's life experiences inform much of the backstory and/or experiences, though I don't look at the stories as veiled autobiographical material. The author has a vivid imagination and shares his thoughts, to the reader's benefit.

My favorite stories? The Nude Portrait and The Last Puff; with honorable mentions going to the other five.

[Reet Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven Stories - a set of short stories - provide much-needed light relief from the humdrum of the daily predictability of life.

Ravi Bedi has an easy, engaging style to his writing. The conversations are very believable and you feel that you might be in the room (or in the train) with the protagonists, witnessing their conflicts and rooting for them - or not, as the case may be.

Every story starts with an intriguing hook guaranteed to keep you reading, and the plot doesn't let you down. Do read if you need some colour in your life- even the cover is beautifully done!

[Ruchira Khanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven stories is my first of this author, and I thoroughly enjoyed his command over words that gave me a vision of any scenario in the seven stories. 'Drifting Shadow' was the best! The characters are well evolved. Most of the story lines have a punch that can leave a mark on the reader of today's society and how mankind tends to behave under certain conditions. Having a maternal link towards Army and Army life; I also felt a link as he had characters from the armed forces.

[Lf Gillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

These Seven Stories are certainly worth reading. Each one is a stand alone gem hidden in a treasure chest of a book. Although the flavors of India come out in every paragraph, this is something the entire world can enjoy.

[Deepansh Mehra · Rating 4 out of 5]

#Book #Review #Rant #UnpopularOpinion #SevenStories #RaviBedi:

Let me start with the disclaimer that I have never been a fan with short stories, at least not until now. Ravi Bedi happened to have introduced me to this genre with a signed paperback sent to me, almost unsolicited. But what a great read this book turned out to be!

Seven Stories, of course, is an anthology of 7 short stories, 6 were good reads and one of them blew me away. There is something timeless about Mr. Bedi's prose that no commercial YA or pseudo-intellect novel would match up to. The depiction caters to all the senses and largely, in their limited space, the character come alive. Most of the protagonists here are men in their ripe ages, having experienced life in most of its shades, with some or the other connection to Army or Painting, and the writer's first hand experience in both, makes the narrative absorbable.

I wouldn't get into the details of each of the 7 plots since it it's better read without the context. But I must admit that I laughed out loud 8 times (sometimes at wee hours, thank god for privacy! And yes, I counted!). I teared up twice. And I was WTF level amazed in about two dozens of pages. That's some serious craftsmanship.

My only dissatisfaction was the lack of prominent female characters in most of the stories. They are there, but they are not written as carefully or deeply as the men at the centre of those stories. Though we do see a supportive wife, a daughter ill treated for all her life, an old woman trying to hold on to heritage and her dying sense of belonging, an anonymous book critic, a woman chained to her in law's wishes, another using her cleavage to manipulate and a myriad of such brilliant female characters. But none of them get their moment to shine. It is all the men doing the heavy lifting throughout the book.

One story in particular named 'Drifting Shadow' had left me with no choice but to give it a 10/10. I wish it was a full length novel in itself, though that story spans for about a third of this Anthology, I was hungry for more. The characters were so well written that I could help feeling nostalgia of some sort. The palatial house was as much of a character as the three people staying in it.

Overall, this is pure gold for the lovers of short stories. The writing is rich and the fine details make it more of a picture or a motion picture rather than just a one dimensional reading experience. I am going with 3.5 out of 5 for the entire collection but definitely full marks for Drifting Shadows. I will also binge Ravi Bedi's writing in June and July. So expect more analysis on his writing throughout the next 30-40 days. Happy Reading.

And this is also a master class in writing for those writers who do not read enough...

[Leena Varghese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always admired authors who can produce short stories. And Ravi Bedi does a fabulous job of it by putting together a string of tales that draw from his vast experience of life that is rich and varied in all its glorious shades. This wonderful collection, with its distinctly attractive cover, grabbed my attention and flung me amidst the men and women who live and die between these pages. I loved every bit of the eloquent and witty prose. The narration is crisp without any pretensions or flowery jargon, no superfluous words to delay the outcome and yet there is enough between the lines to ponder about and savour at leisure.

‘Save The Words’ and ‘The Last Puff’ are the beginning and the end of the collection. They also seem more realistic as they are coloured with the author’s personal experience in the Air Force, and also as a writer. Although, they are written with added drama to make them more interesting.

