The title of Divya Dubey's debut collection of short stories - Turtle Dove Six Simple Tales - is a misnomer. The six stories, each slightly longer than the average short story, are anything but simple. The blurbs at the back of the book hint at their complexities, but in no way do they prepare the reader for what exists between the covers.

The first story "Best Friend" begins innocuously with two childhood friends, Shailja and Sonali, meeting at a food stall in Dilli Haat after being out of touch for several months. Shailja, listening to her gaudily dressed friend raving and ranting, wonders wearily why she agreed to meet in the first place; she feels like getting up and leaving her friend in the middle of her monologue, but of course she doesn't. She is after all Sonali's best friend and has been for the past eighteen years. Now even though she believes that they have drifted apart, she remains loyal and listens to Sonali's litany. The woman goes on and on and on, and at one point even the reader wonders at Shailja's patience, but just then an incident is slipped into the narrative. It is an incident from Sonali's distant past that Sonali for all her outpourings has never told her best friend. At that point you realize how much Sonali has not said, not shared, not sought sympathy or even understanding for.

In Ärnab, "the second story", destiny does a cart-wheel when a Bengali couple desperately prays for a daughter, according to the blurb . So one is not surprised when Arnab turns out to be a timid and effeminate boy, forever saying yes and bending to his parents wishes, even at the cost of his personal happiness. The story is bound to end in tragedy, and it does. But even the narrator, Arnab's childhood friend, does not foresee the trajectory of the tragedy; a tragedy that does not end with the heart breaking revelation in a lonely corner of the garden, but in fact could well have spun out of control from that epiphanic moment.

The third story is the title story, "Turtle Dove." This story is hard to stomach. It unravels the secrets of a seemingly normal and happy family, revealing the sordid, and also bizarre past of a woman, a mother, through flashbacks that seem so alive that they could be happening in the present tense.

The fourth story "Naani" shatters the commonly held image of everything that a Naani or grandmother is supposed to be. A dutiful granddaughter endures her love-hate relationship with her grandmother, who seems hell-bent in turning her life upside down. In this story Dubey skilfully sketches the characters, and the reader cannot but empathise with the grandmother even as she is portrayed as a harridan. At the same time the young girls situation's portrayed with equal understanding. The girl grows up and finally gets a chance to get even with her grandmother, but her victory is hardly sweet and the old woman manages to have the last word even in death.

"Barkha Rani," the fifth story tells the everyday tale of a maid's life. Don't we know them all ? All those hardworking women of good caste, fallen on bad times who have to earn money to keep the family afloat and the family honour as well. In this story we find Barkha Rani ensconced in the kitchen of an upper middle class Delhi family, cooking for her masters. We soon realize that we don't have to feel sorry for her, because Barkha Rani has reserved a surplus of that emotion for herself. Hardened by life's rough and tumble, she makes her moves with the skill of a chess player, saves her marriage, her daughter, their family honour and her precious temple bell as well! This story is a pleasant change from the usual saccharine sweet accounts of maids in India, and it paints a realistic and sympathetic picture of the Indian girl friday.

The last story, "The Science Wizard" follows the adventures or rather the misadventures of an erstwhile good student, but just when it seems that he is about to get his just desserts, the hero Uday Joshi manages to save his life and move on. Or does he really? The story is written like a journal, and indeed it is Uday Joshi's journal, at least some pages from his journal, recording certain key events in his life. The journal doesn't end, for Uday's search continues.

In her preface, Dubey is defensive about her book. Not about the contents, but about the fact that it is as good as being self published. Divya Dubey is after all the woman behind Gyaana Books, the publishing house that brought out Turtle Dove along with two other books early this year. She mentions Mark Twain as one of the literary legends who resorted to self publishing. And follows it with a simple question, "If one has the requisite motivation, skills and confidence why not just go out there and entertain one's readers?" Äfter all, the ultimate judge is the reader. I agree, the final judge is the reader, and in this case I expect a mixed bag of responses, because Dubey?s stories are neither simple nor comfortable. You can't simply dismiss them. And that is a good thing. However, I also feel that this book would have benefited from a more detailed editing and with sparingly used adjectives.

Book Description: The six short stories are about ordinary and, sometimes, not-so-ordinary people. Though based in and around Delhi, these stories are really about people anywhere any-when; about people like you and I, and the eccentric world we live in. Swathes of the untold lie at the nub of "Turtle Dove: Six Simple Tales". Divya Dubey's book presents a stark yet compelling universe. The melange of stories sit on the cusp of the familiar yet not so familiar.