Where Monsoon Never Ends

Extremism, now more widely termed, terrorism, is on the lips of every human being, on the front pages of the world's newspapers everyday and on the screens of news media every moment. But we still long for love and love still thrives. This poetic novel by M.Pothen plunges us directly into the forests, paddy fields and farm lands and leads us through the hilltops, narrow paths, junctions and village homes of the Indian State, Kerala, from the 1960s to the 1980s, describes the delicate and soulful awakening of love in two lives, and has roots in ancient Indian tradition. Can you forgive a terrorist, if he has participated in the murder of your own father? Like the heroine, Ahalya, we live in complicated times, where black and white give way to shades of gray, and in Where Monsoon Never Ends, we hold our breath to witness which will win the battle, love or hate? Like the hero, Arjunan, along with the numerous village characters, we are fighting to win that battle within ourselves.
   
M. Pothen was raised in a village in Kerala, the tiny state in the extreme southern portion of India. Gifted by nature's bliss, surrounded by coconut groves, paddy fields, green hills, valleys, rivers, canals, backwaters, and the never ending monsoons, Kerala embodies the term, "God's own country." Born in 1959 as the youngest and only brother of four sisters, Pothen started writing poems at 18. Many of his poems in his mother tongue have been published and broadcast over local radio stations.
   
Raised by his father, a schoolteacher who left to eternity few years back and mother, who survives, Pothen is a member of the Indian Orthodox Christian Community. After completing his bachelor's degree in Kerala, he started a career as an accountant in the United Arab Emirates in 1985. A father of two boys aged 19 and 21, now he lives in Sharjah, U.A.E and works as chief accountant in a private firm. He is part of the many millions of Overseas Indians for the last 25 years.