The collection of short story `Tales From Ferozsha Baag` by Rohinton Mistry aptly satisfies the title as this contained the stories of the lifestyle of the residents living in the apartment named Ferozsha Baag.
Born in Mumbai in 1952, Rohinton Mistry graduated with a degree in Mathematics from the University of Bombay in 1974. But next year he emigrated to Canada with his wife and settled in Toronto, where he worked as a bank clerk, studying English and Philosophy part-time at the University of Toronto and completing his second degree in 1982. He was very serious in his studies and also worked very to achieve his goal in life. Mistry started his writing career with a short story, `One Sunday`, in 1983. In 1986 he left his job and contributed all his time to flourish his career in writing. He won many awards as well as many writing contests. His early stories were published in a number of Canadian magazines, and his short-story collection, Tales from Firozsha Baag, was first published in Canada in 1987.
His novels brought him national and international recognition. Mistry`s fiction spreads a precise writing style and a sensitivity to the humour and horror of life to communicate deep compassion for human beings. His writing concerns people who try to find own self while dealing with painful family dynamics and difficult social and political constraints. His work also addresses immigration, especially immigration to Canada, and the difficulty immigrants face in a society that recognizes their cultural differences and yet cannot embrace those differences as being part of itself. He is an excellent writer with unique writing style.
Synopsis:
`Tales From Firozsha Baag` is a collection of 11 short stories about the residents of Firozsha Baag. This is a creation of india born canadian writer Rohinton Mistry. Firozsha Baag is a Parsi-dominated apartment complex in Mumbai. All the stories deal with the same location, and thus the title of the story truly signifies it. Tales from Firozsha Baag, though a lesser-known work by Rohinton Mistry, still captures with vivacity, the rich and complex patterns of life of lower middle class families inhabiting an apartment in Bombay. Mistry`s Characterisation in this story is fabulous as he sketches Jaakaylee, an ayah and the Baag`s ghost seer.
The simplicity of her feelings is brought out through a compelling illustration of her day to day activities. The way she gets teased by kids of the baag for seeing a bhoot. The way her confession stops her periodic troubles with the bhoot. The novel portrays the feelings of an adolescent who gets addicted to stamp collection and gets carried away. It also portrays how events hurt in many ways. At the end when Jahangir left the boxful of precious stamps, which he gets from Dr. Mody, touch the reader`s heart.
`Tales From Firozsha Baag` was Rohinton Mistry`s first book, it was published by McClelland and Stewart in 1987.
All the stories in the novel `Tales From Firozsha Baag` is written in a excellent manner. It`s different stories shows the language of love from different angle. E.g. father-son, lover-lovee, and other emotional tales of human life. This has a light subject matter which tries to give a little amount of piece to the reader`s mind in these of work pressure and tension.