by Narayan S. Singh (Author)
Cry of the Koel, a coming of age framed narrative that tells of a never-ending closing of circles of seemingly unrelated events that coalesce just so to mimic a precarious sense of normalcy. Meanwhile, the camouflaged and presumed soul-saving longing for past splendor concocted from within the pink prism of a suffocating culture continues to ravage and debilitate. The inexplicable indifference surrounding the disappearance of a newly wedded sixteen-year old girl whose parents cannot afford a promised dowry, working animals until their legs give way after which floggings follow for recalcitrance, nightmarish poverty, ignorance, superstition, and accepted random abuse of the most vulnerable are cloaked as virtues. It is Anil's inherited legacy, a universal pattern of the dictates of a tradition that punishes rather than accommodates variance.