January Jests: Monthly Missives from The Dream Pedlar
Musings on world events, and turning to works of fiction to light the path during difficult times

These past several weeks have had me wondering if we're all somehow caught in the midst of some grand cosmic joke.
The mundane ordinariness of my day-to-day life is strangely, but mercifully, in utter contrast to the madness and mayhem that doomsday-scenario-loving media will convince you the world is caught up in, especially if you're living in North America right now.
So much so that I sometimes wonder if I've somehow been inhabiting two different universes at once — one being my inner world of ideals and values, and the other being the external world of material form — both spiralling towards each other at unstoppable speeds.
And it's only a matter of time before they collide and my world implodes, and I'll finally come to see how my desire to live a quiet, peaceful life is simply untenable and completely at odds with the games that are being played in the realms of politics, capitalism and modern-day extravagance.
Well, if nothing else, when the world outside is wild and chaotic, that's when we can turn to fiction for lessons in bravery and courage.
We could all also do with a much-needed reminder of the wise words of the Greek playwright and father of tragedy, Aeschylus:
"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times."
On Writing
In case you haven't grabbed it already, my absolutely engaging young adult paranormal mystery book, Erased From Existence, is still available for free until the end of the month as part of an ongoing promotion over at BookFunnel.

You can also grab it as part of another promotion of free and discounted Urban Fantasy books by the International Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors (IASFA).

Meanwhile, having finished a side novel in the fantasy series I'm currently working on, I've come back to continue writing Book 1.
I'm 70,000 words (about 230 pages) into the book and I've been getting a very insistent message from the Universe that I'm probably only halfway through the story! See why I was telling you about cosmic jokes and celestial jests earlier on?
But every twist in the tale that comes up as I write it takes me completely by surprise and fills me with endless delight. I hope reading the series (at some vague point in the future) will have the same effect on you, filling you with that thrill and delight of discovering something new, something unexpected!
Tales for Dreamers
This month's assortment of tales has no theme per se but most of them were inspired by photos of ordinary, everyday scenes I took on Belvenia Rd, an utterly suburban strip I walk down almost every single day.
What kind of fantastic tales could these ordinary images possibly inspire? Come read about 'the guardian tree', learn 'how to stop the spread of invasive species', find out about 'a simple rule for pedestrians' and — this is probably the most important one of all — let me take you to 'a place to store your regrets'.

Life, Unadulterated
In what has turned into a moment of great pride and joy, my nephew over in the UK entered the BBC's 500 Words writing competition for children. His amazing short story is now in the Top 25 finalists out of an astounding 44,000 entries!
The story hasn't been published online yet, so while I've had the privilege of reading it, I'm not at liberty to share it yet.
But I was amazed to see the 11-year-old's portrayal of a world in which knowledge is prized over material wealth, goodness of heart trumps greed, and the villain gets his comeuppance while the good guy, despite his decades of hardship, emerges with newfound wisdom and his buoyant spirit renewed. All in a span of merely 500 words!
Reading my nephew's short story gave me the assurance that all great stories inevitably do — that all is well with the world and that I too will be OK in it.
He will be headed to the Buckingham Palace next month for the awards ceremony! Very well done, Aadit! 🥳 🎉
Meanwhile, at home, little D has taken to addressing me as 'Mom' in public. 😳
It got me thinking that I've only ever addressed my own mother as 'Amma' in all 40+ years of my life. Growing up in India, there were a great many words for mother in the local languages. The most anglicized version was Mummy, which mostly Hindi-speaking folks, like my husband KrA, tend to use.
For the longest time, the word 'Mom' to me was a term only children in Hollywood movies and American TV shows and books used.
To hear my own child address me thus is a stark reminder of how much he has grown, how great is the influence of the outside world on him, how his childhood in Canada is vastly different than my own in India had been, and how it is my job as a parent to navigate these inevitable differences and natural phases of growth alongside my child with great understanding, acceptance and compassion, both for him and for myself.
Mercifully, I'm still 'Mama' at home, and I'll cherish the sound of D's sweet voice calling out to me as 'Mama' for as long as it lasts.
Books You May Love
I read some gems this past month. There was Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Independence, set in eastern India at the time of partition. It was such a powerful story, told in a truly gripping manner, with a vast array of characters all of whom I ended up rooting for so much that the heartbreak that came towards the end was too much to bear. I couldn't wait to grab another title by the author, but seeing as how indulging in her works kept me from progressing on my own writings, I've decided to return to Divakaruni's works only after I finish writing Book 1 in my ongoing series!
Then there was The Last Word by Elly Griffiths, featuring characters from her Inspector Harbinder Kaur mystery series including a group of amateur sleuths — a Ukrainian woman, an ex-monk who now runs a coffee shop, and an older gentleman in his eighties who lives in a retirement home. They make an unlikely trio and add a lot of humour and chutzpah to the story.
Then there was this vampire novel unlike any other I've ever read before, but to call it a vampire novel would be very reductive. So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison is a story of two women coming to grips with having been turned into vampires, although the transformation itself occurs only about a third of the way into the book. It is also a tale of female friendship, of cheating husbands and wild love affairs, and the practical choices people tend to make to ensure their lives can remain safe and predictable, when life is anything but that!

But the book that really stood out for me this month was Death Of A Lesser God, Book 4 in the Malabar House series, by Vaseem Khan. Set in Bombay in the 1950s, against the backdrop of the tumult of post-independence India, the mystery series features India's first female police inspector, Persis Wadia, allowing the author to explore the issues Persis faces at her workplace in addition to tackling the gamut of crimes erupting in the country.
In Death Of A Lesser God, Wadia is called to reinvestigate the case of a white man, James Whitby, who has been sentenced to death for the murder of a prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist.
As Wadia sets out to establish Whitby's innocence or guilt, we get to see a nation where the white man has become a symbol of the oppressive colonial rule of the British and is unlikely to receive justice; many would simply love to see him hang as retribution for the centuries of oppression inflicted on Indians by the British. But we also get to see people who are determined to not let an innocent man die just because he is of the wrong colour or background.
On top of that, we also get to hear Whitby's perspective throughout the ordeal, brilliantly so! He is white, his father is an eminent industrialist who profited greatly from the colonial rule. But Whitby was born and brought up in India; he identifies as Indian, and feels out of place in the UK when he briefly heads to Oxford for higher studies.
Khan ends the tale with a chapter narrated from Whitby's perspective, and these lines are so reflective of the dilemma so many of us face in the present times that I simply have to share them here.
The one thing I am sure of is that I will not leave India. This is my home. If fate decrees that I die here, then so be it.
My identity is not up for debate. I am a white man and I am an Indian. A strange bird, but this is my forest and if I am to fly, then it shall be here.
~ An excerpt from Death Of A Lesser God by Vaseem Khan
Time to bid adieu, dear Dreamer! It's not even been a month into the new year and I've already had plenty of plummets into moments of doubt and despair, gripped by anxiety and worry about my place and that of my child's in a world that is constantly changing at such a feverish pace and with such intensity that it feels impossible to keep up.
It's not surprising that fiction has been my go-to for solace, comfort and courage in difficult times. It also reminds me that my words too may be of help and healing to those who read them.
In parting, I will leave you with the words of Albus Dumbledore:
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
Signing off with wishes for courage and peace,
~ Anitha