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A Day in the Life: Stories
Quixotic nonconformists in small towns and young newly-weds trying to keep up with the times; a forlorn retiree helpless in the face of contemporary anger and a middle-class woman's bond with her maid. Fourteen well-crafted stories give us a sense of the daily life of a wide cast of characters. Hasan's protagonists are, as always, inward-looking, and whimsical and vulnerable outliers. Where is their place in the new order, where have they come from and where are they going?
Quietly devastating, subtly subversive and wonderfully wry, Hasan is a home-grown talent whose stories are increasingly the good address for authentic Indian fiction.
Quietly devastating, subtly subversive and wonderfully wry, Hasan is a home-grown talent whose stories are increasingly the good address for authentic Indian fiction.
256 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 2019
15 people are currently reading
396 people want to read
About the author
Anjum Hasan
17 books103 followersAnjum Hasan is an Indian poet and novelist. She was born in Shillong, Meghalaya and currently lives in Bangalore, India. She has also contributed poems, articles and short stories to various national and international publications.
Anjum is Books Editor, The Caravan.
Anjum is Books Editor, The Caravan.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 37 reviews
November 4, 2020
[One of t]he best English short story collection[s] by an Indian writer that I've ever read.
[the edit was found to be important]
[the edit was found to be important]
April 17, 2018
Loved A Day in the Life! This gem of a collection deserves a way more distinctive title.
I wanted to befriend so many of its characters, not least of all the last story’s small town-born Bangalore-based protagonist with a tumultous relationship with food (who could it be, hmm?). These are familiar characters somehow – the hilly-town hermit with back pain, ‘that most mundane of corporate world illnesses’, the youths at local Bangalore watering holes with names like Elite or Surya or Top Wines, the young woman roaming the gullies of Shivajinagar looking for her husband, the ‘balcony friends’ with same same but different lives, the widower uncle who finds the modern world too angry… It’s a pleasure to be witness to their inner monologues and the minutiae of their everyday lives, even if only for a few pages.
The collection could’ve done without ‘Yellow Rose’ and ‘Father and Son’, but they’re the smallest of awkward interludes in what is otherwise a perfect innings. I would read an entire novel set in the world of ‘The Stranger’, and want way more writing in the ilk of the wonderful ‘Luftan Mian’. I read this so fast over two sittings, but will definitely return to soak in the stories and Anjum Hasan’s rich, luxuriant prose a little more.
I wanted to befriend so many of its characters, not least of all the last story’s small town-born Bangalore-based protagonist with a tumultous relationship with food (who could it be, hmm?). These are familiar characters somehow – the hilly-town hermit with back pain, ‘that most mundane of corporate world illnesses’, the youths at local Bangalore watering holes with names like Elite or Surya or Top Wines, the young woman roaming the gullies of Shivajinagar looking for her husband, the ‘balcony friends’ with same same but different lives, the widower uncle who finds the modern world too angry… It’s a pleasure to be witness to their inner monologues and the minutiae of their everyday lives, even if only for a few pages.
The collection could’ve done without ‘Yellow Rose’ and ‘Father and Son’, but they’re the smallest of awkward interludes in what is otherwise a perfect innings. I would read an entire novel set in the world of ‘The Stranger’, and want way more writing in the ilk of the wonderful ‘Luftan Mian’. I read this so fast over two sittings, but will definitely return to soak in the stories and Anjum Hasan’s rich, luxuriant prose a little more.
April 22, 2025
This one was for my little Bangalorean heart🥂
June 13, 2021
What form would thoughts take if we didn’t allow then words?
The words from the book couldn’t be more true and they ring to my heart both as a reader and a writer.
Read more:
https://storywala.blogspot.com/2021/0...
The words from the book couldn’t be more true and they ring to my heart both as a reader and a writer.
Read more:
https://storywala.blogspot.com/2021/0...
April 16, 2018
Originally posted on my blog.
Where Fantasy, Desire, and the Everyday Meet: A Day in the Life by Anjum Hasan
A Day in the Life: Stories by Anjum Hasan is a collection of fourteen stories that "give us a sense of the daily life of a wide cast of characters," says the blurb on the book. On reading this, I was immediately reminded of Akhil Sharma's A Life of Adventure and Delight, a short story collection that I really enjoyed reading.
Hasan's collection, however, fell short of the expectations that I had built around it after reading the blurb. A Day in the Life failed to connect with me. It is not a bad collection, to be fair, and Hasan's writing is nothing short of observant, critical, and brilliant, but there were definitely some stories that I enjoyed more than others.
Desire Goes Global
Let's begin at the end, taking cue from Hasan's 'The Legend of Lutfan Mian'—a story that, in my opinion, fits uneasily with the rest of the collection—where the legend only begins at the end of the short story, where the last page announces, "And that is how it starts, the legend of Lutfan Mian."
I really liked the last story in the collection titled 'A Short History of Eating'. The protagonist of the story confesses, "I ate breakfast, two lunches and dinner, and was always hungry." The history of this insatiable hunger is narrated in the context of India's economic liberalisation at the turn of the 21st century.
"It wasn't just us, all our compatriots had fat and greedy hearts in that innocent turn-of-the-century time, that softly-spotlit-restaurant time when people had to learn to make conversation as they waited for their order to arrive."
'A Short History of Eating' captures how liberalisation created desire while widening the range of experience of what one ate, what one read, and what one saw. Everything that one desired and consumed had a global tinge to it.
An (Un)intended Intertexuality
The story 'The Question of Style'—my favourite from the collection—also captures the same but this time from the perspective of two young people who want to be stylish instead of being "skinny, awkward, myopic and unwealthy."
Eager to bring some novelty into their lives, the protagonist of the story attempts to give a 'Lady Diana haircut' to their younger sister, an attempt that leads to disaster. In a scene that is reminiscent of Maggie Tulliver cutting off her hair in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, the elder sister snips away at the younger one's hair. This bildungsroman of a short story ends on this note,
"We remained children for a little longer, still yearning for the sophistications of an adult world, till that too passed and we became, for better or worse, the people we were meant to be, no more those we hoped to become."
