THE DIARY OF MRITYUNJAY - PREFACE

THE DIARY OF MRITYUNJAY

PREFACE

For more than a year, after my third book ‘Autumn Leaves – Seasons of Life’ was published, I did not write much. Even the postings in my blog were few and far between. A certain listlessness had taken hold of me and I found it difficult to break out. It was as if I had exhausted myself and was bereft of any new thought that I could transcribe into the written word. Some would term it as ‘Writer’s Block’ and maybe that was what it was. When I was once asked how I would deal with Writer’s Block, my answer was that I would wait for it to pass and engage myself with other interests - painting and music, for the more we bother about it, the more it blocks one’s creativity. I did nothing and waited. Writing has given me immense satisfaction for in the process I transport myself to an alternate world through the characters I create. It was then that I happened to see a documentary on the Kedarnath disaster that took place in June 2013. That rekindled the angst I had felt reading about it at that time, especially so because a colleague and his wife never returned. I was aware that friends and relations still hoped for a miracle that would bring them back, even months after their disappearance. Six years have gone by and though the scars would have healed by now, the memory of those traumatic days will continue to haunt.

This was the trigger that made me write this book. It has nothing to do with any particular person or event and is a fictionalized account of one man’s journey through the midst of this disaster and coming face to face with his own mortality. This is a story of one man’s search for a meaning in life, and the redemption of a woman traumatized by past relationships.

This time I have consciously avoided including an introduction as a separate section for that would defeat the purpose of the book, which by itself is a chronicle of self-exploration seeking answers to the existential questions that arise within each one of us. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan in his book ‘The Hindu View of Life’ says -

Life is like a game of bridge. We did not frame the rules and we cannot control the dealing. The cards are dealt out to us, whether they be good or bad, but we can play the game well or play it badly. A skillful player may have a poor hand and yet win the game. A bad player may have a good hand and yet make a mess of it. Our life is a mixture of necessity and freedom, chance and choice. We may not change events but we can change our approach to events.

A brief synopsis of the book is given here -

On the 16^th June 2013 the temple town of Kedarnath was devastated by the flood waters of the Mandakini and the Saraswathi due to heavy rains in the area and the overflow from the Chorabari lake. Hundreds of people lost their lives and more were reported missing, not to talk about the near total decimation of what was once a thriving temple town. It’s in the backdrop of this disaster that the story of Mrityunjay is set. Mrityunjay who is on a search for a purpose in life, comes face to face with his own mortality and ends up realizing that ‘the purpose of life is a philosophical question. We spend our lives trying to find an answer. The ultimate answer eludes us time and again. When you think you have found an answer, a new dimension opens up. So, there is really no end’.

 It’s also the story of Ahalya who suffers from the trauma of betrayal in her earlier relationships and finds in Mrityunjay the redeemer, who pulls her out of the morass she had fallen into and gives a new direction to her life.

Apart from the slew of characters who form part of Mrityunjay’s journey, the river forms an important part of the book. The creative force of its serenity and the destructive nature of its turbulence, on its journey to merge with the ocean are but allegorical representations of our journey through life.

Life is just a river that flows,

On its way it winds and grows,

To settle down in tranquillity,

To finally merge with the sea’.