PRO CONNECT
Born in Lucknow India 1956. Father was an Electrical Engineer . Specialized in Internal Medicine and joined Government health services. Wife a doctor too. Opted out after twenty years of nothing spectacular , just patients, hospitals and all it's stories. A Consultant Physician with a clinic now . Two boys and a daughter , one settled in UK married to a lovely English girl , parents of a bonny little fellow. Younger an early Entrepreneur developing software ,daughter in Business School.
A childhood obsession was to understand what life and God is all about . Not simple pat answers but something deeply truthful without pretensions. Making space in medical practice began to write often late at night and Sundays. When the world falls silent thoughts begin to waft ,bolder. Discovered a gift of story telling ,used it to market the obsession of unraveling the truth about 'life'.
Everyone around me encouraged me to write . The story wrote itself , the philosophy part was hard work. Yes objectively ,and dispassionately it is a great product with deep original insights and a smooth flowing story with it's twists and turns . All who read it say it is poetic , attention grabbing and virtually page turning. The philosophy is difficult , aimed at those who can handle hard difficult logic, can be safely glossed over . The "Upanishad" at the end is also for those who have the time and strength to grapple hard philosophy. It is not loosely written .Not one sentence. The story off course needs no hard sell. It is humor all along ,people ,romance ,loss, death ,courage, sex, social issues ,and endearing characters. Yes a weakness for good people and goodness , with a fond hope the world is a happy , a 'feel good ' place .That seeps through the book and story.
Why? Once talked out a dejected suicidal teen with a few thoughts. "What do you know ,the value of life? Sit here and watch people hold desperate to the last few grains in their hands.What do you know of the hunger for life? Sit here and watch the desperate prayers in the eyes of the doomed . Live, to know the price of a life ,then dare to lose it." She is doing fine, a line humbly admit taken recourse to by every self respecting quack or any healer.
Yes , so the story is joy ,hope,cosmic rewards ,love , togetherness . Yes ,the book sells' hope and happiness when hell is free for the asking. Why not? Too little a gift to hope for? For the price of living in "duty" and carrying your own "Cross".
“Vast and poetic, a dreamy novel for readers who enjoy contemplation.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Singh’s debut novel about one woman’s search for answers to the many questions of love and life.
After time spent in Chicago “working the American ‘dream treadmill’ ”—time that included the all too painful loss of a young child—Mohini knows she’s due for a change. She completes an amicable divorce and flies across the world, where she’s talked into joining a yoga school. Unfortunately, “her feeble attempts tapered off and finally she just sat apathetic and unresponsive and after three days they let her go.” Feeling “apathetic to life,” Mohini eventually finds herself at an ashram, where her life begins to change. Along with the host, a blunt but kind sadhu, Mohini meets intriguing figures such as VJ, whose “problem or rather strength is doing what he fancies,” and Roop, who, though from a wealthy family, prefers temple life and “good talk.” With the help of Roop, Mohini slowly confronts her depression. Largely a book of ideas, Singh’s debut features plenty of expansive, free-wheeling, and in-depth conversations about a variety of topics: the afterlife, drug-resistant bacteria, Genghis Kahn, and self-aggrandizing communist didactics, “whatever that was.” The narrative’s main thrust is toward understanding the great mysteries of love and existence. The free-form, sometimes unhinged prose—“A dance is danced in Absolute Nothing. Why Not. Possibilities curl out as dimensions in absolute Nothing breaking symmetry but not viable mostly”—includes lengthy, singsong sentences disinterested in punctuation, which adds to the meditative quality. Occasional leanings toward a love story can feel clumsy—“Your words are as beautiful as you are”—and at over 600 pages, the river of the title is indeed a long one. Nevertheless, the book may encourage introspection in readers who navigate through to the end.
Vast and poetic, a dreamy novel for readers who enjoy contemplation.
Pub Date:
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Day job
Physician ( Specialist in Internal Medicine)
Favorite author
John Steinbeck, Walter Scott, Kalidas.
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