“Sojourn – A Woman In Exile”

 

“Eleven years had passed, and, still she stood where she had left him. The places had changed. The surroundings had changed. The people had changed. Age had changed her as well, but her eyes remained the same, hidden beneath the lightly smudged kohl. Only it seemed, that they had lost their light. That spark had been dimmed the day she left him behind.”

This is a simple story of belief, trust and self-sacrifice in the very ardour of love for someone who is lost to you forever. It is the relationship between life and the individual that this tale seeks to unravel in a mere thousand words.

Even though there is a surge of love stories in the market, there are very few stories that will touch your heart and have elements of surrealism and eternity in them. Sojourn is one such love story where the author delves into the past life of a thirty-six year old woman, in whose heart is locked away a romance of her time.

Now this is exciting. Very, very exciting. Being an Author now, I must try to subdue this excitement and replace it with modesty.

Ah! Yes, I’m about to publish my big project in the next two months. So what? I’m a writer. I must not brag. But I’m sorry to say that deep inside, in a very cosy corner of my heart, I’m yearning to dance and shout out my joy to everyone. Both to people I know and people I don’t. I just can’t seem to maintain the facade of a modest individual who is balanced and mature because of course she wrote a book!

Bleh. Who cares what everyone has to think about me? I worked hard to put together a novel and I shall now work hard to enjoy this moment to the fullest.And, and this is the first time I’m going to talk about being an author and about my first book.

Of course, there’s a lot of apprehension as I face reality and think about all those things that may or may not happen. I mean, every writer puts in time and thought in the books they write, but not all books are able to cross the line and enter the list of best sellers. There are times when we find a book to be a raging best seller, but when we actually read it, it often leaves us wondering what the public saw in that book.

Being an author now would deprive me of the privilege I held as a reader. As an unanswerable and rightful reader who could express any kind of opinion on any book, whatsoever. And this is exactly what I fear for my book, a book that I have weaved with utmost care and love, carving out the words on the dry pages of blue diary with blue ink. I fear how the reader in all his/her unabashed reading will fail to see the hard work that goes within the entire process. All they have is the narrative without a definite context. As is often said, a book has as many interpretations, as many readers it has.

“Sojourn” has a similar function. I have narrated the story in third person narrative, but the end is open-ended. I left it that way deliberately. I didn’t want to impose any kind of mindset onto the readers. I want them to realize the potential of each story and how it can be interpreted in numerous ways. In as many ways as the reader wants.

Though this is a love story, the element of romance remains in the background. It evolves majorly as a story about relationships, between parents and children, or between husband and wife, between lovers or even friends as of that matter. I’m a little stingy in giving away too much of the story because I feel like I’m giving away everything. I shall put up the blurb for my readers to read. I hope they like it!

Cover to be revealed soon 🙂

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