The Swanman

On wind-beaten green leas, where the fine fleck of a morning sun pierces the blue air of horizons, sits a lonely boy waiting for a heavenly being to come and caress. This unearthly companion - a fay, has showered on him the eternal provisions of love, care and guardianship that he is unable to find on earth. Together they enjoy a rich companionship of intimacy and confidence. For this fay he rears an aching longing when he no more comes to meet him. Broken by the grief of this sudden parting, the boy embarks on a journey to places where world-nature, abundant in its beauty opens up vistas for him to have moments of self-discovery. Toughened by this solitude, he grows up mentally, emotionally and physically. He encounters a large flock of black swans -symbols of chance, swans - who will be his companions further on this journey. A new, albeit uneasy, companionship unfolds between the chief of the swans and the boy. Soon he realizes how indissolubly his life-story is connected with theirs. But a tenebrous secret lurks between their interaction and the boy is suspicious of what might come. The chief of swans, narrates a troubling history of the flock. This old chief of swans - the conjuror of a self-serving scheme would ensnare the young boy when the reappearance of that long gone beloved fay will shield him from the mean designs of the old swan but at a cost! The Swanman was written during the years of pandemic when we all craved to have some company. It is at once a coming of age fiction placed in the delicate sphere of poetic art. It explores the real and the human hidden in the realm of the fantastical. Its word-spun melody promises to offer its readers a cool moment of healing in literary therapy.