Writer’s Dreams (and nightmares)

All of us carry a lot of stories within us.  Quite many people just bury them and get on with life which is an exacting dictator.  They get used to the endless agonies and the intermittent ecstasies.  Some offer the stories to their gods and derive the much needed solace.  A few with irresistible egos choose to write them. 

I belong to that tribe of egotists who think that their stories have some relevance for others too. That’s why I chose to publish a collection of my short stories, The Nomad Learns Morality.  The book had some good reviews from fellow bloggers.  Let me take the liberty to quote a few of them.

“... every story hits your mind hard and impels you to replay it all over again in your mind to join the dots of deeper meaning held within,” says Namrata Kumari, author of Change Your Beliefs to Change Your Reality.

An old friend (“old” merely because I hardly have contacts with people now) who works with a national newspaper once told me that I was a perverted genius.  I took it as a compliment because I never achieved anything great in life.  Compliments mean much to such people who dream big and perform little.  Namrata’s assessment of my stories as hitting hard reminded me of my own perversion.

But she was not alone.  Maniparna Sengupta Majumder said, “The author has probed deeper and, asks the questions which might have stirred every logical mind. The stories not only make you mull over harder on a few things…”  She goes on, “Matheikal has raised questions showing the chutzpah of asking even those considered as controversial. Most of the times there exists a lacuna between logical thinking and imagination when it comes to stories integrating mythology and history. He has fulfilled the gap, in very few words, he has pointed out where we fall short.”

There is a didactic undercurrent on which every writer worth his words is buoyed up.  Yet my conscious intention as a writer is never to preach any morality nor to teach anything to anyone.  Writing is a therapeutic exercise.  A painkiller not much different from a prayer.  But even a prayer can be an act of rebellion.

Sunanina Sharma wrote that my book “fires your thoughts, kindles your imagination, and intensifies your narratives with an integrity that is rebelliously coordinated.”

Amit Agarwal’s verdict is not much different either: “I’d rather have the conservatives read the book too to broaden up their horizons, and to at least have a different taste of the otherwise dull and routine.”

Let me give the final word for now to Sarabjeet Singh: “...in every story, author has (in)directly raised a question about morality or righteousness.”

Most reviews seem to agree on that one thing: the ‘perversion’ (dreams?) in my thinking, my worldview.  That very perversion now prompts me to promote the book this way.  (And that's the writer's nightmare.) Welcome to the book.

 PS. I'm indebted to these and other reviewers for their views and reviews. 

For the various purchase options, here's the link: 

http://www.bookstore.onlinegatha.com/bookdetail/277/the-nomad-learns-morality.html