Synopsis of My Books:
The Vertical Truth
Rani is one of those with the downcast looks, timid and shy to a high degree. But, when her close friend and confidante Lila introduces her dashing cousin Das to her, she falls for him like a ton of bricks. Then overcoming
all her timidity and throwing caution to the four winds, she goes on to do something no self-respecting girl would ever do under any circumstance, in these parts, before marriage: she opens her legs wide for him and pays the inevitable penalty.
When Das finds that she’s so inconveniently pregnant, he leaves her in the lurch. To add insult to njury, he elopes with Lila to Dubai where he forces her into the world’s oldest profession by resorting to a rather simple but devilish trick.
Rani was put up in a women’s hostel as she was working as a civil servant. Now the warden quietly asks her to leave, to protect the reputation of the hostelry. In search of sympathy and understanding, she naturally turns to her folk. But her mother calls her a whore and slams the door on her face. She could find asylum only in an ashram where the ‘mother’ takes her under her wing. There she gives birth to a stillborn child; now, that consolation is also denied her. The whole world crumbles around her.
Now she gets herself transferred to another town where she leads a solitary life. One day a chance encounter in a deserted restaurant brings her and Bidouges together. He used to have a boyhood crush on her. After much persuasion, he makes her throw in her lot with him. Then he goes on to exorcise all the ‘ghosts of her past’, as he put it, to make her happy and contented once again.
One day they come upon Lila. They could hardly recognize her as the once buxom girl had become prematurely old and emaciated. They take her home and help her rehabilitate into her former state.
Meanwhile, Das returns to India. He goes to the boarding house where Lila is staying, swaying drunk. He calls her names and informs the inmates that she used to be a whore down in Dubai. Then he trespasses into the hotel suite occupied by The Bidougeses and tries to molest Rani. In the ensuing fracas, he meets with his nemesis at the hands of Bidouges who hushes up the matter using his considerable clout as a plutocrat and philanthropist. Strangely, Rani takes exception to the killing. He accuses Bidouges of being a murderer and compares him to the barbarian hordes
that destroyed great civilizations. She refuses to be his wife and flees. Bidouges pursues her. On the way, seeing him about to catch up with her, she desperately calls to a bystander requesting him not to let Bidouges get hold of her. He intervenes. In the struggle that followed, Bidouges knocks down the fellow although he himself is injured in the process and even loses the sight of one eye. They are taken to the hospital where the story ends with Rani filled with remorse and Bidouges in the gayest of moods.
Metempsychosis
As an Indian I believe in reincarnation, not as part of a deeper faith, but as a perfectly natural process like osmosis or gravitation. I have my own reasons for subscribing to this belief which is further compounded by the writings of clairvoyants like Edgar Cayce and Zolar. It was this belief that made me write a novel about karma and the resultant rebirth in the first place. And I christened it the Metempsychosis, as the Greeks would have it. On a seminal level it is revenge across janmas.
On a broader level it depicts the human condition with its positive and negative aspects held in check, to make it a little more balanced or if you like, to thicken the plot. Anyway, here is a brief description of the work.
What could a widower do if his only daughter was subjected to a gruesome murder? In this case he happened to swear revenge. And what could the poor feller do if he himself was murdered the next day? Quite simple. He decided to do it in his next janma. But the incidents that followed did not make things any easier for the old blighter.
Greed, covetousness, rape and murder mark this work. Conversely, there is also love, sacrifice, loyalty and forgiveness in these pages.
The story that begins in a summer resort in South India and culminates in New York , rushes through the intricately chiseled plot with a mind of its own. And finally when the reincarnated widower came across the antagonist and was ready to deal the death blow, it turned out to be that he didn¢t have to do it after all. The revenge was already done for him long ago.
Intrigued? The strange O.Henrian twist at the very end does it.
Create a free website at Webs.com