#Review: Mini’s Diary and Other Stories by Beena Sugathan

Mini’s Diary and Other Stories
Author: Beena Sugathan
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Rating: 3.5/5

Some books don’t shout their brilliance; they whisper it — gently, insistently — until you realize they’ve already made a home inside you. Mini’s Diary and Other Stories by Beena Sugathan is one such collection — a tender, evocative mosaic of ordinary lives, painted with quiet emotional precision.

This book doesn’t chase drama; it finds meaning in the mundane — in the sigh of an old woman, in the creak of an ancestral home, in the diary of an overweight young girl. Each of the seventeen stories captures a moment of transition — sometimes painful, sometimes liberating, always achingly real.

Sugathan writes with an honesty that’s both empathetic and unflinching. “The Orphaned House” turns a crumbling ancestral mansion into a sentient being, mourning its own neglect — a metaphor that hits close to home for anyone who’s seen love and legacy fade with time. “Lonely in the Crowd” quietly exposes the isolation of the elderly, while “A Sentinel on Land’s End” wraps tragedy in poetic solitude.

Her strength lies in her restraint. The prose doesn’t cry for attention — it listens. It allows emotions to unfold naturally, without melodrama. The silences between her sentences often speak louder than the words themselves.

Rooted in Indian soil but echoing universal truths, Mini’s Diary and Other Stories reminds us that even the smallest lives have epic emotions. It’s a slow read in the best sense — one that asks you to pause, feel, and perhaps remember.

Find this book here.