On the cover is a composition by Nayantara, my granddaughter, painted when she was a little short of five years. She loves painting. Atish, her father, shares her works of art on WhatsApp.
I had a jumble of ideas for the cover of the book. The nebulous mix of possibilities was becoming gloomier. One fine morning this image flashed on my mobile. I saw the pearl shining through the murky waters. And instantly, my search ended.
The innocent creation by a child is in the language of simplicity and absolute sincerity. It expresses the elemental truth of being, what it means to love, what it means to be mortal, what it means to live with our fragilities and our frissons.
The spontaneous, seemingly impulsive, impressions on paper are miniature works of philosophy, works of wonder and wonderment that come to a child in natural innocence and bypass our (adults) ordinary cerebral modes of understanding, entering the backdoor of consciousness with their soft, surefooted gait to remind us, who we are.
I have titled the painting, 'The Celebration of Life'. The tantalising teasing face symbolises the ever cheerfulness of life rising above the chaos and turmoil in the cesspool of the time.
There could not be a better tribute to the trials and tribulations of the protagonist of my stories.
Basant Kumar holds a degree in Science from the University of Allahabad. He graduated in Civil Engineering with Honours from the University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee). He was awarded the University Silver Medal. He retired as the Additional Secretary, Government of India.
Very active post-retirement, as an independent freelance consultant in the field of Civil Engineering, he is also an Arbitrator and an Arbitration Consultant.
He experienced various facets of life in several fields of activities and multifarious pursuits, as an engineer, administrator, and manager in the corporate world and also on the sports field. This vast exposure left a deep and indelible imprint of the human conduct in different situations on him. He intimately observed the compulsions, fears, and ambitions that navigated people on the path that they traversed in life. The stories in this collection bring out the subtleties of choices that protagonists make driven by their inner fragilities and fortitude.
Basant Kumar enjoys playing golf and celebrating the unearned gifts of Holes-in-One, twice. He was part of the winning pair at the DLF Republic Day Cup, also twice. He also won the 'closest to pin' contest.
In the time left over after golf and professional work, in that order, he writes. This is his second book.
Human beings are unique and each person has a different perspective and outlook towards life.
While there are shortfalls and drawbacks in each one of us there is a lot to learn from the human frailties. When we are open minded towards others, we get to know not only others, but also ourselves better.
In this book Shri Basant Kumar brings out 15 stories to depict the human behaviour, society and psychology, that can give us 'break throughs' inside us. Each story is penned beautifully with a surprise element to make us wonder and think differently.
The blue kite is not just about an object that flies, but something that will make us raise high in our thoughts. While the game of tennis is a depiction of a player inside each one of us. As we go through the college days in remembering our room partner, we also go through the villages and their elders in these stories.
Set in different backgrounds in India through the various characters, you will be able to connect the unconnected parts of the socio-economic culture of our nation.
This book will not only make you think, but also bring out a silent transformation inside you.
I congratulate Shri Basant Kumar on his effort of writing, and wish him a great success with this book.
At the outset, I am compelled to share a fact. The title of this collection of short stories is not entirely original. It is not plagiarised though. Shall we say it is inspired by a novel that in my memory was the first one I read. That was at the age of thirteen. A novel at that age had its own impact, deep and intense. The budding adolescent emotional upheaval resonated. The book left an indelible mark on my psyche. When the thought of writing my second book of stories developed, after finishing 'Only if....', spontaneously the title propped up. The inspiration was from Somerset Maugham's, 'Of Human Bondage'. This itself is a manifestation of human frailty, knowing the connection, I am keeping the title with self- rationalisation convincing myself of its being an 'inspiration' and that I am not plagiarising.
The stories are about the human weaknesses. Now, what is 'human weakness'? Is it the inability to lift a hundred kilogram or the inability to run a marathon, or the weakness in learning mathematics? In these stories the frailties that make the central theme are of human character and human attributes. The protagonists choose or are driven to by temptation or fear to take a path that in their own eyes is not honest, not sublime, does not evoke pride, does not enhance self-esteem. Self-acknowledgement is the essence. The societal benchmarks vary in a wide spectrum. Therefore, it would be wrong to impose alien standards in judging a human being, the domain must be contained within, and not without the person.
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