A Turn of Events by Avijit Sarkar. Published in 2016 by Ginninderra Press, PO Box 3461, Port Adelaide 5015, Australia; website: www.ginninderrapress.com.au. Pp: 127. Price: $ 22.50.
Born in India and settled in Australia, Avijit Sarkar (pictured) is the most versatile person I know. Multitalented, he is a musician, artist, illustrator, puppeteer, poet, IT specialist, and publisher of an e-magazine The Mind Creative. Now he is an author with his debut publication A Turn of Events, a collection of 14 short stories. These stories have a common theme of Indian migrants living in Australia. Call it tales of two countries. Or best of both worlds.
Sarkar has dedicated the book to his wife Dr Palu (née Malaowalla), his daughter and granddaughters.
The stories read true-to-life as they are woven round burning problems like domestic violence, interfering parents from back home and belief in superstition as the characters are exposed to social, cultural, financial and psychological issues.
"A Doctor in the Making” depicts Indians’ fascination with a medical career for their children while "A Marriage of Inconvenience” and "All in the Family” stress on the perceived problems of marrying a foreigner. In another story, an Indian is so
disgusted with racism in Australia that he burns the Australian flag and returns home. His father is dying but the surgeons refuse to operate on him until a large sum of money (Rs 400,000) is paid in advance. He can’t afford it. When his father dies, he is so is furious with corruption in India that he returns to Australia and burns the Indian flag.
My favorite story is about an Indian detective Dippy Singh. He is employed by a man to investigate his cheating wife and guess, who turns out to be her lover!
Then there are two supernatural / ghost stories. "The Prediction” has a surprise ending. The most surprising part about the book is that there is no mention of cricket, the obsession of Indian migrants who call Australia home.
From the money raised at the book launch, a sum of $15,600 was donated to the Cancer Council by the author.
When asked, "Why did you donate specifically to Cancer Council?” he replied, "I started raising funds for Cancer Council and other research organizations after my wife was struck down with breast cancer in 2010. After she recovered, we decided to use our resources to raise money for cancer research (specifically breast cancer).”