Location: India
Member Since: Dec. 25, 2014

Borah

Biography

My favorite is Hiranya borah

Borah's favorite authors on Smashwords

Hiranya Borah
Latest book: An Old Man and His Young Wife.
Published April 18, 2023.
Follow them on Twitter: @Borah_Hiranya
View their blog

Smashwords book reviews by Borah

  • Dilemma of a Young Mind on Jan. 13, 2015

    One may read this book in one sitting. 'Problem of a young boy' may be an eye opener for many young parents who sometimes casually tell something to their children, which effected the psyche of those children. Those may effect their social and personal lives for entire life time.
  • Random Thoughts on Jan. 13, 2015
    (no rating)
    Old thoughts are expressed in a new style. One may like some of the articles as they carry some messages. Otherwise, some may read as coffee table reading material!
  • Serious Statisticians Funny Statistics on June 06, 2015

    Very good presentation of some known and unknown facts!
  • Few Cities Through the Lens of Hiranya Borah on Jan. 09, 2016

    good read1
  • Akhadya on Jan. 09, 2016

    It is not about cooking. It is about the taste, timing and emotion. All should read it.
  • Melody of Fragrance on Jan. 09, 2016

    It is fictional smell of a female. Science also say it-but differently. Description gives a tantalizing feeling on your nerve! Ladies should read it to know how her partner smells her. Gents should read it to know,if there is any smell effect on him.
  • Guilt:Gift of Winter Spring on Feb. 17, 2016

