Description

By Durlabh Singh

ISBN: 9781847479341
Published: 2009
Pages: 189
Key Themes: fiction, short stories, psychosis, mental health services, humour

Description

Collection of 32 thought provoking, poignant & beautiful tales. Mental Ward deals with the descent of a woman into mental distress and ahallucinatory world while the Paper Boat depicts the first confrontation of an innocent child with harsh realities of living.

In Lice Cure and Designer Monkey there is undercurrent of humour to lighten burden of existence, while other pieces explore the unexplored world of literature and life. Readers with wider taste will find plenty of material to wet their appetites.

About the Author

Durlabh Singh is a writer and an artist based in
London, England.
He has been published widely in over 300 publications
worldwide.

His other book publications include

Chrome Red- Collected Poems.
Spaces of Heart- Illustrated Verse.
Kama Sutra of Love- Collections of Short Stories
Keeper of Reflections & Other Stories.
In The Days of Love- Novel.

Throughout his life, he had to struggle against the odds. Having lost his father at very early age, he had to take up the role of head of family, being the only male member in the household. Facing all the injustices of Indian social class system where he had to provide big dowries for marrying his sisters and getting into debts.

The things took turn for worse when he came to England, as extreme racism was rampant there when he was constantly ridiculed and set upon by gangs of youths. Landlords refused to rent him even a room and shopkeepers refused to serve. He was subject to racial taunts in streets and at work. He suffered number of physical attacks and partially lost sight of an eye as he was beaten in a busy London street. That constant harassment eventually resulted in acute depression and a mental breakdown and as a result he was admitted to a mental hospital.

He took up painting and writing as a therapy and developed these arts where he could find it easier to breath from constant atmosphere of suffocation. It helped him to survive and to keep his mental balance, in finding transcendence and wider fields of human creativity. People suffering from mental distress may find solace in his works.