Title is Untitled by Santosh Avvannavar, Kundan Srivastava and Raghunath Babu Are

Review by Shwetha H S

Title is Untitled is an attempt at addressing the social stigmas surrounding us, that bothers us and yet we don’t do much to get rid of them. This book serves as a reminder for us to help others who are suffering due to social evils and are in turn called as stigma.

Title is Untitled is a book of short stories and each story deals with a different social issue.

• Kamali: The Desires of My Heart address the problem of treating daughters as a burden and marrying them off to anybody forcibly just to get rid of this so called burden.
• Sahana: A Game of Love, Lust and Repetitive Compulsion address the problem of domestic violence and the irritating mentality of older generation that thinks that marriage solves every problem and if it doesn’t, having a baby will.
• My Fantasy Boyfriend talks about BDSM. Here, the author writes that sex without marriage or out of marriage is bad and especially if it is in the BDSM category. Author still needs to grow up to understand that people who are into such activities are already aware of the consequences and are in control of their lives.
• Ek Tha Kapoor addresses the problems that the loopholes in the IPC 498a (laws against dowry harassment) create for innocent people and how mean and cunning people make use these loopholes to extract money.
• Azad Bharat – 1957, a story set in newly independent India, addresses the issue of terming people of specific sects as criminals and how witnesses can be bought for a price just to close a case.
• Sperman is a complicated story which involves premeditated rapes and issues of trying to have children with another person when spouse is impotent.
• Vishnu Prasad Sharma ki Ph.D throws light upon the mentality of certain people who opt for higher studies only in the desire to get more amount of dowry. This story also dabbles with the issue of education scams across India that help people get fake degree certificates.
• Dilwale Dulha Le Jayenge is supposed to deal with the practice of kidnapping men to marry them off to women who don’t find grooms. But the authors have gone off track from storyline.
• I Institute of B talks about the problem of beggars in India and why they won’t quit begging even when they are provided with a job.
• Retirement: A Concept of the Past is not a short story. It is more of an essay about how all our life we are only struggling to have a better retirement life instead of enjoying our present.

The authors have done a great job of waking up the readers to the social issues around us, but also have made a mistake of not understanding the concepts before addressing them in some stories. Apart from that, there is nothing else that can make me not suggest this book to you.