Summary Of The Book
Lunatic In My Head starts on a rain drenched afternoon, as the three main characters are introduced. They have no relation to each other, they belong to different age groups, and yet, they are all linked together in one way.
They all feel like misfits, that they somehow don’t belong where they are. They long for a change. All of them are Dkhars, the name given to outsiders by the Khasi tribals. Firdaus Ansari is a college professor, teaching English. She is working for her doctorate. Her thesis is on Jane Austen, but she feels a disconnect with that author and her world. She also does not feel like she belongs in the world of her boyfriend Ibomcha who is wrapped up in his own family.
Aman Moondy is an aspiring civil servant who is obsessed with Pink Floyd and their lyrics, feeling he has a spiritual connection with them. He has attempted the IAS exams for a second time. He sees a civil service posting as the only way out of Shillong, where he feels he does not belong. Then, there is young Sophie Das, all of eight years old who realises that she has been adopted.
The thread connecting them is this feeling of not belonging, the longing to be elsewhere. The other common factor in Lunatic In My Head is Shillong itself, beautiful, rain drenched and isolated from the rest of the country, yet a cosmopolitan city in its own right.
The author weaves together the stories of these unrelated characters through these common threads. The story moves at its own pace, and swings through various moods. In fact, chapters are named after the moods they reflect, Courage, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Love, Sadness, and Joy.
About Anjum Hasan
Anjum Hasan is a novelist and poet.
Other books by this author include Difficult Pleasures, Neti, Neti, and Street on the Hill.
Anjum Hasan is from India’s Northeast. Her works also reflect life in this region, a region that somehow seems remote and cut-off from the rest of the country. Her second novel, Neti, Neti, was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Difficult Pleasures, her third novel, was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize. Anjum Hasan now lives in Bangalore and is Books Editor for The Caravan.
