Prakash P Joshi

The Dialogue With The Dead Prakash P Joshi

This novel unfolds the mysterious story of Mr. Harisingh, the young journalist whose spirit is held up in purgatory after his accidental death. The Spirit establishes a communication link with the narrator who visits the cemetery for his personal peace. The Spirit reveals the whole of his life-story to the Narrator and asks him to do his 'Shradha' (after-death religious rites) to release him from the limbo. The Narrator, moved by the Spirit's traumatic experiences, agree to perform the religious rituals the Sprits longs for. After the 'Shradha Vidhi', the Spirit returns to his body and his life is revived like the story of a phoenix which rises from its ashes. The novel is a curious and mysterious mixture of science and 20th century surrealism. The theme of the novel is spun around the excesses and extremities of the Emergency period in India. It fictionally describes how the whole opposition, the rightists and the leftists, were made to suffer for the ambitions and wrongful governance of the country.