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A nail-biting
collection Four Fingers and
Seventeen Nails:
Amardeep S. Dahiya, the person in question, shifted base from Haryana to Ljubljana, capital of Slovania—the first breakaway republic of former Yogoslavia. For seven years though based in Ljubljana, Amardeep crisscrossed Eastern Europe extensively—primarily engaged in management consultancy and commodity trading, but in reality gathering experiences and storing first-hand information in his mind’s eye for later use. Amardeep has used those experiences, and how! In Four Fingers and Seventeen Nails the writer has presented a virtual cocktail of 17 short stories depicting the metamorphosis of the modern, materialism-obsessed West versus the spiritualist, value-based, superstitious East. But whether Indian or Western, the stories focus on the two extreme points of man’s mental pendulum—joy and pain. The stories incorporate the element of chance, the fickleness of life and the twists and turns of fate, which turn losers into winners overnight and vice versa. The contrast is fascinating, and one has to read the stories to share the thrill and excitement. Finger-biting suspense can be seen in the first story itself. Four Fingers is about Harris White, a successful gigolo who is a bartender by profession. His flamboyant style is liked by the frustrated rich women who frequent the bar. After downing some drinks, they pick him up for the evening. It suits Harry, for he is a reckless spender with exorbitantly expensive tastes. Till he moves in with an equally promiscuous soul, Terry Cooper. People who live in the fast street meet a dead-end. Terry is murdered and Harry gets nailed for it. After a rather easy trial, which could let him off, he faces a shocking revelation. The Radio Announcer is about an Indian construction worker Raghubir Swaminathan who has risen from a life steeped in poverty in a Kerala village to being on the verge of marrying a millionairess in Germany. In fact, though attracted to this exceptionally beautiful lady, his ultimate dream is to settle down in the land of plenty via the marriage card. All he is expected to do in return is be faithful to his "crazily possessive" fiancée, even in thought. Was that a tall order? Only Raghubir could answer that. The Interpreter is an uncouth girl with no manners and social graces. Through sheer grit, she transforms herself into a refined lady with an etiquettle matching the royalty. She wins over a millionaire boss and becomes his wife. Alas! She had used one deceit to reach her goal. The Carantania Diamonds is again about money, diamonds and deceit. It is a deal in diamonds worth $18 million for $9 million. The Russian brother-sister duo is to give the consignment to a business icon—a man who hated to be cheated and who, as stories about him went, relished soup made of human flesh. Would they keep their word, or end in a soup— literally? The Four Sisters is about four exceptionally beautiful sisters—all identical replicas of one another. Hailing from Pakistan, they get married to a hideous-looking, short-statured, pock-marked, balding but benevolent-natured restaurant owner of England. Their sole purpose of bearing him a child, however, still remains unfulfilled. The Stud is about a backward community that wants to change its entire clan and produce the best progeny. Hence, it trains boys physically and mentally. The best one among them is expected to do the needful, i.e., impregnate young brides with his seed. But it is a rather heavy price he has to pay for the privilege. The story of The Fakir bears an uncanny resemblance to the royal massacre that took place in Nepal a few years ago. Equally gripping are A Fair Deal, The Hanging, The Comprehensive Exam, The Harvard Graduate, The Pharoah Diamonds and The Butler—with endings that leave you gasping for breath. In fact, all stories have nail-biting finishes. The style is lucid and simple—no big, high-flown, difficult to understand expressions. Most of the stories have autobiographical elements, making them more authentic. However, the title of the
book should have been "Four Fingers and Sixteen Nails" as
there are seventeen stories in all, including the main one. |
He is a Haryanavi with
a difference—an intellectual Jat. He did his masters in business
administration from Schiller International University, Heidelberg,
somewhere in Eastern Europe.