As a reader more often, short stories have impacted me and left me thinking more than a novel. Told by a gifted story teller, a story of few sentences (or pages) or a trailer can be powerful than all the tapestry of a full book or a film. Small can be beautiful, Steve Jobs being remembered for his obsession over minimalist design.
Impulse by Reekrit Serai is a small book of about 170 pages with 18 short stories. I liked the fact the stories were distinct from one another and the pages are printed with big fonts making it convenient for laid back reading. I learnt from the inside cover of the book, the author (Reekrit) is a young author in his early twenties who grew up in London and currently living in Chandigarh. Impulse is Reekrit’s second book following his first one which was “As I turn twenty” which I am yet to read because I turned twenty many years ago 
The stories in this book are not of uniform nature or of a single genre which adds a bit of excitement to an otherwise flat book. Many of the stories cover teenage/young adulthood issues which is expected out of a young author from his target readers. The first few stories are of the type you would have read in Facebook walls reposted by friends, whose headline are luring but you can guess what’s coming in the end as in the stories Twenty-Seven or an adventure called life, nevertheless these read good.
In the Stories like a short, sad love story and page of life, Reekrit has attempted to touch on the struggles of young girls in urban India struggle with due to the unfair demands of the society around them. Because of this being a pressing topic, I was expecting more deeper treatment but the author feels his job is done by just narrating incidents & giving an ending. the baby monitor and the cry of success starts of well as kind of a mystery but somewhere just before the ending losses the feel, as if the author who took care to build the characters and scene realizing the word limits for that story choosing to to end quickly.
Reekrit’s story telling ability shows up for readers to enjoy in those stories where he has allowed himself about 20 pages to elaborate. Two stories that impacted me were the beggar and anything but love, both were of dark humour, dealt with stories which we are familiar with but had well developed characters and narration,
The young author is a promising story teller and I look forward to his future works. His works can benefit immensely by having a good review circle and professional editor to take him to heights he is capable of.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher Rumour Books India after they contacted me through my blog.