ago, I did not know what form it would take. At the time, I had published a collection of short stories entitled Awake When All the World is Asleep and when it was time to move on to the next work I was hoping it would be of a different genre: a novel, a play or even a book of poems. I set out therefore with a blank page, which is where I always begin while commencing the first draft of a new work. A blank page, I find, allows my imagination to take over and steer me into any course it chooses to take. And the character that made her appearance on that blank page was a young girl, short, slight, delicate-boned, suffering from a fatal form of anemia; a girl with a backbone of steel and of stout, iron will. Over time, this idea, this girl, became the fragile yet indomitable Mohini of Brahma’s Dream.

It takes years to write a novel, sometimes several; the process is long, demanding, sometimes frustrating and mostly arduous. However, along with the pangs that go with any form of creation there is also a sense of wonder, of fulfillment, of discovery: day by day the pages begin to be filled with all sorts of characters and nuances and situations and absurdities, tears and laughter and slowly but surely the story unwinds and begins to reveal itself. And so it was with Brahma’s Dream. Almost immediately, within the first few weeks, I became caught in the web that was the life of Mohini, her mother Kamala; her father Keshav; her grandfather, Vishnupant; her aunt, Vasanti; her doctor Dr. Chitnis; and the lives and situations of many other characters that appear in the book.

It was only after the book was completed that I began to think about the place Brahma’s Dream would occupy in the contemporary world of publishing. And because the book tells a story of emotional vulnerability, psychological fortitude, the ultimate helplessness (if not hopelessness) humans suffer in the face of fatal illness, the potential for failure and success that is within all of us, the impact of history and the significance of the family unit and structure, I felt that the book would be relevant to readers of all ages and gender. And what it lacked in edginess and angst and violence in which man-made crises of contemporary fiction are sometimes couched, it gained through the thoughtful examination of man’s emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual needs.

The relevance of Brahma’s Dream to all Life, contemporary or ancient and as spelled out through its multiple characters and themes is what will resonate with all readers, I thought, for the novel has universal themes of the binding, nurturing aspect of family, the context of historical inheritance, destiny versus free will, sickness, widowhood, betrayal, love, infidelity, marriage, yearning, life, and death. And, if the reader so wishes, it occurred to me, Brahma’s Dream could also become the vehicle through which the following questions could be explored: What is the true definition of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’? To what extent are we the writers of our own destiny? Are matters of the spirit of greater or lesser significance than matters of the body, emotions and intellect? How does contemporary life keep us anchored to the belief that our chief allegiance is to our commercial and corporal selves?

I am a voracious reader and my favourite books are those that are thought-provoking; that paint interesting, complex, memorable characters, that give the odd, deep insight into the human condition, that in short tell a good story without having to resort to gratuitous descriptions or literary antics. Brahma’s Dream is that kind of a book. It combines and intertwines in its telling the history of India, the application of medicine, the deep thought and wisdom contained in Hindu philosophy, the potential of all human beings to make the right or wrong choice at every conceivable level. Brahma’s Dream is a book that celebrates life while simultaneously acknowledging the deep divisiveness and conflict that can occur in the face of human suffering and tragedy.

Share your views with the author, Shree Ghatage. Click here to write to her.




Click here to view For My Readers Archive.




Oxfordbookstore.com is pleased to invite authors for the new section, For My Readers. If you would like to write about your new book, mail us. We will get in touch with you shortly.


Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee