Spotlight: Malay A. Upadhyay Visits to Talk About Holiday Tale, AN ENLIGHTENED FLY!

Today, fellow author Malay A. Upadhyay is stopping by to talk about his book! 

Hello, Malay! It's great that you're visiting MLB. Welcome! :) 

 

Hey, Marie! Thank you for having me here. 

 

 

My pleasure, of course! So, let me ask a few questions since you're here...

 

All right.

 

Can you tell us a little about your latest book? When did it come out and where can we get it?

  

An Enlightened Fly is a novelette: a short script of 28 pages that takes us through the journey of a dying fly in the final moments of its life. It is based around the Winter Holidays theme in India, giving an interesting angle to the celebrations and their meaning.

The book released on 13th December, 2015, and is available on Amazon.

 

Wow! 

 

So, what inspired you to write your book? How did you get into writing cultural fiction?

 

Humility. The idea of the book is to reflect two agendas: First, it puts forth different components of enlightenment that we can easily apply in our daily lives. Second, it establishes that even a fly can get enlightened. Certainly, therefore, we can too.

The genre - fiction with heavy cultural element - has always been interesting to me as it helps put our societal and personal issues and traits into perspective. I see it as a tool of interest to someone who may need a bit of reminder in that very moment, that he or she is both strong and great as a being, regardless of the issues or flaws.

 

Very true.

 

So, tell us...what, do you feel, sets your book apart from other books in the genre?

 

How many times do we see a fly getting enlightened? I remember a seagull achieved it in Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I can say that partly inspired me in this book, mainly on account of how succinctly thoughts and a profound journey can be narrated.

 

Okay.

 

Give us a teaser or two of the book if you can.

 

"You can’t even kill a fly!"

The words had been a self-instigated murmur but threw open a challenge. His jaw muscles tightened. The tears stopped in their path. Screams channeled themselves towards an implosive silence. And in his uncontrollable rage, Kanha Evian swayed his arm with force.

The fly’s compound eyes mapped as a hundred arms approach it. He izn’t going to’ The arm kept coming closer. He can’t. But the trajectory fell perfectly in place, and before it could react, Kanha’s palm pressed heavily against its body for a fraction of a second that lasted a hundred years! And down it fell, life draining out, wings broken.

The fly lay there, shivering in pain, unable to move. It lay there, realizing for the first time that it had not been gifted eyelids. The true enormity of its compound eyes dawned as they continued to focus a hundred images of its broken body—and of two big eyes: Kanha Evian was staring back with agonizing calm. How had things come to this?

The Fly had been a silent observer for many days in this house—reveling in the comfort of sweets, of garbage and of cool interiors that saved it from the menacing heat of Eastern India. Yet, with summer gone, temperature had ceased to be the main reason for its stay. Indeed, it was not so much the natural climate as behavioral one that had tied

the fly to what was about to be its last home. It had decided to stay with Kanha Evian, gradually warming up to humans, as it quietly followed him to each encounter, he had chanced upon over the last few days. It noticed the ills, his concerns, his reasons. Some it understood, others it scoffed at. As the moments turned to minutes, minutes turned to days, days to memories, and memories to an inconvenient blur, the fly gave in to the pull of sentiment. Before long, its emotions had fused with those of Kanha. The familial feeling, though, reached its conclusion with that fatal slap that was both uncalled for and unexpected. Why had Kanha Evian hit it? Just to prove something in a desperate moment of doubt and insecurity? Anger rose and replaced recent memory with a classic dose of what elze did you ever expect from a human? As the irony of fate would have it, its inability to at least shut its eyes, to ward off the collective physical and psychological pain, was worsened by an indifferently, joyful bursting of crackers somewhere afar. A festive, winter season of joy was upon the nation. No one cares for a fly, they say. How true was this in that moment! The fly let go. Death would come to it slowly, and it would have to suffer and see its way through a span of eternity. But how long would that be?

A harmonic sound of conch shell bellowed in the distance. As if the sound waves filled its very soul like waves of a tsunami, the fly began to float against gravity. In the moments that it pondered over what was happening, two distinct feelings graced its subconscious: that it was no longer bound by space or time; and that it still felt attached to both of these. The room, the image of Kanha Evian, the sense of tragedy—all began to fade and, eerily propelled by a paradox of involuntary “choice,” the fly began its festive journey to the truth.

 

Fascinating!

 

Let's try another question, okay?

I'm sure readers are curious about your next writing project. Can you tell us what you've got cooking up now or is that a secret?

 

My next writing project is one that has been in the works for almost seven years. It's called The Fly That Followed Me - a novel that is currently in the proofreading process. Yes, it brings the fly back into action. However, it is a prequel to Kalki Evian: The Ring of Khaoriphea, which released last year. Those can be found on my author page at Amazon.

 

Well, we certainly look forward to your next book! 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by to tell us about An Enlightened Fly, Malay! 

Of course! Thank you for having me here.

You're welcome! It's been an honor!

 

Readers, you'll just have to pick up a copy of this thought-provoking tale! ;)

 

 

Here is the blurb.

 

Diwali—the Hindu Festival of Lights—plays out in all its glory, with a single fly learning many lessons.

An Enlightened Fly is, in effect, the initiating moment of Kanha Evian’s journey that eventually saw three individuals travel back in time to rescue him in Kalki Evian – The Ring of Khaoriphea. 

 

Purchase Links:

 

Amazon Universal:  http://bookgoodies.com/a/B019CSDBOW

Publisher:  http://solsticepublishing.com/an-enlightened-fly/

 

This sounds like an interesting read! 

 

About the Author:

 

Malay A. Upadhyay grew up in the eastern provinces of paradoxical India. It was a childhood of anomalies - a different space-time, where he could not understand a friend’s passion for books on one hand even as he wrote for school elocution on the other. He conceived the characters of Jelzan and Fridgeon as part of his larger universe of Kalki Evian – a series he began working on during his time in Milano, Italy.

A Marketer by profession, Malay is "back to school" in Canada. He blogs as a Fly, which subscribes to the elusively effervescent, ephemeral connection among beings across space and time. That is after all, a belief that underlies every piece of literature ever written.

Author Links:

 

Website:  http://www.kalkievian.com/
Blog:  http://kalkievian.com/earth

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/kalkievian

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/kalkievian
Pinterest:  www.pinterest.com/upadhyaymalay

Amazon Author Central:  http://amazon.com/author/malayupadhyay

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/malayupadhyay

 

 

Malay's Books: