An
Excerpt from the bookAn
Excerpt from the book
Jaya...
Jaya came. She left.
It is to tell this truth that I began this book.
I am guilty. I do not know the truth.
And that what I do not know, I cannot tell. I plead guilty.
I have made you travel long into the face of a shameful disappointment.
Jaya came. She left.
That alone is the truth.
There is a point in consciousness
where nothing
exists.
Shock. Emptiness. Silence. Void. Trance. Hollow. Vacuity. Vacuum.
So many words, and, yet, nothing captures the essence of this point,
the point of life, the point of death, the point of Jaya.
It is to discover this point that Benares raised itself through the
ages.
And if Benares is, it is not because its yogis found this point,
but, precisely, because it was never found.
What
the press said about
the book...
"If you want something labeled
travel, pick quality
spiced stuff, like Vijay Singh's Jaya Ganga... Chatwinesque"
Veronica Horwell in The Guardian (London)
"A journey full of surprises, a
journey that will
please you, that will displease you... a journey necessary all the same
for it teaches you to swim through the enigmas of this world."
Jean-Claude Carrière in Liberation
"Beyond the present, this journey is
a pilgrimage to
the very source of religion, art and history. It is a meditation on
time
and the tragedy of existence... Jaya Ganga, whose baroque effervescence
at times brings Umberto Eco to mind, is not just one of the most
original books of recent times, it also heralds the birth of a writer."
Michelle Perrot in Le Nouvel Observateur
"Almost a new style of writing is
born: less
cerebral and convoluted than Rushdie, less formal than Anita Desai,
less
clever than Vikram Seth but certainly more wholesome and fulfilling for
the modern Indian soul."
Aman Nath in The Times of India
"This novel is the very air that
India breathes...
its great quality is to inspire thought."
Antoine Spire in Le Matin
"Jaya Ganga is a literary event, the
revelation of
an immense talent."
J.B. in La Montagne
"A shocking adventure - mystical,
romantic, erotic.
The Ganga is that huge boulevard where the sages and the prostitutes
share a common destiny..."
Jean-Paul Ribes in Actuel
"Poetic, mystical, metaphysical,
humorous, erotic,
erratic, this book is everything... a complete portrait of India."
Yves Florenne in Le Monde Diplomatique