The intertexuality in 'The Question of Style' is probably unintended—the comparison to The Mill on the Floss is perhaps a reading that I, as a reader, have brought to the story—but the opposite is true for 'A Short History of Eating', where the protagonist desires the food that they read about in books such as David Copperfield, Little Women, and The Guide.
"Yet food was a fantasy—not this that existed around me, but that which the magazines sometimes illustrated, that adults described from another lifetime, that children ate in rosy Blyton land."
Where Fantasy, Desire, and the Everyday Meet
Desire is, therefore, linked very closely to fantasy-making. The protagonist of 'A Short History of Eating' is obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and the legend of Lutfan Mian begins in Benares (present-day Varanasi), a city described in great detail and fantastical words.
"Again the city starts winking its mysteries at him—an arm covered with bright bangles flashing in an upper window, the almost human voice of an astrologer's parrot at a street corner."
A dazed Lutfan—who came to this town harbouring the desire of buying a silk saree for his bride-to-be—asks,
"How can one person's desires stand out in Benares, where there are seemingly a hundred temples with the gilded feet of multitudes of gods to lay every possible prater at?"
In Hasan's stories, the everyday is not opposed to fantastical worlds built in the mind, but desire, fantasy, and the everyday meet to create the narratives inhabited by her characters.
The Limits of Zeitgeist
Having discussed the end and the middle, let me return to the beginning of this short story collection. In an interview with Firstpost, Hasan expressed her preoccupation with the German word/idea of zeitgeist. She said,
"One element of the zeitgeist is certainly this sense of inconsequentiality – the feeling that the important things are happening elsewhere, in the news or in other people’s lives, but not to us. . . I am fascinated by characters who feel wasted or out of sync with the times."
The protagonist of the first story titled 'The Stranger' seems to be modeled on this fascination. 'The Stranger' is the story of a man who finds himself unsuited to the modern era. Fashioning himself as an 'old-time explorer' and desiring to inhabit visions and worlds experienced by non-city dwellers, he retires to a small and lesser-known hill town where he finds himself somewhere closer to the ultimate Truth.
If that doesn't sound tropey to you, then what does? What's more, this man accepts that he is just a grown man with nothing to do; a man who might be hyper-aware of the politico-social scenarios around him in one moment in time and be found dozing off in just the next moment. He says,
"I envy those men in the procession. . . Do something, I'd thought. But it's already gone and I am back to this—the slow combustion rather than the blazing anger."
It goes without saying, 'The Stranger' was my least favourite story of the collection and the weakest of the lot, in my opinion. The story highlights the limits of Hasan's application of zeitgeist: it falls very quickly into overused tropes, weakening the overall narrative.
Finally, A Day in the Life could perhaps have been a powerful collection if not for a handful of stories; if only the thematic threads were woven tighter and the streams of thought not lost indefinitely.
_______________
A Day in the Life: Stories by Anjum Hasan, published by Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House, 2018.
* This book was sent to me for review by the publisher through a review program coordinated by Vivek Tejuja of The Hungry Reader. The views expressed, however, are entirely my own.
Where Fantasy, Desire, and the Everyday Meet: A Day in the Life by Anjum Hasan
A Day in the Life: Stories by Anjum Hasan is a collection of fourteen stories that "give us a sense of the daily life of a wide cast of characters," says the blurb on the book. On reading this, I was immediately reminded of Akhil Sharma's A Life of Adventure and Delight, a short story collection that I really enjoyed reading.
Hasan's collection, however, fell short of the expectations that I had built around it after reading the blurb. A Day in the Life failed to connect with me. It is not a bad collection, to be fair, and Hasan's writing is nothing short of observant, critical, and brilliant, but there were definitely some stories that I enjoyed more than others.
Desire Goes Global
Let's begin at the end, taking cue from Hasan's 'The Legend of Lutfan Mian'—a story that, in my opinion, fits uneasily with the rest of the collection—where the legend only begins at the end of the short story, where the last page announces, "And that is how it starts, the legend of Lutfan Mian."
I really liked the last story in the collection titled 'A Short History of Eating'. The protagonist of the story confesses, "I ate breakfast, two lunches and dinner, and was always hungry." The history of this insatiable hunger is narrated in the context of India's economic liberalisation at the turn of the 21st century.
"It wasn't just us, all our compatriots had fat and greedy hearts in that innocent turn-of-the-century time, that softly-spotlit-restaurant time when people had to learn to make conversation as they waited for their order to arrive."
'A Short History of Eating' captures how liberalisation created desire while widening the range of experience of what one ate, what one read, and what one saw. Everything that one desired and consumed had a global tinge to it.
An (Un)intended Intertexuality
The story 'The Question of Style'—my favourite from the collection—also captures the same but this time from the perspective of two young people who want to be stylish instead of being "skinny, awkward, myopic and unwealthy."
Eager to bring some novelty into their lives, the protagonist of the story attempts to give a 'Lady Diana haircut' to their younger sister, an attempt that leads to disaster. In a scene that is reminiscent of Maggie Tulliver cutting off her hair in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, the elder sister snips away at the younger one's hair. This bildungsroman of a short story ends on this note,
"We remained children for a little longer, still yearning for the sophistications of an adult world, till that too passed and we became, for better or worse, the people we were meant to be, no more those we hoped to become."
The intertexuality in 'The Question of Style' is probably unintended—the comparison to The Mill on the Floss is perhaps a reading that I, as a reader, have brought to the story—but the opposite is true for 'A Short History of Eating', where the protagonist desires the food that they read about in books such as David Copperfield, Little Women, and The Guide.