'Drifting Shadow' is a priceless gem. There are so many layers to this beautiful, poignant story. So many things left unsaid that niggle for your attention. I loved Zaved and Mehroo, two unlikely individuals who forge a deep friendship, filled with so much warmth and compassion. I wept with them for their loss and loneliness. Infidelity is a destructive force that brings down even the strongest relationships as years of toil and sacrifice seem wasted. I should have hated both of them for making those errors in judgement that causes damage to the people around them. And yet, I could empathize with them as human beings who were washed away in the tide of emotions, caught in their own foibles and punished by harsh reality. It was a compelling story for more than one reason as the author describes their lives with utmost sensitivity without being judgemental.

The description of a bygone era is fantastic! I could see Bombay of the seventies rise out of its own ashes. I could see the people, the lifestyle, the old, crumbling mansions and the cultural and social upheaval, the flux and irreversible changes. Time and tide that sweep a whole generation aside with inexorable hands to make way for the new.

And then there is ‘The Nude Portrait’! It captures several subtle nuances all at once. The author keeps the tone light, laced with humour which makes it hilarious at certain points. The idea of a common man who has no clue about modern art and his sudden discomfiture and jealousy at finding his own wife’s portrait hanging in a gallery was very well written.

‘Seven Wood’, again, deals with a middle-aged man who murders his colleague in a fit of jealousy and rage. There were shades of brilliant black humour in this one that compelled me to think and laugh at the same time. The author displays considerable versatility by switching on to the fast track with the suspense genre. ‘The Lady with the Long Hair’ is not as effective as the others in the collection. 'The Great Escape' is thoroughly entertaining with twists and turns to keep one entertained! It has some very interesting characters who get caught in the middle of a robbery and murder on a train. The author delved into the mind of a greedy crook who progresses into a murderer without compunction. I would have loved to see him caught and punished though.

The one thing that interested me was the common feature of having characters from the armed forces, which was probably a natural choice for the author. And the fact that the stories were full of references to art and music that gave depth and dimension to the beautiful narrative. Also, the themes of infidelity and betrayal were common in all of them.

I look forward to more from this immensely talented author!

[Debolina Mukherjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven Stories comprises of seven very different stories albeit sharing some common undertones. The emotions range from that of unrequited love to treachery and of crafty criminals to jilted lovers. His language is unpretentious and wraps cozily around his characters softly egging the stories on. His characters borrow heavily from the author’s passions for music and painting as well as of golf and from his long career in the Air Force. The ex-Army officer in Drifting Shadow who has now turned into a painter, the gullible husband retired from the Army and with a dislike for modern paintings in Nude Portrait, the rebellious squadron leader from the Great Escape and finally the impulsive Flying Officer Chris in The Last Puff – while all of these characters display discrete emotions and conduct themselves very differently through the stories, they some how seem to converge into one master character. Although the narrative takes the reader through the lives of the protagonists, treading guardedly through their often bruised pasts, there seems to be a thin veil that covers them and hides their soul from the reader. But nonetheless what the author lacks in the depth of characterization is wholly compensated by the variety of plots. The pulsating search for an elusive critic in the midst of an airport to the quiet ascension of a symbiotic relationship between an older widow and her new tenant, from a murder waiting to be solved to the shattering life of a subdued and despairing woman; every story sets its unique pace and rhythm and a conclusion that at times is fulfilling while at others keeps you wanting for more.

These stories are not without its touches of brilliance such as in the Great Escape when two different characters think of the same ‘quilt’ in two different ways – while Veeru sees it as the ‘colourful quilt’, Joginder Singh remembers it as a ‘padded quilt’. Similarly in Save the Words, the different characters at the airport all culminate into one sweeping glance across terminal as the protagonist frantically searches for an unknown face. All in all, the Seven Stories by Ravi Bedi is a sure relief from the deluge of young adult love stories germinating in the indie book space right now and is a definite companion for a weekend afternoon.

[Angela Peixoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book I read by the author and I was not disappointed. I do like short stories and this is a very gripping collection that kept me turning the pages. All the stories were fabulous but my favourite were "The Nude Portrait", "Drifting Shadow" and " The Last Puff". The book is a hit without a doubt.

[Hardik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely bouquet of seven short stories, each of a different genre.

[Sadhuvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of seven stories - All of them belong to different genres and are very interesting to read !!!

My personal favorite stories are Drifting Shadow, The great escape and The last puff..

These stories are not really short and I liked the narrative style of the author..

Overall, I feel that this book is a light and interesting read..

My rating is 3.5/5.

[Jai Prakash Saini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating stories

Could not stop self finishing the book in one go reading all stories one by one, each admiringly more thrilling than the previous, ending with suspense lingering in mind. Language and style of writing made to feel as if witnessing it live.