Turtle Dove, A Collection of Bizarre tales by Divya Dubey, Readomania Publications
It is indeed a rare soul who does not pick up a book that
promises to explore bizarre matters between its pages. Turtle Dove, Divya Dubey`s slim but interesting offering, takes us
on a walk alongside the undertow of life, lets us see the damp moss, the
lichen-stained barnacles, the serrations and cracks in the human soul. There
are six stories in this collection, and as the reader delves further and
further into the characters` psyche, gaining an understanding of just why these
people behave the way they do, she doesn’t turn away in disgust; rather, she
understands even as she is repelled. Therein lies Dubey`s deft touch.
So we have characters like the boy whose descent into the
well of wildness is so gradual as to be almost innocuous. The traps close tight
about him as he sinks deeper into depravity and soon, there is no turning back,
or so he thinks. But everyone gets a second chance, and so does he; only, the matrix
of memories never quite frees him from the attendant trauma and guilt, both of
which he is condemned to live with forever. Another character in another story
is in major denial of his sexual ambiguity. There is a homoerotic betrayal that
ends in a catastrophe; the victim`s family mourns him in ignorance, the
protagonist mourns all they have lost. There is a young woman guilt-tripping on
the deep dislike, which quickly heats into hatred, which she feels for her
grandmother. The two circle each other warily, dealing each other body blows
that grow in intensity. This of course is a lose-lose situation and both
inevitably end up losing their peace of mind, their equanimity, their capacity
for love. Another story and another character, this time the mysterious,
charming yet faintly sinister Bakhtiar who befriends a family in a slum…is he
all he makes himself out to be? Then there is betrayal of another kind, a
casual unthinking betrayal between friends, each carrying her own cache of troubles
within her. The last story which gives the book its title is quite the most
disturbing of the collection, opening a door to a family`s secret desires and
longings. Even as the reader can guess what`s coming, there is a sense of
inevitability about the way all the characters hurtle towards disaster.
The takeaway? Why, that all of us have a thin line dividing
the good, the normal in us from the bad, the rotten, the twisted side. And some
of us cross that line with devastating consequences.