Civil servants are generally known to pen their own memoirs extolling their achievements; while very few such memoirs have become best sellers, some do enough to pique the interest of peer groups or the media due to controversial references. But an entirely different genre of work for a larger audience, comprising a collection of short stories with peculiar paranormal twists by M A Ganapathy, former Director General of NSG, must be the first of its kind by a civil servant.
The book titled 'Whispers in the Shadows', chronicling the strange escapades of Avinash, the protagonist police officer in the stories is making waves and attracting attention due to the unusual nature of its content. The stories are decidedly spooky and consist of curious and unexpected turn of events in the course of professional and personal life of Avinash, the police officer. The book comes with an endorsement by no less than Ruskin Bond, the master of paranormal genre.
The settings of the stories by M A Ganapathy extend all over the country, but some are easily recognisable like the North Block, Lodhi Garden, JNU etc, where extremely strange events occur. Such 'events' include 'ghostly' midnight meetings in North Block, where Avinash is an accidental participant, the spirit of a pet dog avenging the murder of its beloved mistress in Lodhi garden and even the story of a village in North India, which disappear's during the course of a murder investigation!
Some stories are based in Western Ghats, bringing alive local belief systems in the 'Kanthara' fashion.
The stories deftly mix events in the personal and professional life of Avinash with strange paranormal twists, which keeps the reader on the edge. At the same time, the policing events narrated in the stories are very interesting and are based on sensitive insights.
Finally, this unique book makes one wonder — are there really spirits of long gone civil servants roaming in the niches and dark corners of North Block?