Dog Space: A collection of short stories launched

KOCHI: 'Dog Space', an anthology of 10 short stories by illustrator Bonny Thomas was launched by Malayalam author N S Madhavan, on Saturday.
Thomas coined the title to resemble a space similar to the cyberspace. "It's an imaginary world where only street dogs exist. Though abandoned by the people they love and denied the space they had sustained themselves, the dogs still love those who had abandoned them," he said.
"The title has it roots in one of the stories in which a love-starved girl reaches this space (of dogs)," he added.
The collection, comprising 10 stories, were written in as many years, starting 2004. Writer N S Madhavan released the book by handing over the first copy to Bose Krishnamachari, artist and co-founder of Kochi Muziris Biennale.
"The uniqueness of this book is the extent of diversity in the stories that it offers," Madhavan added.
Krishnamachari said that Thomas is fitting and gifted to become a historian of the islands of Kochi, given his deep rooted knowledge of the same acquired over his lifetime of being here. A collection of over 40 illustrations the author drew for books of P J Antony, Benyamin and Adoor Gopalakrishnan among others are also up for a five-day-long exhibition at Nanappa Art Gallery.
The illustrations of which a majority are influenced by cartoonist and painter Mario Miranda according to Thomas, also has works which reflect the impressions of a common islander's life owing to the childhood he spent in Ponjikkara.