In a document when you want the reader to pay attention to what you are saying, you underline the words and make them in bold – like this. This book is a little like that, with emphasis supplied through the lives and emotions of its protagonists. Two former lovers keep crossing paths through the tumult of student politics, the “realness” of real life, different countries and finally national elections in modern-day India. Will they ever come together? An idealist, retired government employee reminisces about his entire life and wonders if it could have all been different if he had compromised with his principles. A young woman agonizes over why after a terrific date he didn’t call her back. A disillusioned Indian American decides to quit his “type A” job and immerse himself in teaching primary school children in a village in India. But when India unleashes upon him, does this life teach him any lasting lessons? A thirty-year old, handsome vet never wants to give up his “single” life – he speaks of his many women, in verse. A taxi driver never has any good luck, or so he thinks. Until one day the magazine he subscribes to changes his life forever. A woman recounts her time in London where she stumbles upon the most astounding revelations about her handsome but mysterious friend. These stories are followed with a deeply personal essay on grief – what it feels like to lose someone you know and love, perhaps better than you know yourself. The protagonists of these short stories are like the young people of today. Self-assured, empathetic, ambitious, romantic – yet they are also equally fallible, self-conscious and wistful about what could have been and what could be. While each story has a different setting, such as the fiery student of DU or the yuppie Siraj who leaves it all to “do good” or the disillusioned Rishab who cannot let go, there’s something that tends to bind them all – the desire to succeed, the desire to do right by another, uncertainty and through it all, constant emotional upheaval. These stories speak of their characters in a light that is at once tender yet ruthless. These contradictions are what make these characters who they are – capable of manifesting their best and worst versions depending on who is shining the light. Much like life with a little emphasis supplied.