Aditi Pant Libros

Tara dreams of an idyllic, idealistic world till reality gets under her skin. Raghav's best laid plans are at the mercy of his own gullible heart. Scarlett is resigned to a life in a wheelchair and then suddenly she is not. The mystical, poetic and audacious Storyteller seems to know it all, but does he? Set in the USA in the late 1980's, the novel underscores the dilemma of conflicted hearts and their vulnerability against the ravages of fate, love and time. Raghav decides to stay rent free in a quadraplegic's house and convinces his wife that this practical, short term arrangement will help in securing their future financially. A seemingly simple arrangement entwines the lives of complex characters and while the turning of seasons act as an essential backdrop, the story begins to take shape almost entirely in the minds of the four characters. Every season, both natural and personal shifts. All of us have been Raghav, Tara or Scarlett at some point in our lives wondering how the little pebble we threw in the pond of time metamorphosed into a big ripple that seems beyond our control. Caught between a wayward heart and an agile mind the characters fight the winds of destiny and change till they come to realise that just like the seasons, we humans must also yield to the natural order, to the higher ruling.

It takes time and a lot of seasons for a great tree to realize its true dimensions. From that vantage point, it tells us stories-stories not only of joy but also those that contain pain. As the seasons change, the tree changes as well; it rejoices with spring, tempers with summer, wizens with autumn and quietens with the winter. This process of watching the tree as it accepts, embodies and reflects every season and learns from it is the very alchemy of Zen. All of us have grown up listening to stories from this tree of life. The esoteric becomes real in the telling and retelling of stories. It is these stories that teach us that happiness is not found in seeking out extraordinary experiences but in examining our life closely, in reflecting on our experiences and in becoming more cognizant of our surroundings-just like the tree. This is a book of little stories and anecdotal experiences, which pull us out of our hectic schedules and help us discover a moment of Zen in our own lives.