A thunderstorm blows the roof off a village school. Guruji, the schoolteacher, who lives in the school building with his family, is forced to seek shelter in the lock-up of an abandoned police station. The schoolhouse opens to the sky, and this intensely poetic novel opens to the inner world of a dozen characters: Guruji, his wife, their two children, the village watchman, the tailor, the teashop owner at the railway station, the stationmaster. There is also the worldly-wise grocer, Jivrakhan, and there is the grocer’s wife, who listens to the radio because nothing else will fill the emptiness in her life. In the background of the bustle triggered by the storm and the arrival of the railroad, the villagers sometimes hear the elders who play the song of existence. A multi-layered, intriguing novel that is at once magical and realistic, Once it Flowers is an extraordinary evocation of modern India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vinod Kumar Shukla is known for his unusual style of writing that often borders on magic-realism. His most important works include the novels Naukar ki Kameez (made into a movie by Mani Kaul) and Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999.