Avinash, an upright police officer, invariably ends up with an extremely curious turn of events in the course of his personal and professional endeavours, which are baffling to say the least. The events even include accidentally going back to his alma mater after many years from an adjoining wedding venue, which results in a time travel to the past! The description of the alma mater sounds suspiciously like JNU! Then, Avinash also has a propensity to meet people long gone, all in the course of his routine life, in the most unexpected manner. All this, in a rather unusual recent book authored by the former Director General of NSG, M A Ganapathy.
The book titled ‘Whispers in the Shadows’, is very unlike the normal stuff churned out by police officers. The collection of short stories, with Avinash as the protagonist, all have strange paranormal twists of events as the running theme. In some of the stories, policing failures to ensure quick justice, invites paranormal intervention, resulting in justice in a sense to the hapless victims.
This rather uncommon genre of work by a police officer is set in diverse locations across the country and includes such easily recognizable places like the national capital, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Western Ghats in Karnataka. Some of the stories, especially those featuring children, are poignant and also in another sense, heartwarming. There is even a strange episode involving an airport in the north east of the country being saved from a bomb blast by the spirit of a small child who regularly travelled through this airport in the course of his treatment for an incurable disease.
While paranormal is considered a non-mainstream genre by most publishers now, the stories by M A Ganapathy have an authentic and sometimes wondrous feel to it and makes one pause and ponder over life as we live it. Also, some of the stories have deep policing insights and sensitivity, which makes for interesting reading.
So, if anyone is interested in knowing the nuances of time travel, you don’t have to go any further than JNU in the national capital, notwithstanding the colour of your political ideology!
