The Dawn, a leading newspaper from Pakistan, has reviewed in detail the stories from the anthology “Love Stories That Touched My Heart”. Published by Penguin, this anthology is a collection of short romances selected through a contest by Ravinder Singh, the best selling author, who has also edited the book. Yours truly’s story May God Bless You Dear is also a part of this book, and has also been made into an e-single available on Amazon. It is amazing that even though it is more than a couple of years since the stories got published, we still continue to hear praises for them from time to time. Like the review in The Dawn today.
About May God Bless You Dear, The Dawn says –
“Yamini Vijendran’s six pages of ‘May God Bless You, Dear’ pack more punch than any story twice its length in this selection. Its first paragraph ends with the pressure cooker’s final victory whistle escaping into eternity, but somehow this is an ominous sound, giving us the beginning and the end together. The aged Brinda is busy at 3 a.m., preparing her beloved husband’s favourite dishes, to be taken to him in the hospital where he lay day after day, “His eyes … lost in some far-off, unknown realm, searching for answers for questions that did not exist.”
This is the Rajan who’d been so dynamic, flamboyant and perfect in everything he did, a self-made man now dependent on others for every little thing. Brinda and their son Arvind hate to see him go through the agony the treatment is causing, and knowing that God is not in any mood for miracles just then. Therefore, making their decision, and sending his nurse off with food to share among her colleagues, Brinda kisses Rajan good-bye as she “took a small vial from her handbag and added some of its contents to her husband’s food … The red orb on her forehead somehow resembled the setting sun, as if it knew this would be the last day it would shine on her forehead.” It is a sensitive story, though after having put us right in the picture with various hints, the author’s frank mention of “poisoned food” at the end somehow lacks finesse.
Questions, of course, arise. Will the doctors compassionately turn a blind eye to their findings? Will Brinda manage to dissuade them from performing the autopsy, on the grounds that Rajan has suffered more than enough already?”
Read the whole review here
Straight from the Heart 