Synopsis"Sixty-six years of a lifetime gone.
There would be no funeral. He had donated his body to the local medical college. It was part of his script, his fantasy about death. He would show his hospital donation certificate to anyone who came to our house. No rituals for me, he would announce. To his mind there was some justice in being cut up by medical students. He had wanted to be a doctor.
There is his corpse, lying on the floor, people constantly milling around, talking about his untimely, unfortunate death, while I stare at everyone in dry-eyed annoyance. He had always been a popular man, much loved, generous to a fault to his neighbours, even if angry towards his own family. I just want him gone from the house. When the van from the morgue comes to pick him up, everyone urges us to touch his feet, to ask for his blessings. It is expected from children of dead parents. Everyone watches us.
You first, an old man points to me, my father’s first-born.
I bend down, my fingers touch his feet.
In my mind the words form, loud and distinct – I forgive you.
"
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Binding: Paperback
About the author
Post graduate in Mass Communication from Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, an MPhil in Creative Writing from Swansea University in the United Kingdom and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the United States Gayathri Prabhu is an Indian novelist presently living in Manipal Karnataka.
She presently teaches at the Manipal Centre for Humanities (MAHE). She has authored novels The Untitled ,Birdswim Fishfly and Maya (Indialog Publications, 2003). Recenty Gayathri has been awarded R K Narayan Award for Literature 2019 . Earlier she has won the prestigious Vreeland Award at the University of Nebraska for best creative manuscript in 2011. In 2018 her memoir If I Had To Tell It Again was shortlisted for famous Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festiva; in Sept. 2018. She was also among the five short listed authors for prestigious Sushila Devi literature Award for ‘The Best Book Of Fiction Written by A Woman Author In English & published in 2016 & 2017.
Vetaal and Vikram: Riddles of the Undead is her latest novel. It is a playful retelling of the stories Indians have been reading since childhood in ‘Chandamama’ or being told and retold through generations. She has wit fully taken back the retelling where Lord Shiva tells his best story to Parvati and thus make Shiva the sutradhaar or the prompter.
'If I Had to Tell it Again', the memoir was longlisted under the category of Best Non Fiction (English) in the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival in September 2018.[40] Prabhu was shortlisted as one of the five authors for the prestigious Sushila Devi Literature Award For 'The Best Book Of Fiction Written By A Woman Author', in English and publish.