"Yet food was a fantasy—not this that existed around me, but that which the magazines sometimes illustrated, that adults described from another lifetime, that children ate in rosy Blyton land."
Where Fantasy, Desire, and the Everyday Meet
Desire is, therefore, linked very closely to fantasy-making. The protagonist of 'A Short History of Eating' is obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and the legend of Lutfan Mian begins in Benares (present-day Varanasi), a city described in great detail and fantastical words.
"Again the city starts winking its mysteries at him—an arm covered with bright bangles flashing in an upper window, the almost human voice of an astrologer's parrot at a street corner."
A dazed Lutfan—who came to this town harbouring the desire of buying a silk saree for his bride-to-be—asks,
"How can one person's desires stand out in Benares, where there are seemingly a hundred temples with the gilded feet of multitudes of gods to lay every possible prater at?"
In Hasan's stories, the everyday is not opposed to fantastical worlds built in the mind, but desire, fantasy, and the everyday meet to create the narratives inhabited by her characters.
The Limits of Zeitgeist
Having discussed the end and the middle, let me return to the beginning of this short story collection. In an interview with Firstpost, Hasan expressed her preoccupation with the German word/idea of zeitgeist. She said,
"One element of the zeitgeist is certainly this sense of inconsequentiality – the feeling that the important things are happening elsewhere, in the news or in other people’s lives, but not to us. . . I am fascinated by characters who feel wasted or out of sync with the times."
The protagonist of the first story titled 'The Stranger' seems to be modeled on this fascination. 'The Stranger' is the story of a man who finds himself unsuited to the modern era. Fashioning himself as an 'old-time explorer' and desiring to inhabit visions and worlds experienced by non-city dwellers, he retires to a small and lesser-known hill town where he finds himself somewhere closer to the ultimate Truth.
If that doesn't sound tropey to you, then what does? What's more, this man accepts that he is just a grown man with nothing to do; a man who might be hyper-aware of the politico-social scenarios around him in one moment in time and be found dozing off in just the next moment. He says,
"I envy those men in the procession. . . Do something, I'd thought. But it's already gone and I am back to this—the slow combustion rather than the blazing anger."
It goes without saying, 'The Stranger' was my least favourite story of the collection and the weakest of the lot, in my opinion. The story highlights the limits of Hasan's application of zeitgeist: it falls very quickly into overused tropes, weakening the overall narrative.
Finally, A Day in the Life could perhaps have been a powerful collection if not for a handful of stories; if only the thematic threads were woven tighter and the streams of thought not lost indefinitely.
_______________
A Day in the Life: Stories by Anjum Hasan, published by Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House, 2018.
* This book was sent to me for review by the publisher through a review program coordinated by Vivek Tejuja of The Hungry Reader. The views expressed, however, are entirely my own.
November 26, 2021
I firmly believe that writing short stories is very difficult so it is a great pleasure to find such book which i got one here so a big thanks to my dear friend who gifted me the same :-)
Anjum Hasan is a great writer which i discovered too in my first book. It covers a wide range of people from retirees and young mothers to cyborgs and maid servants, the depth in which each character is dealt with, the detailing and the way the story is told all bring a uniquely enriching experience.
The 230 pages are filled with gems like these: “What form would thoughts take if we didn’t allow them words?” Or “There’s no why to the wind,” a refrain to the story titled ‘Bird Love.’
One of the story -‘A Short History of Eating,’ is entirely constructed on the shared culinary passion of a married couple who for years lived with the dictum “Food was our food of love.”
“My husband and I often make salted porridge for dinner. We don’t eat French fries more than once in four weeks. We still speak of food — remember the risotto in Verona, that bag of smoked prawns in Waxholmen, that dumpling soup in the old quarter of Beijing, remember that…? We go out for a meal now and then. We order a plate of something and a drink or two. We share a main course, we skip the sweet. And after we have finished, paid the bill, are walking home through the drizzle, it occurs to us that we are full. That is, we realise we are no longer hungry.” It is a unique way of story telling which makes you enjoy every single page :)
Hasan explores many of the relevant experiences of life in present-day India which made me think and reflect too which ensured i read and savored all slowly!
Anjum Hasan is a great writer which i discovered too in my first book. It covers a wide range of people from retirees and young mothers to cyborgs and maid servants, the depth in which each character is dealt with, the detailing and the way the story is told all bring a uniquely enriching experience.
The 230 pages are filled with gems like these: “What form would thoughts take if we didn’t allow them words?” Or “There’s no why to the wind,” a refrain to the story titled ‘Bird Love.’
One of the story -‘A Short History of Eating,’ is entirely constructed on the shared culinary passion of a married couple who for years lived with the dictum “Food was our food of love.”
“My husband and I often make salted porridge for dinner. We don’t eat French fries more than once in four weeks. We still speak of food — remember the risotto in Verona, that bag of smoked prawns in Waxholmen, that dumpling soup in the old quarter of Beijing, remember that…? We go out for a meal now and then. We order a plate of something and a drink or two. We share a main course, we skip the sweet. And after we have finished, paid the bill, are walking home through the drizzle, it occurs to us that we are full. That is, we realise we are no longer hungry.” It is a unique way of story telling which makes you enjoy every single page :)
Hasan explores many of the relevant experiences of life in present-day India which made me think and reflect too which ensured i read and savored all slowly!
June 3, 2024
I have read this book through the years.. each story paints a different picture of the human condition, a retired clerk breaking away from his metro city life in a small town, female friendships and its complexities, emotions surrounding moving houses, couple shared passion for food… In some you walk with the protagonist in exploration, in few you stare in wonder.. but nuanced portrayal of the days in a life of mundane characters living the ordinary life. Extraordinariness of the ordinary!
February 21, 2021
A bit too tropey for my liking. Maybe I keep looking for the author who wrote Lunatic in my Head and keep bumping into the one who wrote Neti, Neti.
Some of the stories are good, but there's only that much about urban ennui that you can read.
