Author and luxury commentator Mahul Brahma has come up with his second book 'Dark Luxe', which is an anthology of 13 short stories exploring the dark side of luxury. The author says fiction was a more acceptable format to the readers for stories on luxury and deadly sins.
All the stories, as well as the tailpiece, have very interesting protagonists – the luxury objects themselves - such as the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Hummer, Dom Perignon champagne, Rolex and Princess Cut Tiffany ring. These stories are told as first-hand accounts of these 14 protagonists.
These stories share their own experience of the dark side, delving deep into the dark pit of human emotions. An interesting element of the contents page is that the stories are named alternating between "life of…" and "death of…" This is to create a rhythm of life and death for the reader to experience. So while the short stories are independent and can be randomly selected for reading, it is advised to maintain the sequence. There are some stories which are interconnected.
It is interesting how the author has been able to make luxury an inseparable part of all these stories by making it a silent witness to the crimes. While they are fiction, Mahul has been able to weave in the history of luxury of these so-called protagonists – be it the history of Louis Vuitton trunk or the Princess Cut Tiffany's ring or the Dom Perignon '52.
Dark Luxe is like a walk in the dark and scary catacombs where you will not know what you will encounter at every nook of its darkness and luxury remains by your side as a silent companion.