Love in the time of Corona: Mahul Brahma’s new book is ‘Quarantined’

Q: Why this thought of brewing love stories, that too dark ones, in your book at a time when we are fighting this battle against COVID19?

These are the best of times and worst of times as Charles Dickens rightly had said. At a time when people do not even have the time to be aware of their breath because of their busy schedules, this sudden lockdown and quarantine from their daily routines forces them to explore emotions they never knew they still had in them and explore relationships they never paid any attention to – some dark some grey and some a mix of the two.

But love finds a way to flourish even in the strangest of times and places. And dark times warrant dark love. The book explores the depths to which our minds take us in unfamiliar times when familiar people become unfamiliar.

The book is a reassurance that love conquers all, in its various avatars, even if the Quarantine has you!

Q: This is an anthology of short stories of, as you said unconventional love. Please take us through them. And why unconventional love?

The quarantine is a very unique event in our lives. Even generations who have seen the World Wars confess that it is most dangerous when the real enemy is not visible. The biggest tactical disadvantage that we have in this war against COVID 19 is that you can’t trust anyone. From a stranger to your co-passenger to your next-door-neighbour, just anyone can transmit the Corona virus to you. It is as if the virus is a shape shifter and can take any form or shape.

And thus social distancing has become the grand narrative, and the only way to break the chain of the spread of Corona.

The quarantine and lockdown has become a norm rather than an exception during this war against the killer virus. And even in these extreme times of extreme measure when the intensity of emotions and feelings are at an extreme. May be not in its conventional pristine form, but love sure blossoms in an unconventional grey or even dark form.

These six stories of unconventional love are slices of lives across different segments of the society and how the quarantine and lockdown irreversibly changed their lives forever.  The world for them is no longer the same.

But love is love, conventional or not, and has its sway even in the time of Corona!

Q: Recently your third book ‘Luxe Inferno’, book 3 of The Luxe Trilogy, was launched. How is the response? And why this sudden decision to move away from your favourite subject of luxury? Why this surprise for your readers?

‘Luxe Inferno’ had a world-wide launch and the response, especially on Kindle is very encouraging. I will like to thank my readers.

‘Quarantined’ will also be launched on Kindle across the globe this week.

Every creative person has his or her own way or medium of expressing feelings towards events that goes around. As an author I write to express myself. My readers, though they love luxury the way I do, also know that my writings are very unconventional with very fluid boundaries in terms of subject matter and genre. So I think my readers will be pleasantly surprise with ‘Quarantined’.

This is a very special time, a time to introspect, a time to give a hard look at your life. And when it comes to a question of existence, every equation that defines your life is modified.

So this book at this very special time is a way to commemorate the undying spirit all the fighters in this war against COVID 19. 

Q: Tell us about the stories a little.

The book narrates three stories from various segments of the society – a CEO, a doctor, a college girl, a male escort, a call centre executive and a star. Every story has the same premise – the outbreak of Corona virus and the subsequent lockdown and quarantine. The plot thickens as the crisis deepens. The stories deal with how this extraordinary situation plays out in their minds and ends up changing the course of their lives and relationships forever. It tells the stories of how familiar faces become unfamiliar in these unfamiliar times.

Q: Any message for your readers?

I sincerely hope that you will like ‘Quarantined: Love in the time of Corona’ and will love, or may be hate, the protagonists. It will be available on Kindle across the globe. I will be eager to know your reactions.

I urge the readers to stay safe and stay at home. Together we will be able to defeat this virus.