₹250
A girl embarks on a train journey to obliterate old memories which have destroyed her childhood; a young girl is transformed into a veritable Krishna to destroy a modern day Kansa; an unmarried surrogate mother readies herself to give birth to a child; a young civil servant stops believing in miracles when she is abducted and kept captive in the hills of Manipur; a young woman visits Munnar and discovers her family’s best kept secret in the hills. ‘The Future is Mine’ by Vandana Kumari Jena is an eclectic collection of stories, some humorous, some serious and yet others suspenseful. The underlying thread running across the stories is women, their resilience, their infinite compassion and indomitable courage. These stories are hard-hitting, yet soul- stirring and will strike an emotional chord with the reader. ‘The Future is Mine’ makes for compelling reading.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Contents
Preface —Pgs. 7
Acknowledgements —Pgs. 9
1. Déjá Vu —Pgs. 13
2. Long Distance Romance —Pgs. 20
3. Retribution —Pgs. 25
4. My Own Prison —Pgs. 30
5. Silent Night —Pgs. 34
6. Illusions —Pgs. 40
7. The Tsunami —Pgs. 44
8. The Tempest —Pgs. 51
9. Spider’s Web —Pgs. 58
10. Charade —Pgs. 63
11. Of Hope and Despair —Pgs. 67
12. Fantasy —Pgs. 72
13. The Price —Pgs. 78
14. Nightmare —Pgs. 83
15. The Encounter —Pgs. 91
16. Amita’s Mother —Pgs. 96
17. Anti Love —Pgs. 100
18. Memory Games —Pgs. 104
19. The Dilemma —Pgs. 107
20. The Unwelcome Guest —Pgs. 114
21. Autumn Leaves —Pgs. 120
22. Not Another Silas —Pgs. 127
23. The Hero —Pgs. 135
24. Nemesis —Pgs. 141
25. The Revelation —Pgs. 146
26. Not by Memories Alone —Pgs. 151
27. The Memsaab —Pgs. 161
28. The End —Pgs. 170
29. A Night to Remember —Pgs. 175
30. The Future is Mine —Pgs. 182
31. Storm Warning —Pgs. 191
32. Once upon a Time in Munnar —Pgs. 201
Vandana Kumari Jena is an officer of the 1979 batch of the Indian Administrative Service. She belongs to the Odisha cadre. She writes middles, novels, short stories and poetry. Her stories and poems have been published in over twenty anthologies. Her first novel ‘The Dance of Death’ was published in 2008. Her collection of short stories entitled ‘The Incubation Chamber’ was published in 2014. Another collection of short stories entitled ‘The Future is Mine’ was published in 2015. She is married with two sons. She lives in New Delhi.