Quarter Moon, Full Moon - ebook

'Quarter Moon, Full Moon' is a story of two true lovers - Miran, a young conscientious girl and Guru, a God believing, middle-aged married man. The story is set in the backdrop of a renowned Institution, where both of them work; Miran as a junior technical assistant while Guru is a senior officer in a different division. The Institution has a typical office politics environment - a powerful, hot tempered boss of whom everybody is afraid of; Miran's reporting boss- a hard-working but self-centered person, whose interest lies only in getting his next promotion; insecure and jealous colleagues who don't like anyone's success, the back-biters and the apple polishers. In such environment laughable things also happen, and as everywhere, there are also a few good people. A big office team comprising of Guru, Miran and others is deputed for 'Alfa Project' duty to MAfi-land, a remote land where mysterious and feared MAfi tribals live in isolation. A modern woman Vlora who lived and died in their midst called them as 'God's own children in this world,' but MAfis are also known for mercilessly killing any outsider who causes them harm. As chance would have it, the office team accidently causes a grievous harm to the MAfis and some members of the team are taken as prisoners by MAfis.

A matured Miran is recounting the love-cum-adventure story of her twenty-fifth year, a story of her coming to terms with the agony, ecstasy and entwining of minds in love; the work and people in her first job in a new city far away from her native place; the fear of an impending death. But most importantly it is also a story of the protagonist learning to believe more firmly in a God as she goes through the ups and downs in her life..

 It is not a deep, heavy novel but an easy-read, sometimes humorous, enjoyable story, with characters and situations you may be able to relate to. One can even call it a shallow novel, but if the story succeeds in making a positive impact in the minds of even a few readers, the author will consider it as his big achievement.                         

About the Title:

In military, Image Intensifier based Night Vision Devices (NVDs) are used by a soldier to see the enemy during night time. The performance of these devices, however, depends upon the natural light available at night, and hence the terminologies like 'Quarter Moon' or ' Full Moon' light-level conditions are used while defining the performance of an NVD. A soldier can see much further and with more clarity with his NVD when a ' Full Moon' is present in a clear night sky compared to a case when a 'Quarter Moon' is present.

The title of the novel, ' Quarter Moon, Full Moon' is inspired from the same terminologies but holds a very different meaning in the story. Miran, the narrator , uses these terms to define the level of men in her world. 'Quarter Moon' is basically a Quarter Man (i.e. a low-level mentality, insecure man plagued by ego and jealousy; and lacking in decency and sensitivity) whereas a ' Full Moon' is a full man (i.e. as a real man should be - kind, courageous, sensitive and selfless).

 About the Author: 

Bhagwant S Rawat hails from Uttrakhand state,  a state also known as Dev Bhumi (Land of the Gods) in India. He retired from a senior post in December 2020 from Instruments Research & Development Establishment in Dehradun, which is one of the establishments of Defence R&D Organization, the primary research and development Organization for the defence services in India. This is his debut novel.