Hi Friends Let me
tell you about a book I recently read. ’Songs of the Mist’, the first book
in The Monk Key series, is a
spiritual/literary fiction writtenby Shashi Sharma. This is one of my rearest
read , I am not much into books of this genre. Let me tell you people honestly I
‘was’ not into this genre before I read
this book.So I guess you all can understand how inspiring this book is.As I was exploring this
book ,some memories of childhood and late school life started flashing
on my mind .When I was reading these lines“Death
is not the destruction of your body or the flowing stream, but the merging of
your dreams, desires, sorrow and anger into an eternal calm of eternity.” It
was reminding me of Acharya Jagadish Chandra
Bose’s literary work “Abyakta”.
When I was studying
in 9th standard we had a
prose piece “Bhagirathir Utsho Shondhane”(
Finding the source of Bhagirathi “ where
the author simplifies the meaning of death and life-circle and draws a perfect
anonymous example with bhagirathi’s source and course.
The books starts
first introducing all charecters including Ashutosh and proceeding to how these
people are related to him.The book takes a new turn when an all-knowing but simple monkis introduced,
there is Ashutosh got acquainted with the monk and their journey sails for many
years and becomes a monk himself.Ayan is also an important character who seeks
answers for his scientific problems but takes the path of spirituality to find
those answers. Yogini Anishka is a
unique character who takes up Yoga to
heal her pain but ends up choosing spirituality as a way of life,she is a girl
who had a past.Her past was surrounded by infatuation followed by a situation
where she failed to differentiate between lust and love.Ends up
identifying her interest as pure lust
abd not love and decided to move on. There is Vasudha who had fame and every
earthly pleasure needed in love ,Ashutosh’s llost love vasudha had some
inner emptiness that was killing her.The
other two important charecters are Kyaka
and Calliope.
One of the most
unique thing about this book is it’s uniqueness that revolves around the scenic
beauty of Himalayas .When Ashutosh meets the monk the journey next seems like a
dream whose twists and turns are simple
like the monk’s words but their meaning’s too deep to be understood in a single
go.
“Love is basically a very selfish emotion. It
takes away your own control to be happy, within your own self, through your
need for the other person to make you happy and selfish. It takes away the
freedom to be happy or to even be sad.”The philosophy of this book is not
only deep but also takes up awakening mode.Love here is no longer confined to
the boundary of Male and female attraction.Here love is selfless love, love for
family.
One of the most
attractive and mysterious character in this book is Kyaka.Her beauty and poise
is simple and naturally charming like the scenic beauty of Himalaya.
When the author
describes her mind mind reminds me of Byron’s “She walks in Beauty Like the
night,
Of cloudless climes
and starry skies”
She is like a wild
flower one cannot get over. Her enigmatic poise would make your mind picturise
her. The authors unique way of describing Kyaka is praise worthy. Kyaka’s large
eyes are like deep lakes talk resonates with “Meet in her aspect and her Eyes
,Thus mellowed to the tender light which heaven to gaudy day denies”Her
mysterious presence will surely make many questions come back to back and I assure your mind will never get enough of it
to answers those.
As you are nearing
the end of the book,the most important question that is hitting your mind when
you are nearing the end ‘Who is the tribal girl Kyaka?’
My realization says
Kyaka is not a existant human being
but the imagination of the lead character Ashutosh.The Ashutosh that meets
Kyaka or rather saying imagines her is
mercilessly lonely and terribly upset.The Ashutosh that tells about Kyaka is
all together a different person,he is a loner by choice.Lonely and terrible
betrayed by destiny Ashutosh creates seeks
a cool shade of affection as the scorching heat of betrayal , sorrow ,agony of
loosing loved ones was killing him from inside.He creates a soothing andcomforting character in his mind
and feels comforted by her presence everytime. I am not saying that this what
is all about Kyaka , this is what I felt the author might me hinting .
Kyaka’s is the
epitome of mystery that is kind of addictive . This character’s decent appeal
kind of forces readers to believe she exists on the other had series of mysterious
do-gooded deeds makes a lot of questions come up.She again does something so
alluring that you would believe in her existence.In the end her existence would
felt like that soothing touch of mist
that drifts away when the sun declares the dawn with a ray of hope. Just Like
Byron said “A mind at peace with all below ,A heart whose love is innocent”
You can buy this
book from Amazon