Some of the stories are good, but there's only that much about urban ennui that you can read.
Read
November 21, 2022An interesting set of short stories mostly based in Bangalore. I really enjoyed quite a few of them though there were some misses and the language seemed unnecessarily highbrow almost throughout the book.
December 28, 2025
absolutely loved. stylish was funny
May 24, 2025
A delightful collection of Short stories which don't disappoint at all
April 15, 2018
I wake up, the arms aching from a night’s cold, from having slept but not feeling rested. I remember a professor, in my final year of my bachelor’s degree, one that feels a little useless in life right now, tell the class how you should start your day with a touch of art. “Wake up at 6, watch a film, read a few pages of a book. It will be the best start to the day.” His words echo, from a simpler past, a peaceful life.
Anjum Hasan’s ‘a Day in the Life’ rest by my bedside. It has a beautiful cover design, little moments captured on canvas, or digital, I cannot say. The first story among a collection of 14, is “The Stranger”.
I pick it up, and then decide, from the languid pace of her first few sentences, that this is a book that will take me somewhere else, maybe. It's about a middle-aged man who has retired to a small town, which has a past but cannot quite shift gears to the future. This in-between space exists, and we have all seen it. In this space, communal riots happen, but they don't make much sense, retired personnels of the armies live, with their stories, with their old age. Sujay Gowda, Vincent Rodriguez, and our narrator.
I bathe, contribute to a few house chores, and head to work. In the train, I read “Sisters”. Jaan and Jamini, one first world, one blue-collared labourer. On the first page, I've made a margin note - “me today” against the following sentence:
She closes her eyes in order to find a point beyond pain, searches in the debris of her fever-racked mind for an earful spot in which to rest her sore bones. But every corner has been ambushed by the same word. Sick.
Right now, I don't remember why I did that. But I remember feeling that this was a clichéd story, talking about the lives of the rich versus the lives of the poor and how their world-view sometimes help each other out.
My week begins like this. A new book, each about the day in the life of a character. Each story intertwines with my own days. “The Question of Style” about Daisy and her elder sister, grow up, from aspiring to be “stylish” - a word that in the Indian contexts takes many meanings- because they were “telu”. I know this feeling, I was an uncultured child in a convent full of the “stylish” girls, who knew the latest fashion, English movies and music, and had boyfriends when they were still in school.
The Legend of Lutfan Mian takes me, travelling, one among the many millions, to the Benares of 1872, when two friends take a trip - for one, a rite of passage, for another, a routine. Lutfan Mian and Gopal, fighting, laughing and walking along to a destination. A time in another century, when being a messenger was a career for fast runners like Gopal, and when buying a silk saree for your bride-to-be was the high-point of your week.
Then, that adventure is retold by many, stories that run in the family, and become legend.
Mathew and Gulfam make for an interesting pair in “Yellow Rose”, in a tale about a girl with the ‘soul of a cyborg’ and a regular guy. Are they friends? Will they be lovers? One day can change every equation, and eventually, you may find home, or a person to call home, even in the overwhelmingly crowded cities.
Recently, my cousin secured a small scholarship on the day of my grandfather’s death anniversary. The family was elated. He was with us, this was a sign. Do our elders return? We try. The day of the dead takes various forms. Here, it’s the crow, who Kalpana and her three-year-old son Monu wait for, while the narrator, her neighbour, is also out in the balcony. Mothers who stay at home, and their routine. A headache, a happiness.
Then, “Lady with the Dog” - set in Sweden. A good story, yet familiar, like it has been repackaged a little too obviously. “Bird Love” or the day of a wife, Punitha, who has come to a town bigger than her parents’ and who spends her days in cooking and waiting for her husband. Fluttering, like the birds on her window, wondering what life has in store, what surprises she will meet with. Her worst fear so far? That her husband, Partha, may be a non-vegetarian. You understand them both, her hesitance and his ambition.
Then, I shut the book. I am a little dead, hearing of little girls being raped. “I Am Very Angry”. The next story resonates my mood. I am the lonely man, TS Murthy, the old soul, who wishes for nothing but peace, and around me, people like the Krishnaraos who are constantly angry, fighting, shouting. I want to shout too, I want to tell the world that I am angry. But who cares? I will steal what I can; an afternoon of peace, sitting with someone I can tolerate, watching some TV.
If you live in a city, you know shady bars, with names like "Elite". You know that sometimes, guys and girls meet there, that there are brawls, that sometimes, men hit the waiters for an “insult”. Sometimes you intervene, and confront. Sometimes you don’t.
I am 24, and I have complaints that reflect my pampered upbringing. "Nur", is out, looking for her husband Salim, who has disappeared with her money. She prays for him to come back, so that she may have kids. Till then, she will think about pani puri and raw mangoes. Life will move on.
“Father, Son”. Sweet, bitter. Bitter, Sweet. Cycles of discord and making up. But sometimes, the city can stop you from reconciliation with your own child. And that is okay. Sometimes, you will be tired of taking buses and rickshaws, following directions, going around in circles. You will want to compose poetry, take in the moment, but this constant motion will not let you. It is okay, you can grab a drink, be the poet you are, and take care of your troubles tomorrow.
“Little Granny’s Song” - the story of a poor, old, crippled woman. A day in her life. A day of pain, nostalgia, longing. A day close to death. And then, finally, “A Short History of Eating”. Young couple, eating out, trying everything new. And suddenly, there is too much of it, there are too many restaurants and too many cuisines and suddenly, instead of food discovering you, it feels like it will out to get you.
And then the book shuts close. And my day, now turned into a weekend, turns to more domestic concerns. The little moments are there, but I am too fast to catch them.
Favourite Quote:
Later, he would see her going past the house...dressed strangely, in flapping salwars and army boots...always apparently in some place other than the one her body was restlessly moving through.