    owards Responding to Maiden Novel of Hiranya Borah Let me enunciate a brief theoretical analysis of guilt and gift that appears to be the essence of narrative line of the novel. At the outset I congratulate the writer on his maiden novel as an anglophone in characterization of certain number of characters. These characters are interwoven with lust, sin, guilt, ' immoral 'sexual relations in a strange tapestry. First of all, in so far as sexuality and sexual union is concerned, it never the immediate contact at the level of the 'physical'. Human sexuality , however physical it may appear, is never physical. Spirit no matter what its form and intent, moves in the physicality of physical relation. It is veritably permeated with fantasies of guilt, pleasure, enchantment, happiness, even of violence, jealousy, envy, greed ,etc. Fantasies and particularly sexual fantasies are a product of irremediable cracks in our existential relations. We should know, and it is established in clinical theory and practice, that everyone feels depressed after mere physical coitus that leads to release of tension. Let me recollect that people do not feel guilty after an act of crime whether of murder or of rape,etc. They commit crime out of burden of accumulating guilt.( Freud). Crime releases somehow, temporarily though, guilt. It is not only that man has inherited guilt from primordial murder of father to enjoy women the father monopolized exclusively but also that through building civilization guilt has been universalized and shared . May be murder of primeval father who monopolized woman unto himself was theoretical and historical fiction . But this event has had to occur for passage to culture from blind law of nature. Whatever the case, GUILT is the answer to the question without the knowledge of what the question was. In this sense guilt is a memory response to some indeterminate fault that lies buried in us. In this sense guilt is protective. And we as individuals are speaking and promising beings in fulfillment of duty towards other and repaying debt to others . That is why we are always hooked to the future as promising beings. Our perpetual questioning to ourselves is arrested at the door of guilt. Nonetheless many a time anxiety attacks in clinical case or in normal human beings signal breakdown of the barrier of guilt. In anxiety, world around us melts away in the twinkling of an eye. Holes in our solidly assumed world in which we move around with a sense of certitude and definiteness stand out in wide yawning abyss. Oh God! how man could have survived without pleasures of guilt or sin. Guilt is protective in that it is a filler that fills the existential angst( anxiety) with some sort of fantasy formations. These FANTASY formations in our psyche vary with our experiences. Even fantasy functions differently with differences in individuals. This Novel is one typical response --- fantasy loaded at that---- to guilt. Inverted, guilt turns to gift (awards, pleasures of love, ideals of figures of mother, father, son, brother,etc) . Sin is turned into redemption. Debt is turned into write-off with docile behavior of debtor. Guilt is pardoned by God in confession, Is this NOVEL a ritual of confession in modern times? What a beautiful balance sheet of pleasure and pain or guilt and gift or awards and punishment! Let us not forget that society or culture for that matter is a phenomenon of shared guilt of which we may not be aware. As for love, alas, how one can put it in language? It defies language, but again and again we go on writing on it, failing each time and again writing on it. In saying this, I have nothing to object to writing on love. Love is a shattering phenomenon in which nobody can figure himself/herself out, with identity of each one that one one holds about oneself is always at risk of dissipation. This is perhaps the reason for fear of love despite its fatal attractions. In love anything can happen not earlier imagined or imaginable. Range of love experiences is between Himalayan peak and bottomless valley. Blossom in the air and its opposite---- ugly, diabolical and absolutely evil Sexuality traverses in love relations and even without love relationship. In the Novel, the love and sexuality that is portrayed through characters is narcissistic. In other words, one loves the other if one loves oneself in loving other. In that sense, one becomes mirror image of the other and vice-versa. On the contrary, in real life mutual mirroring of each other never happens perfectly well: curvature takes place in relationship and this derails precarious homeostasis of" love" relationship. And therefore love is a perpetual war of sexes and even traumatic and tragic. In saying this, one has to be welcome to it. No one intends trauma to descend on one's life. It happens as if from nowhere and to which one is intellectually and practically defenseless and helpless. Love is impossible, but alas ' possible Love may pose as utilitarian but is not it. If by any stroke of chance utilitarian relation goes by the name of love , it degrades to everyday vulgarity. To us it is vulgar that creates claustrophobia in the midst of functional utilities and goods. It is experienced that we feel claustrophobic surrounded by piles of functional pleasures including sex. Let us begin with a sensualist who is drawn irrevocably towards sexual charms of a beautiful lady and spends night with her. Kant, the German philosopher, propounded that subduing the lust in a sensualist person is only possible if he is faced with threat of death. That is, in the balance sheet of pleasure, if pain of imminent death after spending lascivious pleasures of night with the lady outweighs the pleasure of lust, then he will be dissuaded from satisfying his lust. In opposition to this Kantian view, psychoanalysis sets up the following situation " There is in the bedroom the woman the sensualist lusts after. He is granted the freedom to enter that room to gratify his desire, but next to the door of the bedroom through which he will leave there stands the gallows on which he will be hanged" For Kant gallows will serve as a deterrent. But psychoanalysis problematises the nature of choice between the woman and the gallows And if the woman in the bedroom is overvalued/ over desired object of a pathological subject (neurotic, sensualist, for example), perhaps the threat of execution is insufficient to deter him from satiating his urges/lust. In fact, in real life situations, neurotics enjoy sex if there is an immediate threat attached to the act. This gratification is beyond the balance sheet of pleasures and threat of pain, even of death. This gratification is enjoyment---excessive pleasure in pain. Guilt, sin, debt, duty form the same semantic chain. The moment we say we have committed sins, then we are called upon to perform penance in terms of some rituals( like obsessive fasting , devotion to God,etc) or duty to father , God, nation or any other ideal or daily sacrifices. Only through powerful mechanisms of sin, society demands injustified sacrifices of us. Like in Novel, feeling of sin is so acute and acerbic that the the protagonist makes futile but necessary search for mother in Namita Bau and daughter in Ajanta. And why not in ideal of family, and ideal of father in elder brother,etc. Even punishment, it is said in the novel, is proportionately less in scale and depth than the sins. Is it not that the protagonist undergoes the spells of moral masochism ( i.e, pleasures of self infliction of punishment) to redeem himself of ‘sins’. What object lessons one can derive from reading this novel? One can be cofident here that life is not mere balance of awards and punishments, though it is so to a greater degree. Moral order and its precepts in place , if one is sensitive enough, invokes temptation to transgress it so that one suffers guilt/ bad conscience . Is it not due to law that we are always and already guilty. The question is not to break the sinews and bones of the law in secret and again in turn to be held tightly in the strings of moral law. Law itself is sinful: in living under the morals of law we are always tainted with sin. Law from the beginning is sinful and law is outlaw. Its origin is interspersed with the blood of murder or any horrendous crime. That is why Kant warns that we should not seek the origin of law or moral order of society. Once we stumble on the origin of law ( Of course , no historical and anthropological evidence of origin is not available) in a daring act of theoretical speculation we discover the law all dripping with blood from head to foot. Awards are as much a pleasure as punishment in a calibrated scale of measurement. We have to go beyond it . The writer of the novel both reveals infringement of moral order and again shrinks back in fear and takes shelter in guilt, another mode of pleasure.. He conceals every step he has taken to unconsciously break morals. He ended up where he was. Rather by setting up ideal figures of father, mother, etc, he has come in his main character to accepting more strongly that he violated unconsciously though. The protagonist ultimately consoles himself in the balance tilted in favour of ideals . ………… Actual review made By Anjan Jena
  • Can I Have An Apple Please on Feb. 23, 2016

    Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Beautiful Ghost on March 18, 2016

    Nice narrative. Not a horror book but a pretty book to read! If you time read it. You will enjoy it.
  • Great Fighters:Grace of God on March 18, 2016

    Small stories may have good impact. Hope it will motivate some people!
  • Putting Kids to Sleep on March 28, 2016

