This simple novel portrays depths of human relationships. As the novel progresses, we get to meet fascinating characters with interesting identities. The author shows intense empathy. We see filsion of the older and confusion of the younger But soon the confusion unfurls, portraying a cultural difference and defiance. Changes occur, a new assertive identity emerges.
A large cocoon in a bush caught her attention. The creature struggled from within to get out of its coffin-like web. She set up her camera … The cocoon moved, quivered, the insect within wriggled. Life evolving in reverse, coffin to birth. She waited, Watched the struggle the eventual emergence, a moth, a truly ugly large brown creature with bulging eyes. The moth dangled at the tip of its cocoon for a few moments, uncertain, studying the new universe. Born unafraid … Following its instincts, it dangled on a thin web-string. It twisted and turned. its wings caught the sun. Energised, it flew away. Daya had captured a birth. (from White Hibiscus)
Leela Devi Panikar is a fiction writer currently living in Hong Kong. Her passion for writing clearly shows in her short story collections – Floating Petals and Bathing Elephants – that reflect her extensive travels and knowledge of various cultures. She has won awards from the BBC and Turner in the UK, and the South China Morning Post and Radio Three in Hong Kong. Individual stories have appeared in various journals and periodicals.
