A traveller of both time and space

{ NOVEL } WHIRL WITHIN MUSICAL WHIRL

- Palash Krishna Mehrotra

As the novel begins, we find the protagonist, Nirvana, waking up ona Sunday afternoon, nursing a hangover from a three-day binge.

He’s in his single room apartment in Chuim Village, a Catholic settlement in Khar. The events of the weekend come to him in flashes: the launch of a designer store, an after-party on a Worli terrace, a rum-soaked brunch at Sea Princess, and an altercation at Janta bar in Pali Naka, Bandra. He rummages through “an overflowing ashtray for last night’s half-smoked spliff, finally locating it within the folds of the bedsheet, which now has a large hot rock burnt through it. Said hot rock has also penetrated the surface of the mouldy mattress underneath.” He locates the lighter in his shoe.

This downbeat opening sets the tone for an unusual tale of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll that takes Nirvana, a ‘90s kid, on a cross-country search (Bombay, Calcutta, Shillong and Benares) for a 1970s band called The Flow, and it’s enigmatic self-destructive frontman, Max Bulandi.