Collection of Essays

About the Book

Manoj Das's contributions as a columnist to India's major journals were much appreciated. His regular column in The Hindustan Times, called "The Banyan Tree" and in The Hindu called "The Tides of Time" were a highly popular feature. In the period 2017-2019, Manoj Das contributed to The New Indian Express a good number of essays, which were highly appreciated. This book "Killing a Million Mockingbirds and Other Essays" features all these essays that reflect a perfect amalgamation of key issues and the interpretation of human psychology. The articles cover a large variety of subjects such as mythology, spiritualism, heritage and current social issues. In the first article 'Let's Leave Mythology Alone', he has narrated how over the millennia the two epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) have inspired innumerable works of literature in every genre. In the article 'What Makes Suicide Bombers Tick?', he has stated that be it terrorists or 'Blue Whale' addicts, studies unambiguously establish that killing oneself does not lead to paradise. The earliest work that dealt with the problem of depression is the Gita. The result of a survey published by the noted medical journal The Lancet points to the cloud of anxiety disorders and depression particularly in urban India. Manoj Das has logically dealt with the topic in the article 'Depression in the Land of the Gita' citing the example of Krishna and Arjuna in the Gita from which we learn that the real cause of depression is due to one's deviation from one's Swadharma. He describes in 'The message from Jallianwala Bagh Massacre', that Dyer was totally possessed by the dark Satanic spirit bereft of human feeling. His conduct on that fateful evening was a rehearsal of what was to be staged by the same spirit through Hitler's massacre of millions. There are many such essays that can definitely recharge one's mind with excitement and enlightenment.