Own Essence: SKETCHES FROM MY NOVEL 'THE DARK ABODE'

The Dark Abode is a collage presentation of my novel and American poet and painter Ed Baker's 23 sketches.

The novel deals with female sexuality in broad spectrum. Reviewing this novel Prameela K P writes:” Women are bodily beings. Imperial, Feudal values imposed on Indian woman, specifically Hindu woman always projected them as objects. The caricatures in art and protagonists in the earlier texts depict them in men’s view. During the age of Woman writers, author has started to talk about their body, slowly accepted her body and sexuality.” (Published in Changing Face of Women in EnglishLiterature: The Flaming Spirit a collection of essays, edited by Professor K.V. Dominic and published by Gnosis, New Delhi in 2012).

In Chapter 2 of this novel, Kuki, the protagonist of the novel told Safiq, “What is the point of living like a caterpillar, or leading a life of unbridled enjoyment of female flesh without any emotions or attachments? Do you think I have been attracted towards you in anticipation of physical pleasure? I wish I was aware of all this from the beginning.”

Here ‘Caterpillar ‘is a symbol of ‘sex hunger’ and Kuki wants to raise her from mire of sex to celestial expansion. The total novel is the descriptions of slow process how a perverted person who enjoyed 52 fair sexes could raise himself to a perfect self in love. That is why the foreword of the novel opens with “metta, mudita, upekks” Pali words that mean love, joy, to see within and Ed Baker draws the sketches to show the positive sides of female sexuality.

Here viewers can access the sketches from that book.

CHAPTER 1