Love, Peace & Happiness : What more can you want? By Rituraj Verma

I knew what does insanity mean long before I had read Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I knew from where it stems, how it grows and unfolds slowly into the dim light of your own head. When I picked up Rituraj Verma's bright-covered book, "Love, Peace & Happiness : What more can you want?" , I didn't know how to read it? No, I am serious. I have read dozen of books this year already, but I didn't know how to read this particular , since it provided alternative endings to the stories which one can read on web-links given at the end of each story. I was not even sure I would like the beginning. But I liked it. I liked the beginning of the book. The foreword by Smriti Verma, the author's wife. And I knew then I would like the book as well. 

Let's not talk about each story the book presents, for you would come to know yourself when you read them. Since there are many stories in the book and many characters who freely move in and out or make a fleeting appearance in other stories, at the end there may be things rather than the characters, you remember. As the author claims that you might relate yourself to at least one of the characters from the book, well, I would say, it is not necessary that you do so. But you might relate yourself to one Feeling at least. The book is grand basil of feelings put up together,mixed well,stirred well, tasting both sour-sweet at the same time  which definitely leaves a mark somewhere on your mind. 

It is rather weird, but looking at the book, all I remember is a word : Penance. It comes from the story - " The Practitioner of Austerity",  I may not feel akin to the protagonist Aparna, but I feel related to the dark word -  Penance. 

From the very first story of the book, one realizes, things are falling apart. Can one blame the sight of the rare Brahma Lotus at the height of the great Mountain? Or as one progresses, one frowns at the speed life is running. Is the Metro City to blame? But then didn't one choose to live in the same city that he blamed? So is it always a matter of choice? What happens when the choice is between your own desire and your duty? is the answer, duty and penance? is it necessary? Who is not a penitent in the falling-apart world? When we don't have any answer for our present miserable condition, we still have a ready-made answer - the penance.   

Like a pinch of salt that makes the food tastier, a bit of supernatural, fantastical and poetical element enriched these stories of common people. These are in fact common people, made uncommon by their very common emotions and actions. When I finished the book and put it on the table, the title glared back at me, it was rather the sub-title that struck me -" what more can you want?"  I had an instant answer. Insanity. Only...only after you have lost some of your senses, you will realize that Nothing matters. And if nothing matters, you can choose anything, you can choose to love, to live with peace and to enjoy happiness. Just Anything !