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Former Bahrain resident Rohini Sunderam’s seven-year-old book, which tells the story of five folks living in the kingdom, has been given a new lease of ‘shelf-life’ in Canada for readers to enjoy.
The 90-page novella, Five Lives One Day in Bahrain, may no longer be available on the island, but it can still be snapped up by bibliophiles on Amazon and in a bookshop in New Westminster, British Columbia…proving that it is a timeless tale.
“It is set in the year 2007, but it’s a story that could apply to almost any time,” said the Canadian of Indian origin who happens to be one of the judges for the GDN monthly short story challenge and now lives in Port Coquitlam in British Colombia.
“It traces the lives of five very different people— a housemaid from Sri Lanka, a municipal garbage truck driver from India, a Filipina hairdresser and beauty salon manager, a British banker and a young Bahraini man,” said Rohini.
“The five prayer times that Muslims observe are used to punctuate the different periods in the day and the story’s action. Through the course of the day, we learn of the individuals’ lives and hopes until a point when they are all brought together, and their lives intertwine. Who connects with whom? Discover unsung heroes. This is an uplifting story that celebrates ordinary people in extraordinary ways.”
The book, which is Rohini’s third, was first published by a small independent publisher in the UK, Ex-L-Ence Publishing, in 2016 and was launched in Bahrain where she lived then.
“It enjoyed moderate success and was on commission at Jashanmal’s for a couple of years,” she explained. “When Covid-19 hit the world, my publisher was forced to close and the rights for all my books reverted to me. The pandemic years took their toll on me personally in irrevocable ways and I returned to Canada.
“When I picked up the pieces, I decided to self-publish several of my books including Five Lives... Getting what I can of my life back, I approached a bookstore and the owner/manager thought that out of all the books I had to offer, Five Lives would perhaps be the one that would resonate with his clientele.
“I hope people will change their perspectives and pre-conceived notions about each other through this story. I also hope that readers beyond the borders of Bahrain get a glimpse of what it’s like to live there.”
During her time in the kingdom, she was actively involved with the Bahrain Writers’ Circle, an initiative launched by true-crime writer Robin Barratt in 2011. In 2013, Robin asked her to take over and direct the group along with her dear friend and poet David Hollywood. Together, they ran the BWC for two years after which she took on the task with Claudia Hardt, Michelle Schultz and an enthusiastic cast of members.
By the time she left in 2022, she had handed over BWC to Saira Ranj, Claudia, Melissa Nazareth, Parvinder Kaur and Kaavya Ranj. Rohini also founded the BWC’s ‘Confluence – Where Words and Images Meet’ which is still being staged in Bahrain.
Rohini, who has an honorary Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Delhi University in India, has always adored writing and storytelling. She became an advertising copywriter soon after she left college and stayed in that profession in India, Bahrain and Canada.
“Although my day-to-day work was creatively stimulating, I never stopped writing in my spare time, sometimes stories and at other times poetry,” she added.
Her first book, Desert Flower, was published in 2010 by an online publisher in the US, under the pen name Zohra Saeed. The romance novelette set in Bahrain in the 1930s was republished by Ex-L-Ence in 2015. They also published her poetry collection, Corpoetry, that same year and Five Lives One Day in Bahrain the next year.
“After the Ex-L-Ence publishing operations closed, and since I republished Five Lives independently on Amazon, I was encouraged to create a collection of my short stories titled Twelve Roses for Love,” she added. “This became my fourth book, published from scratch as an independent author (in 2021).”
Next was a journal-cum-collection of poetry titled The A to Z – flowers, poems and Bible verses. “I am pleased with how this one has turned out as I created all the visuals and layout myself,” she said.
At the moment, one of her stories will be included in a crime anthology collated and edited by Alex Shaw and Michael Lynes.
“In my retirement years, as I approach that final destination, I hope to have left a small footprint in the sands of time in Bahrain. I have met so many wonderful, warm people and made some lasting friendships here. I hope they will all remember me with affection and that my words – written, recited, or shared in conversation— will remain in their hearts.”
For details, follow @rohinisunderam on Instagram.
