Book Title: Voices in the Waiting Room
Author: Mayank Gupta
Publisher: Rupa Publications India
Number of Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-9370032187
Date Published: Jul. 1, 2025
Price: INR 206
Book Review
“Voices in the Waiting Room” by Mayank Gupta is less a book of short stories and more a quiet reckoning with the world around us. With the insight of a psychiatrist who has practiced in Mumbai, London, and New York, Gupta offers not just tales, but entry points into the tangled intersections of pain, identity, and complexity. The stories don’t aim to resolve—they aim to reveal. What they offer, above all, is a kind of truth that lingers long after the page is turned. This isn’t your usual book about medicine.
Each chapter takes you into the minds of doctors, patients, immigrants, and insiders-turned-outsiders. From the psychological tug-of-war of an elite plastic surgeon to the cultural tightrope walked by a young Indian doctor in America, the stories navigate themes of power, privilege, race, and moral fatigue. Gupta’s writing carries an emotional depth that doesn’t shout, but quietly lingers—long after the final page.
What really makes this book sing is its refusal to simplify. Gupta doesn’t clean up the chaos of modern medicine or offer comforting platitudes. Instead, he gives us raw, layered characters trying (and often failing) to do the right thing. The result is unsettling, but also cathartic. Whether it’s a Diwali party in New York or a gut-wrenching ER case in Mumbai, the author finds a way to pull readers right into the psychological heartbeat of each scene.
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“Voices in the Waiting Room” is perfect for anyone interested in what really happens behind the curtain in hospitals—and in the minds of those who walk their hallways. It’s a must-read for medical professionals, yes, but also for anyone who’s ever questioned the systems they’re part of. At once literary and grounded, reflective and sharp, Gupta has created a book that doesn’t just tell stories—it invites you to feel them.
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