# Survivors and Other Stories

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2022/01/31/survivors-and-other-stories/
- Published: 2022-01-31T21:34:36+00:00
- Author: shuktara

5/5 - (2 votes)

**Author: **Suraj Sriwastav[⌊A sample cover of the book: bright green coloured handloom sari with gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name. The border of the sari lines the right hand margin of the cover.⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Survivors-and-Other-Stories-scaled-1.jpeg)
**
Pages:** 92 **Year of Publication:** 2021 **Price:** Rs 300 **ISBN:** 978-81-953583-
8-0 (9788195358380)

_**About the Author**_
 Suraj Sriwastav has been a high school Principal and English
teacher for twenty-five years. He has been writing short stories for newspapers 
and magazines since he was a teenager. He hoards books and vinyl records, and is
an avowed lover of all things old and antique. His story, “Twilight Turncoat”, featured
in this book, won a commendation certificate in the annual short story contest of
the Chandigarh Literary Society in 2018.

**_About the Book_**
 A book for young adults, the 12 stories in this collection
move between themes like survival, occult, artificial intelligence, murder mysteries
and whodunits. They are set in urban locales in Kolkata, Delhi as well as in smaller
towns, and explore how contemporary city life (and eerie afterlife) throw up challenges
for the characters. Do they overcome them? Read the book to find out!

_**Teaser**_

‘I felt sheer pride at my cat-burglar skills after climbing over the high boundary
wall and landing feet first on the outside pavement. I had tiptoed out of the bedroom
a few minutes ago, dropped my shoes down into the lawn below; I lowered myself cautiously
onto the narrow first-floor parapet below the balcony. My thirty-five-year-old wife
Sarita was fast asleep, and our pre-teen twin sons slept soundly in the next room.
Sheru, the robust family tomcat, was chasing mice in his dreams, curled up in his
basket on the floor. Barely breathing, I dropped down to the garden in silence and
slipped on my footwear in the grey twilight. I had no trouble making my way to the
perimeter wall and clambering over it as I had worked out the escape scene many 
times in my mind.

Fishing out my smart phone and texting my friend Sahil, my accomplice in this getaway
plan, I walked briskly to the traffic intersection. I waited in the chilly October
dawn with my hands deep in my jacket pockets. Soon, his white Maruti Alto car rolled
into sight, and I got in beside Sahil. I was relieved to see my framed rucksack 
and gear bag snug on the back seat. From my suburban nest in Barrackpore, it was
a forty-minute drive to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport in Dum Dum, Kolkata,
where my friend dropped me off.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Avilash?” Sahil was trying one last time to test
my resolve.’

[Excerpted from “Grey Ghost”]

_**Contents**_
 Survivors / 9 Blind Man’s Bluff / 15 Speed Dating / 22 Twilight 
Turncoat / 29 Sleeping Dogs / 33 First Crush / 39 Quest for Knowledge / 44 The Man
in a Hurry / 51 Nature Knows Best / 57 Playboy’s Playbook / 64 Grey Ghost / 70 For
Your Eyes Only / 78