Hridija Mukherjee

Spudoodles Hridija Mukherjee

The book carves out a non-linear path around and within a boy named Asterix. The existence of this book rests in a surrealistic realm taking up all that is his story and not his story. One may describe him as just an ordinary village boy, some may say he is extraordinary, some may call him insane, some may tag him as obsessive, but none matters. There was no point confining him in any of our boxes. Living under the spell of curiosity, it was only the unknown that grasped his attention, yet in a different way. It was not his intention to know the unknown, and this is where the intended and the happening splits apart to reveal to us all that has been silently concealed. His passion rested in the infinite possibilities of the unknown, where he was drawn into a sense of wonder and fascination for absence, an 'otherwise' void state and this is where the happening and the longing splits apart to reveal to us all that can be quietly oppressed. The key purpose of this revelation is to tie up the knots again and allow all that revelation to remain concealed, bring all things back to the original, to its primitive nothingness, bring him back to the absolute ordinary simple creature. Is that possible? I do not know, not yet. His journey is routed through every word of the book through the changing movements of structure and tone expanding and contracting over various states of mind, and exhibiting a presence that is occupied 'otherwise'.