Musings Of A Lazy Author

Musings of a Lazy Author

Sabarna Roy is Senior Vice President [Business Development] at Electrosteel Castings Limited, an author of eight Literary and three Technical bestselling books, TEDx Speaker, Champions of Change Award 2020 Winner, Times Excellence Award 2021 Winner inc Literature, and Golden Glory Award Winner for Critically Acclaimed Bestselling Author of the Year 2021. The luminary has been awarded the Right Choice Award for Author of Eminence of 2022. Also, he has been selected among the India Today Group: Icons of India. Presently, he is writing his ninth Literary work: an epistolary novel, that is likely to be published in the winter of 2022/23.

Since the age of fourteen, Sabarna Roy has been maintaining a daily journal containing the minutest details of his life. Some of the journal entries are reproduced in this column for the benefit of the readers.

1. Eid Al-Fitr Mubarak

Eid al-Fitr was originated by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to certain traditions, these festivals were initiated in Medina after the migration of Muhammad to Mecca. Anas, a well-known companion of the Prophet, narrated that, when the Prophet arrived in Medina, he found people celebrating two specific days in which they entertained themselves with recreation and merriment. At this, the Prophet remarked that Almighty has fixed two days of festivity: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. I love the story around Eid Al-Adha.

It honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God’s command. But, before Ibrahim could sacrifice his son, God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead. In commemoration of this intervention, an animal, usually a sheep, is sacrificed ritually and divided into three parts. One share is given to the poor and needy, another is kept for home, and the third is given to relatives. There are many questions that arise in my mind around this story: those which deal with the ambivalence of life.

In the Islamic lunar calendar, Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, and lasts for four days. In the international (Gregorian) calendar, the dates vary from year to year shifting approximately 11 days earlier each year.

2. Paatal Lok

on Amazon Prime is a gritty, slowly burning, dark, neo-noir TV Series. Politicians, hit men, crony business men, smart & cunning journalists, media owners, police & CBI – mashed into a thick broth – are all examined in a very sound & strong narrative. Even this could be said as routine fare. What is not: is the introduction of a long held myth – the unique & not very well understood relationship between men & dogs as a metaphor in the storyline. This has been sparklingly interwoven into the storyline. Even Yudhisthira did not enter the Gate of Heaven when his companion dog was refused entry by Lord Indra. Later it turned out the companion dog was Dharma!

Season 1, 9 Episodes, each Episode on an average runs between 40 & 45 minutes. The story builds up momentum from Episode 3. What Paatal Lok lacks is a crescendo building title track. The coincidental meeting of Chanda & Shukla Ji is badly planned. It is the most political TV Series from India till date. The headiest thing about Paatal Lok is Donullia [almost invisible] & Tyagi & their understanding of human character based on their response to dogs. A must watch after Panchayet!

3. The Great Escape:

‘’All humans are, by origin, escapists. All are descended from ancestors who migrated from Africa and Asia. Every religion has been an escape from the sordidness of real life, a withdrawal from the aching body into the safe haven of the soul. When religions have become too conventional and superficial, there have always been escapes into mysticism and fundamentalism, away from reality. Industrial society began as an escape from poverty. Now it has become an escape from work to leisure, hobbies and sport. But even a civilization dedicated to leisure contains enemies, so the art of escape has been refined still further: detachment, humor and parody have been cultivated to prevent any worry from being taken too seriously.

The escape route from marriage to divorce and back again is a motorway to which new lanes are being added all the time. More humans have run away from their enemies than have fought them. Escape has been an unrecognized art, because the many forms it takes have never been seen as a unified response to life.’’

4. (I wrote a small poem at the Jaipur airport sitting in the lounge today late afternoon waiting for my airplane)

Last night I dreamt of billions of raindrops falling through a gusty wind Sweeping across the vast expanse of the barren land of my ancestors – a man-made desert I was running through the thickness of the cold rainfall hitting the cracked turf of soil like bullet shots With hordes of smiling children chasing me down – otherwise long emaciated from dehydration and starving Sighting the thunderous clouds up in the air, with joy and awe, lighting up the universe from time to time Feeling the shrill of happiness running down my spine Well, it is a strange dream for a deadly hedonist like me caught up in my own trajectory of selfishness and immediate pleasures of life

(In the lounge looking at my boarding pass I realized I was in the midst of a specter of 13; the date is: (Friday the) 13th, sequence of issuance of my boarding pass is: 13th, the row in the aircraft is: 13th, a colleague who is traveling with me has a birth-date on: 13th; finally, when the aircraft reached almost Kolkata atmosphere it was sucked inside a whirlpool of thunderstorm; the turbulence peaked; and, the aircraft was able to land after 50 minutes of roving inside the Kolkata air only due to the meticulous efforts by the pilot).

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Musings of a Lazy Author