Recommended Age Group: 18 and above
Final Verdict: – Go to a bookstore and buy it. Pay those extra bucks.
Anjum Hasan’s ‘a Day in the Life’ rest by my bedside. It has a beautiful cover design, little moments captured on canvas, or digital, I cannot say. The first story among a collection of 14, is “The Stranger”.
I pick it up, and then decide, from the languid pace of her first few sentences, that this is a book that will take me somewhere else, maybe. It's about a middle-aged man who has retired to a small town, which has a past but cannot quite shift gears to the future. This in-between space exists, and we have all seen it. In this space, communal riots happen, but they don't make much sense, retired personnels of the armies live, with their stories, with their old age. Sujay Gowda, Vincent Rodriguez, and our narrator.
I bathe, contribute to a few house chores, and head to work. In the train, I read “Sisters”. Jaan and Jamini, one first world, one blue-collared labourer. On the first page, I've made a margin note - “me today” against the following sentence:
She closes her eyes in order to find a point beyond pain, searches in the debris of her fever-racked mind for an earful spot in which to rest her sore bones. But every corner has been ambushed by the same word. Sick.
Right now, I don't remember why I did that. But I remember feeling that this was a clichéd story, talking about the lives of the rich versus the lives of the poor and how their world-view sometimes help each other out.
My week begins like this. A new book, each about the day in the life of a character. Each story intertwines with my own days. “The Question of Style” about Daisy and her elder sister, grow up, from aspiring to be “stylish” - a word that in the Indian contexts takes many meanings- because they were “telu”. I know this feeling, I was an uncultured child in a convent full of the “stylish” girls, who knew the latest fashion, English movies and music, and had boyfriends when they were still in school.
The Legend of Lutfan Mian takes me, travelling, one among the many millions, to the Benares of 1872, when two friends take a trip - for one, a rite of passage, for another, a routine. Lutfan Mian and Gopal, fighting, laughing and walking along to a destination. A time in another century, when being a messenger was a career for fast runners like Gopal, and when buying a silk saree for your bride-to-be was the high-point of your week.
Then, that adventure is retold by many, stories that run in the family, and become legend.
Mathew and Gulfam make for an interesting pair in “Yellow Rose”, in a tale about a girl with the ‘soul of a cyborg’ and a regular guy. Are they friends? Will they be lovers? One day can change every equation, and eventually, you may find home, or a person to call home, even in the overwhelmingly crowded cities.
Recently, my cousin secured a small scholarship on the day of my grandfather’s death anniversary. The family was elated. He was with us, this was a sign. Do our elders return? We try. The day of the dead takes various forms. Here, it’s the crow, who Kalpana and her three-year-old son Monu wait for, while the narrator, her neighbour, is also out in the balcony. Mothers who stay at home, and their routine. A headache, a happiness.
Then, “Lady with the Dog” - set in Sweden. A good story, yet familiar, like it has been repackaged a little too obviously. “Bird Love” or the day of a wife, Punitha, who has come to a town bigger than her parents’ and who spends her days in cooking and waiting for her husband. Fluttering, like the birds on her window, wondering what life has in store, what surprises she will meet with. Her worst fear so far? That her husband, Partha, may be a non-vegetarian. You understand them both, her hesitance and his ambition.
Then, I shut the book. I am a little dead, hearing of little girls being raped. “I Am Very Angry”. The next story resonates my mood. I am the lonely man, TS Murthy, the old soul, who wishes for nothing but peace, and around me, people like the Krishnaraos who are constantly angry, fighting, shouting. I want to shout too, I want to tell the world that I am angry. But who cares? I will steal what I can; an afternoon of peace, sitting with someone I can tolerate, watching some TV.
If you live in a city, you know shady bars, with names like "Elite". You know that sometimes, guys and girls meet there, that there are brawls, that sometimes, men hit the waiters for an “insult”. Sometimes you intervene, and confront. Sometimes you don’t.
I am 24, and I have complaints that reflect my pampered upbringing. "Nur", is out, looking for her husband Salim, who has disappeared with her money. She prays for him to come back, so that she may have kids. Till then, she will think about pani puri and raw mangoes. Life will move on.
“Father, Son”. Sweet, bitter. Bitter, Sweet. Cycles of discord and making up. But sometimes, the city can stop you from reconciliation with your own child. And that is okay. Sometimes, you will be tired of taking buses and rickshaws, following directions, going around in circles. You will want to compose poetry, take in the moment, but this constant motion will not let you. It is okay, you can grab a drink, be the poet you are, and take care of your troubles tomorrow.
“Little Granny’s Song” - the story of a poor, old, crippled woman. A day in her life. A day of pain, nostalgia, longing. A day close to death. And then, finally, “A Short History of Eating”. Young couple, eating out, trying everything new. And suddenly, there is too much of it, there are too many restaurants and too many cuisines and suddenly, instead of food discovering you, it feels like it will out to get you.
And then the book shuts close. And my day, now turned into a weekend, turns to more domestic concerns. The little moments are there, but I am too fast to catch them.
Favourite Quote:
Later, he would see her going past the house...dressed strangely, in flapping salwars and army boots...always apparently in some place other than the one her body was restlessly moving through.
Recommended Age Group: 18 and above
Final Verdict: – Go to a bookstore and buy it. Pay those extra bucks.
February 5, 2025
I greatly enjoyed this bunch of stories. All of them made for interesting reading while some had a kind of an abrupt ending I.e. sometimes I didn't get the point of a story though it was interesting all through. One of the main characters in a story is a sociologist and the story half-way through took the form of a nonfiction essay. I don't know if the author is a sociologist by education but I had a feeling all the other stories took a particular sociological issue like influx of migrants into Bangalore - a lot of the stories are set in Bangalore, vegetarianism vs non-vegetarianism, surfeit of restaurants offering myriad cuisines mushrooming in Bangalore, problems of old age, problems of domestic workers, urban loneliness etc and wove a story around them but in a very nuanced manner. I will read more of this author. Recommended.
