A Million Dollar Smile

‘Welcome to the world of the young’ is precisely what this book conveys. It brings back the memories of the youth and instances of our early life while reading it. The five Dollar Smile and other stories published in 1990 by Shashi Tharoor is a collection of short stories and an act. Most of his books be it the award-winning ‘The Great Indian Novel’ or “Show Business’ or ‘India: From Midnight to the Millennium’ encompasses common feature of having India as its backdrop helping the reader to attain a superior outlook of India, its people and culture.

Shashi Tharoor is a well known author of numerous articles, short stories, novels and also a renowned columnist in newspapers. The short stories were written during his late teens and also published in several magazines and newspapers. Each of these short stories starts with a note by the author telling the reader about his mindset and age while the story was written. This helps in providing a better insight and understanding to the readers. This book is a collection of 14 short stories each of them being very simple, subtle and diverse in nature.

The Five Dollar Smile is the most mature piece of all sensitively portraying the feelings of a young orphan who becomes the poster boy for the organization trying to raise money. He develops an urge to visit America where his foster parents reside and deliberately writes touching letters resulting on a 3 week trip. Later on the flight he experiences pang of loneliness surrounded by strangers “suffused with a loneliness more intense, more bewildering………………He was alone, lost somewhere between a crumpled magazine clipping and the glossy brightness of a colour photograph.”

The Boutique is another touching account of explaining how a son witnesses the humiliation of his mother by a group of sophisticated urban upper class people. It brings about the impact it has on the young boy when he says “We’ll walk to the bus-stop. As usual.”

The Simple Man is very unique in its style and imagination. The first line of the story “Have you ever received a letter from someone who is dead?” is interesting and attention-grabbing. It revolves around the life of two friends where one falls in love with a woman while the second ends up cheating his friend. The story unveils itself very well, hooking the readers to the book till presented with an unexpected ending.

This is a book recommended for all ages with very simple, easy to understand language. All the stories are skillfully woven with dashes of humour, pinches of love bonded together with joys and sorrows of friendship and family in a neat package.