Are we in control of our lives? This story weaves threads through the spindle of a charkha. Spun from hard, humble hands of Gupta-jee, who does what he does best everyday - spin the charkha with cotton slivers.
The state and the people foment violence onto each other - are they separate or the same entity? Where does all the violence spiral into - if not peace? Are we the master of our machines or its slaves onto destiny?
The story brings the warp and weft of life in perspective answering the question with questions. And as you go further into its lines and between the lines, ask yourself - Do we really ever get to make a choice?
Ashish Gupta-jee is a first time author who is yet to find a natural genre to write about. As with life, there are myriad complexities and simple anecdotes, with such blazing variance, the writing also spans from fiction, lore, mythology to the subtle poetic. Gupta-jee is a IT Engineer who gave up a career in Technology to work with smallholder farmers in India on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. At present, he spends time in creating large scale-out market-led systems design interventions for farmers in the Himlayan state of Himachal Pradesh. As a part time smallholder farmer in the mountains, he spends time in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and other places around the world where work taken him. These travels have also helped create the content for the stories that he writes. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as Gupta-jee enjoyed writing them!
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