Quarter Moon, Full Moon

A conscientious young girl, Miran is telling her story of: her first job as an assistant in a renowned R&D Institution in a new city far away from her native place; she, learning about the typical office politics environment and typical office people – bad-tempered and self-centered bosses, insecure and jealous colleagues, backbiters and apple-polishers. There are laughable moments also in such a set-up. her falling madly in love with Guru, a good God-believing person, but one who is middle aged, married, having kids, and in a very senior position in office. She is not even sure initially whether Guru too reciprocates her feelings. her long journey with the office team for the ‘Alfa Project’ duty to a distant, remote region where MAfis, the feared and mysterious tribals, live in isolation in thickly forested high mountains. MAfis have a fascinating, centuries-old history and a modern woman Vlora who lived and died in their midst called them as ‘God’s own children in this world’. MAfis are however known for mercilessly killing any outsider who causes them harm. As the world is changing everywhere, the scene also seem to be changing for the MAfis. the office team accidently causing a grievous harm to MAfis and she, Guru and other members of their team being kidnapped by MAfis. Their days of fear and suspense in captivity as they await MAfi judgement: freedom for them or the infamous MAfi death punishment? A matured Miran is recounting the love-adventure-suspense story of her twenty-fifth year, a story of her coming to terms with the agony, ecstasy and entwining of minds in love; the work and people in her first job, seeing deaths and living through the fear of an impending death. Most importantly, without being preachy, it is also a story of the protagonist learning to believe more firmly in a God as she goes through the ups and downs in her life It is an easy read and enjoyable story with characters and situations you may be able to relate to. Novel’s Extracts from chapter 1: Miran starts narrating her story. There was something like magic to it, the way it all started. In the beginning, there were these new and small feelings that were gladdening my heart in an odd way. It never occurred to me then that it could be love. I had always presumed that love would be too strong an emotion and lovers would detect it very quickly. There would be a new person in your world, a strong scent of romance in the air and one would be full of new types of desires. I would be completely swept off my feet. My feelings were not actually the strong, romantic feelings of a love-struck girl; in comparison, they were only tiny-weenie feelings towards a man I had known a little over two years. Nevertheless, my feelings towards Guru were changing; I was getting more drawn towards him. I do not know when exactly I started having these new feelings. The change came over to me in a tiptoe, very quietly, and I became aware of it only later when I realized that our interactions left me happy in a strange manner. Like many other feelings, these feelings did not fade and disappear as the weeks passed, but on the contrary, these seemed to be gaining momentum. Still, it never occurred to me that it was love flowering. Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought that I would fall in love with a man many years older than me and one who was already married and even had kids. One can guess and put forth theories but we will never really know what actually caused the change in the MAfis. The real ones who mattered were just too close-knit, and they guarded their secrets well. Oh! How I wish sometimes that the Time Machine was a real thing, and I could go backwards and find out how it all actually started or ended with the MAfis. More than anything, I would like to go back to that time when I was also with the MAfis, and alter that past in a very different manner. —- ISBN: 9798326776075