Rating: 4.5
Rating: 4.5
September 11, 2021
A brilliant short story collection that I'll be reading again. Too close to home. Most of the stories are based in Bangalore, and you realize the sheer pleasure you get when you read something that you've experienced, be it the mundane drudgery of modern work culture which she explores in so many of her characters, or the Banaras of pre- independence times or the most uncomfortable of all - the soaring inequality in the developing cities of India. She effortlessly spins the privileged world of the tall peaceful apartments with the lurking blue tarpaulins gradually becoming invisible in the background. The stories that were meditative for me would include The Stranger, Sisters, Nur, and A Short History of Eating.
In a few others, I found the writer overpowering the characters and the social commentary was a bit forced.
In a few others, I found the writer overpowering the characters and the social commentary was a bit forced.
August 5, 2018
A collection of short stories that stick to its by-line pretty well- a day in the life(of many).
April 22, 2018
I read somewhere recently that reviewing a book is all about giving it an identity. If that is so, how do you review a book of short stories? Each story has its own identity. The easiest way to do so is to write one-line reviews of each short story. I have done it before, and it's the coward's way out. The other way is to look for common themes in each of the stories - what ties them together?
Anjum Hasan's A Day in the Life is about the common man and woman, the ones who seem to be doing nothing spectacular with their days, and yet the very fact of their life is fascinating in itself, if seen through the right lens.
And so we have a man who has taken a step back from corporate life and settled in a village. Or a woman who is sick and stuck in her high-rise apartment. A newly married woman trying to settle into married life. There are two little girls in search of that elusive thing called style. A mother struggling to get back to her thesis writing while looking after her young daughter. A bedridden old woman, waiting for death in her nephew's house. A young man who wants to buy his bride-to-be a sari of expensive Banarasi silk, in the Banaras of the nineteenth century.
They are all very real people; surely there must be hundreds or even thousands such everywhere. Anjum Hasan's talent lies in bringing them to life in her precise and laid-back style, and making them interesting and relatable. Her stories have a very "material" quality to them, as if you can hold them in your hands and examine them, pick them apart if you wish to.
As always with her, it is the Bangalore stories that stand out (or maybe those were the ones I related to the most). In the story "I Am Very Angry", an old man tries to get used to his new neighbours, who fight too loudly for his liking (his new neighbours seem to be a metaphor for the changes in the city around him). In "Nur", a young Muslim girl tries to find out where her no-good husband has gotten to. In "Sisters", a sick rich woman who is stuck in a high-rise builds a sisterly bond with her forthright maid, who nurses her back to health. Each story showcases a different aspect of this varied city.
Overall, this is a book of stories that will stay with you. Days or weeks or months after reading it, you will suddenly recall something from it, maybe a line or a smell or an incident, and try to recall from where, because it will feel as real as if you had experienced it yourself, and then remember that it was, in fact, a story you read in a book long long ago.
Anjum Hasan's A Day in the Life is about the common man and woman, the ones who seem to be doing nothing spectacular with their days, and yet the very fact of their life is fascinating in itself, if seen through the right lens.
And so we have a man who has taken a step back from corporate life and settled in a village. Or a woman who is sick and stuck in her high-rise apartment. A newly married woman trying to settle into married life. There are two little girls in search of that elusive thing called style. A mother struggling to get back to her thesis writing while looking after her young daughter. A bedridden old woman, waiting for death in her nephew's house. A young man who wants to buy his bride-to-be a sari of expensive Banarasi silk, in the Banaras of the nineteenth century.
They are all very real people; surely there must be hundreds or even thousands such everywhere. Anjum Hasan's talent lies in bringing them to life in her precise and laid-back style, and making them interesting and relatable. Her stories have a very "material" quality to them, as if you can hold them in your hands and examine them, pick them apart if you wish to.
As always with her, it is the Bangalore stories that stand out (or maybe those were the ones I related to the most). In the story "I Am Very Angry", an old man tries to get used to his new neighbours, who fight too loudly for his liking (his new neighbours seem to be a metaphor for the changes in the city around him). In "Nur", a young Muslim girl tries to find out where her no-good husband has gotten to. In "Sisters", a sick rich woman who is stuck in a high-rise builds a sisterly bond with her forthright maid, who nurses her back to health. Each story showcases a different aspect of this varied city.
Overall, this is a book of stories that will stay with you. Days or weeks or months after reading it, you will suddenly recall something from it, maybe a line or a smell or an incident, and try to recall from where, because it will feel as real as if you had experienced it yourself, and then remember that it was, in fact, a story you read in a book long long ago.
March 15, 2021
"What form would thoughts take if we didn't allow them words? "
-Anjum Hasan , A day in the life
Oh my God.. Do I even have the right words to desribe how I felt reading this book.
I picked up "A day in the life" by Anjum Hasan for the Week 1 prompt of #femmemarchatwomaniyat by @womaniyat : Short story collection by Indian Female author.
I am completely in awe of Anjum Hasan and her praiseworthy writing style . She vividly paints a beautifully world with her enriched prose . 14 different stories 14 different worlds skillfully written, cosy and warm like a blanket around your feet on a cold winter night, you never want to let go. You seamlessly enter each one of them and live with these characters some you wish you never entered , some making you want to stay in longer.
I was supposed to finish this book last week but I ended up not finishing for two reasons one of them being lack of time to read. Swipe to see the next reason. Yeah! I do not remember when was the last time I made notes or highlighted a passage. But this book makes you want to pick up a pen and underline/highlight quotes and thoughts every page once.. I found myself reading out 'The Stranger" aloud for 5 mins devouring the elegant flavor of her words on my tongue..
THIS is literature
The questions by the author keep lingering in your mind and heart forever for Eg she writes this: "Who was it that said sorrow is a difficult emotion to handle than anger?" And I was wowed . My favorite stories were The first two stories The stranger and The sisters by the time I was blown ! Her writing is like a breath of fresh air..Anjum Hasan , my new found gem whose other books I cannot wait to try.
-Anjum Hasan , A day in the life
Oh my God.. Do I even have the right words to desribe how I felt reading this book.
I picked up "A day in the life" by Anjum Hasan for the Week 1 prompt of #femmemarchatwomaniyat by @womaniyat : Short story collection by Indian Female author.
I am completely in awe of Anjum Hasan and her praiseworthy writing style . She vividly paints a beautifully world with her enriched prose . 14 different stories 14 different worlds skillfully written, cosy and warm like a blanket around your feet on a cold winter night, you never want to let go. You seamlessly enter each one of them and live with these characters some you wish you never entered , some making you want to stay in longer.
I was supposed to finish this book last week but I ended up not finishing for two reasons one of them being lack of time to read. Swipe to see the next reason. Yeah! I do not remember when was the last time I made notes or highlighted a passage. But this book makes you want to pick up a pen and underline/highlight quotes and thoughts every page once.. I found myself reading out 'The Stranger" aloud for 5 mins devouring the elegant flavor of her words on my tongue..
THIS is literature
The questions by the author keep lingering in your mind and heart forever for Eg she writes this: "Who was it that said sorrow is a difficult emotion to handle than anger?" And I was wowed . My favorite stories were The first two stories The stranger and The sisters by the time I was blown ! Her writing is like a breath of fresh air..Anjum Hasan , my new found gem whose other books I cannot wait to try.
April 25, 2018
My commitment to reading is on it's lowest this year - specially with all my free time going on binging sitcoms (guilty as charged) and work. But when I got my hands on Anjum Hasan's A day in the life - short stories - I was totally up for it. I feel short stories are less of a commitment, you can read one and then come back to the book whenever you want.
The book comes in a lovely rich hardcover with 230 pages of decent sized font telling different stories. The cover design is well done too - giving hints on the different characters/stories. I have not read any previous book by the author so I did not know what to be expecting. In-fact I did not even know its a lady!
The author has a great choice of words, has written the stories really well. It's not a quick read, you need to be slow with the pages. I thought some of the phrases used were quiet interesting, for instance - "a whole rain-fed lushness trying to break out of the earth and swallow the town." I could almost imagine and visualise this. Or - "Four months straight it rained with pounding emergency, bookended by two of drizzle."
I won't reveal the stories or plots - you have to read for yourself to know. Love the old world charm yet modern reality in the stories.
The book comes in a lovely rich hardcover with 230 pages of decent sized font telling different stories. The cover design is well done too - giving hints on the different characters/stories. I have not read any previous book by the author so I did not know what to be expecting. In-fact I did not even know its a lady!
The author has a great choice of words, has written the stories really well. It's not a quick read, you need to be slow with the pages. I thought some of the phrases used were quiet interesting, for instance - "a whole rain-fed lushness trying to break out of the earth and swallow the town." I could almost imagine and visualise this. Or - "Four months straight it rained with pounding emergency, bookended by two of drizzle."
I won't reveal the stories or plots - you have to read for yourself to know. Love the old world charm yet modern reality in the stories.
April 16, 2018
Short stories have always amazed me with the change in the reading they provide in just a few pages.
A day in the life by Anjum Hasan is but a different take by the type of stories, the intensity of its issues and how it captures the mind of the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one especially because it became like a writing dose for an entire week. Like medicine I was taking one story after each meal, twice a day – Hah! All stories are beautiful!
Intelligently weaved stories with a sly sense of writing, the book takes you through different era of the world, makes you peek into the lives of different people at different points of time making you live through an entirely new scenario and wonder how freshly the writer has brought such dynamic world into words. A lot of ironies and witty writing, engulfing into a intensely capturing of the mind of the reader, the book asks a lot of questions while also silently answering many of them.
Hasan’s characters are whimsical and on some journey which even they don’t sseem to understand well.
It was quite an intimate read with stories making you wonder about the state of vulnerability people go through, the state of their thinking and how the world becomes an outcast of shadow designed by society for them. Somewhere you shall find a sense of lingering desire in each of the characters to do something differently and that is where the strength of the story lies.
Anjum Hasan has done a beautiful play with the words and enjoyed her freedom of holding a pen to its best! It’s one of those reads where the writer has definitely made a brave use of words.
A day in the life by Anjum Hasan is but a different take by the type of stories, the intensity of its issues and how it captures the mind of the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one especially because it became like a writing dose for an entire week. Like medicine I was taking one story after each meal, twice a day – Hah! All stories are beautiful!
Intelligently weaved stories with a sly sense of writing, the book takes you through different era of the world, makes you peek into the lives of different people at different points of time making you live through an entirely new scenario and wonder how freshly the writer has brought such dynamic world into words. A lot of ironies and witty writing, engulfing into a intensely capturing of the mind of the reader, the book asks a lot of questions while also silently answering many of them.
Hasan’s characters are whimsical and on some journey which even they don’t sseem to understand well.
It was quite an intimate read with stories making you wonder about the state of vulnerability people go through, the state of their thinking and how the world becomes an outcast of shadow designed by society for them. Somewhere you shall find a sense of lingering desire in each of the characters to do something differently and that is where the strength of the story lies.
Anjum Hasan has done a beautiful play with the words and enjoyed her freedom of holding a pen to its best! It’s one of those reads where the writer has definitely made a brave use of words.
November 30, 2021
4.5/5
What an underrated gem of a collection this is! Absolutely loved it! Immersive storytelling, an incredible set of characters and exquisite prose that made me want to forget it just so that I could read it all over again.
