Third Eye Rising

Third Eye Rising explores the neurodiversity of India through two of the country’s most compelling aspects: family ties and spiritual faith. In a land where divisions of caste and class threaten survival, where the religious are corrupt and the corrupt religious, and where dogmas and superstitions impede economic and individual progress, Shroff shows how spiritual realizations impact daily lives and how they help withstand circumstances of corruption, greed, betrayal, prejudice, and personal loss. In the title story, “Third Eye Rising,” a young wife must prove her innocence to her sadistic in-laws; in “The Kitemaker’s Dilemma” a nomadic kitemaker takes it on himself to save a melancholic boy from exile; in “Bhikoo Badshah’s Poison” a migrant youth, employed in the city, attempts to shed the burden of his caste; in “Diwali Star” a retired police inspector draws on the events of the epic Ramayana to redefine his relationship with his sons; in “A Matter of Misfortune” two childhood friends have a face-off over the two faces of India: urban and rural; in “Oh Dad!” a dutiful son takes it on himself to protect his father from an unscrupulous taxman; in “An Invisible Truth” an employer delves into his manservant’s life only to get a life-changing insight into his own. Through these stories, we learn how in India it is spiritual faith that unifies, inspires, and frees its recipients from the bondage of struggle. Shroff has tackled his subject—the darker side of India—with the full democracy of his imagination and an empathy that believes in the eternal unity of man.