First published 2016
Hriday tends to his uncle, the man the world knows as Sri Ramakrishna, beloved spiritual teacher and divine avatar. While devotees see a godly master and temple owner Rani Rashmoni recognizes the Brahmin who breaks sacred traditions, Hriday knows only his maddening Uncle. The holy man slips into trances without warning. He performs acts of dangerous self-denial. Enemies plot against him, but an even stranger threat lurks: the humble cauliflower, sulfur-rich and somehow perilous to the saint. Hriday must guard his uncle against all these dangers while navigating the gap between the divine figure others worship and the bewildering relative he knows. The story explores the tension between public reverence and private responsibility, between spiritual transcendence and human frailty.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, unreliable-narrator
Setting: India
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
Kindle Edition · Cornerstone Digital