The red carpet by Lavanya Sankaran

"The red carpet" debut novel of Lavanya Sankaran. This book is published by  Headline in 2006 and has 215 pages. This book is a collection of eight stories.

'Bombay this' is the story of a shy person, his attractions, disappointments and fantasies. 'Closed curtains' is about an man who's wife had almost lost memory and son has left India forever and who tries to find pleasures of everyday life and parental love in neighbors. 'Two Four Six Eight' displays the emotional world of a young girl and her relationship with her maid servant. 'The Red carpet' is the story of a driver who is satisfied with what he has and whose joy knows no bound when he gets that little extra which he had not expected. 'Alphabet soup' is a story of Second generation Indian-American girl who travels back to Bangalore to trace her roots. 'Mysore coffee' is about the dilemma of suicide. 'Birdie num-num' is about return of a girl from America to India whose mother wants to marry her. 'Apple pie one by two' is about two friends who have studied, worked, founded a company and sold it together and who are now parting.

Lavanya has a unique writing style. She appears not to be trying to tell anything in the stories. All the stories end without any conclusion and readers are left to interpret the end of each. Based on the mood, intelligence and creativity of the readers,  end of each story can be interpreted in ten different ways. The stories make the readers work their imagination and think.

All the stories are situated in Bangalore. The IT and pub culture, the changing times and anticipation run through the stories as common themes. It appears that Ramu is Lavanya's favorite name. A character named Ramu appears in three out of eight stories.

All the stories are good stories. I liked 'Two Four Six Eight' and 'The Red carpet' the most and 'Alphabet soup', the least.

Although this is Lavanya's debut book, I have read her second book 'The hope factory' first. Somehow there was a break of more than one month while reading this book. Had I read it continuously, probably I would have enjoyed it more.

A good book. Recommend reading.