Soul of Music and other music stories from South India
Publisher: Smashwords
Published: 2014
Place of publication: India
Description: Conservative Chennai, South India's cultural capital is a crucible for prosperity, and tradition at crossroads. An image of Madras conjures up mathematicians and musicians, curd-rice eaters and coconut-oil users, mustachioed men and Mylapore maamis.  

Set amidst its exclusive Carnatic community known for its fondness for cricket, classical/Carnatic music and determinedly staid ways, Soul of Music comprises modern music stories that meander through friction between generations and perceived hierarchy of professions. Written in the literary fiction genre, the motley group of stories are a fictitious collection of music tales. Soul of Music is a debut collection of ten short stories set in the relaxed South Indian atmosphere. Here……..

 an improvised life—mirroring elements of music and writing—exposes the secret of a music connoisseur (Skewed Fantasia);
an editor with a multi-disciplinary background manipulates a junior colleague (The Music Book);
a retired stock broker falls prey to a musician father's terrible doing (Broken Melody);
musicians abandon a concert hall due to a terrible secret underlying its prosperity (Far from the maddening Imedaka);
a musician sets out into the music city to find the soul of music (Soul of Music);
a music professor makes a mistake after successful scheming (The Song, Sang);
a music teacher’s ambition and greed for fame and fortune affects her singer son (Golden Murmur);
a retired banker wife fading into dementia avenges her philandering US-returned professor husband (Unexpected Reprisal);
 two criminals kidnap a musician’s son which goes awry (Gone Bonkers);
and a teenage singer escapes a possessive fiancé to pursue a musical career (Untitled).
Table of contents: title: About the Collection; title: Skewed Fantasia; title: The Music Book; title: Broken Melody; title: Far from the Maddening Imedaka; title: Soul of Music; title: The Song, Sang; title: Golden Murmur; title: Unexpected Reprisal; title: Gone Bonkers; title: Untitled; title: About the Author