The beauty of these stories are in their familiar-but-not-quite settings, the set of characters that you've either come across in your life or feel a tangible sense of connection to and the wickedly rich, lyrical prose that binds them all seamlessly together transporting you to a stuffy 2BHK in a high rise (Sisters) or a gloomy mossy hill town (The Stranger). Anjum Hasan is a phenomenally gifted writer, drawing you in with her quiet, thoughtful observations in a droll and delightful way. A couple of stories fell quite short of the mark but that is only a small blip in an otherwise stellar collection.
100/100 would recommend this book to everyone, particularly those who wish to read contemporary Indian writing
What an underrated gem of a collection this is! Absolutely loved it! Immersive storytelling, an incredible set of characters and exquisite prose that made me want to forget it just so that I could read it all over again.
The beauty of these stories are in their familiar-but-not-quite settings, the set of characters that you've either come across in your life or feel a tangible sense of connection to and the wickedly rich, lyrical prose that binds them all seamlessly together transporting you to a stuffy 2BHK in a high rise (Sisters) or a gloomy mossy hill town (The Stranger). Anjum Hasan is a phenomenally gifted writer, drawing you in with her quiet, thoughtful observations in a droll and delightful way. A couple of stories fell quite short of the mark but that is only a small blip in an otherwise stellar collection.
100/100 would recommend this book to everyone, particularly those who wish to read contemporary Indian writing
January 13, 2019
This is one of the best collections of short stories I've read. Anjum Hasan is a writer of intent - her words convey multitudes without any excess. There are several stunningly perfect turns of phrases throughout the book - I have quite defaced my copy with all the underlining. But of course, words mean little without coherence, and Hasan tells stories that are immediate, urban and panoramic. The voices of the characters are distinct and each story draws you into its slice of life, equally entertaining and enthralling in their emotive descriptions of city dwellers, be they addled by existence or
discovering life's pleasant side. A truly wonderful book.
discovering life's pleasant side. A truly wonderful book.
June 18, 2019
An absolutely delightful collection of short stories from an immensely talented chronicler of modern indian life! Extremely scrupulous attention to the most prosaic details in every scene, and a talent for spotting and magnifying interesting little details about everyday life that most would miss or find mundane. As with any collection, not all the stories are of equal calibre, but the highs are really, really high-- in particular, she is at her best when she is writing about the simple, straightforward people living their uncomplicated lives in the sleepy mist-blanketed hills from her childhood (she grew up in Shillong).
Very highly recommended!
Very highly recommended!
April 10, 2020
It's been a while since I read short stories, so I cannot give a proper review of the stories or the genre. But, I really enjoyed these very crisply written gems, some more than others. I didn't quite understand The Stranger and The Lady with the Dog. If anyone understands them, kindly enlighten me!
My favourite ones were The Legend of Lutfan Mian, A short History of Eating, Sisters (this was the best!) , and I am very angry.
Hasan really has a knack for telling really simple stories. Like the title of the book, A day in the life conjures different experiences for each of us, and if anything, makes us learn more about ourselves. Really glad to have come across this book!
My favourite ones were The Legend of Lutfan Mian, A short History of Eating, Sisters (this was the best!) , and I am very angry.
Hasan really has a knack for telling really simple stories. Like the title of the book, A day in the life conjures different experiences for each of us, and if anything, makes us learn more about ourselves. Really glad to have come across this book!
August 28, 2019
Each story resonates in reality, with a day in the life of many. My personal favorite is 'a short history of eating' for its playfulness to be reminiscent of some great works of literature while carving out a delectable food journey. Anjum's writing pushes the reader to pause and contemplate on the subjectivity of her words.
'What form would thoughts take if we didn't allow them to be words? ' it is this lyrical nature of her writing that makes it a great read.
'What form would thoughts take if we didn't allow them to be words? ' it is this lyrical nature of her writing that makes it a great read.
March 15, 2021
2.5 stars
A short story collection of stories from across small towns and cities (Bangalore, to be specific). Each story is about a day in the life of these regular people, who can just about be you or your family members or your neighbours or a stranger you might pass on the road.
A pleasant enough book but I think I went into it with too many expectations. Very few stories have managed to make an impression on me, and I don’t know how long that’ll last too.
A short story collection of stories from across small towns and cities (Bangalore, to be specific). Each story is about a day in the life of these regular people, who can just about be you or your family members or your neighbours or a stranger you might pass on the road.
A pleasant enough book but I think I went into it with too many expectations. Very few stories have managed to make an impression on me, and I don’t know how long that’ll last too.
October 5, 2019
First things first, almost all the 14 stories had refreshing settings which were 'new' while still being everyday scenes, in that they are not regularly dealt with.
I really liked a few, while some others I was not able to comprehend or relate to.
I liked the Sisters, the Legend of Lutfan mian, Nur the most.
More good than average, but still underwhelming.
I really liked a few, while some others I was not able to comprehend or relate to.
I liked the Sisters, the Legend of Lutfan mian, Nur the most.
More good than average, but still underwhelming.
April 19, 2018
Full Review: https://antorjatikbangali.wordpress.c...
Like her poetry, Anjum Hasan’s new book ‘A Day in the Life’ gives us an insight into the world through a new prism. Her characters are diverse and the stories are about their daily lives. The 14 stories give us a sense of the world that resides inside us, within the confines of the skull. A glimpse into the psyche of these characters takes us through their insecurities, complexes and whims.
Like her poetry, Anjum Hasan’s new book ‘A Day in the Life’ gives us an insight into the world through a new prism. Her characters are diverse and the stories are about their daily lives. The 14 stories give us a sense of the world that resides inside us, within the confines of the skull. A glimpse into the psyche of these characters takes us through their insecurities, complexes and whims.
March 28, 2021
Hassan's writing deserves all the praise it has received and then some more.
Such a fine collection of short stories, each unique in its own right and written with such awareness of the context they live in! *Chef's kiss*
Such a fine collection of short stories, each unique in its own right and written with such awareness of the context they live in! *Chef's kiss*
August 22, 2019
A delicious collection of short stories.
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