    It is a nice book
  • Soulmates on April 23, 2016

    It is an exceptional book!
  • Love and Worries on May 12, 2016

    Too good!
  • Messiah on Sep. 29, 2016

    Nice book
  • Forgive and Forget on Sep. 29, 2016

    Fantastic
  • Frequent Flier on Sep. 29, 2016

    Very absorbing
  • Have You Ever Met the God on Sep. 29, 2016

    Good poems
  • Snubbed Twice on Sep. 29, 2016

    Really lovely write up untold feelings
  • Some of My First Days and First Nights on Sep. 29, 2016

    Fabulous!!!
  • The Same Old Story on Sep. 29, 2016

    Fantastic
  • The Stupid Mom on Sep. 29, 2016

    Tearful!
  • Only He Knows on Sep. 29, 2016

    Difficult understanding of a human character!!!!
  • A Psalm of Life on July 28, 2017

    It is not a Psalm of life. It is summery of of a novel!
  • He Wants a Solution on Aug. 07, 2017

    Many people see dreams within a dream!
  • Love at First Sight on Aug. 07, 2017

    A very nice love story with a message.
  • Meeting and Noting on Aug. 07, 2017

    Ha Ha Ha
  • My Second Lover on Aug. 07, 2017

    Beautiful Story
  • Sun and Cloud on Aug. 07, 2017

    Satirical story
  • Relation with Relatives on Aug. 07, 2017

    Everyone has one or other experience about relatives
  • Old Man and a Dog on Aug. 07, 2017

    Really nice inspiring story!
  • Me and a Dozen plus One Ghost Stories on Sep. 16, 2017

    We should believe the preface or the conclusion part? Very confusing! However, Stories are good.
  • Twenty Five Love Stories on Sep. 16, 2017

    Real Good stuff!
  • Nothing Official as Such on Oct. 08, 2017

    Nothing official about it!
  • Aparajeeta: A Compilation of Twenty-Seven Stories on July 24, 2018

    It is not my comment. But I liked and reproduced. Hearty Congratulations. Thanks for once again proving me right. I had told you,in the presence of many ISS Officers at R. K. Puram, over 10 Years back ,that you would be going places and shattering writing related records,not just with in the world of ISS but we'll beyond that as well.You seem to be implementing what Steve Jobs' advice to every one was ' follow your heart'. You possibly can not and should not delay any longer a book on your life and experiences,as an ISS Officer, including your long stint at the CSO Best of Luck, Borah, Keep at it and Keep Going. T. V. Raman
  • Father's Choice: on Feb. 23, 2019

    It is really a long book with lots of short stories along with the main story. I have completed in three sittings. I like it.
  • Love and War on April 08, 2019

    Love love and love. No war no fight no hatred. I like it.
  • Life and Death on April 08, 2019

    Topic is nice. Selfishness at its height.
  • Satarupa: The Brave Lady on April 08, 2019

    Bad in taste. But it may happen.
  • Waiting at a Bus Stop on June 24, 2019

    Encouraging story for the fifty plus ha ha
  • Sleeplessness on June 24, 2019

    Good for anyone who is facing sleeplessness. Central idea that sleeplessness does not always help, is really to be taken by all.
  • The Disgraced Princess on June 24, 2019

    It is a problem for all those who know how to spend and do not know how to earn. Nicely written.
  • In the Highest Court of Justice on June 05, 2020

    I loved the play for its romance, deceit and ultimate justice of the Almighty
  • Beautiful Promises of the First Night on June 05, 2020

    Funny descriptions of bed room scene on the first night. Loved it
  • Two Hearts One Beat on June 05, 2020

    Heart touching. Enjoyable with a good finish
  • Murder Mysteries on June 05, 2020

    Stories are neatly written. Stories are good in a free flow mode
  • Cold Blooded Murder on June 05, 2020

    I find it nicely written
  • Three Goddesses and Only One Rascal on June 05, 2020

    Why it is in adult section first of all. Good read for anyone
  • Manorama on June 26, 2020

    Nicely written a tragic life of an un-contended young lady
  • Random Thoughts on Aug. 29, 2020

    Most beautiful word for your ears is your own name. Most beautiful sentence you want to hear is 'I love you, ----(your name). So make a habit to utter this sentence before going to bed and after getting up in the morning, 'I love you,---(your own name).' Your mood will be always good; you can laugh whole day naturally and need not go to a nearby park and laugh loudly artificially.🙏🙏🙏 This can be added in this book somewhere.
  • Communication Skill on Feb. 01, 2021

    I can understand your story.
  • Spiritual Wife vs Real Wife on May 14, 2022

    uperb book on sociology
  • Abhayapuri : Pain and Ecstasy of a Young Man on Sep. 10, 2022

    A fantastic historical novel