Synopsis. The title of my novel Clouded
Crescent: Garrulous Goon does not mean that crescent as symbolized by some as Muslim
world is hazy nowadays and contrarily cross is glittering, as it not written against any religion deliberately. What I have tried to depict is the social cum religious circumstances that has become the breeding ground of Muslim radicals in some countries like Pakistan, who are fanning terrorisms world over through inter-connected stories of my saga of Basher. In brief the story is as follows:- The novel depicts the tale of a minion’s son, who wanted to lead a life of upright person, but destiny fails him in his endeavors for it and at each step of his tryst of fate, he falls into the trap of evil forces. . The feudal lords son implicates him in false case at a fray on the issue of trivial issue of inclusion of religious subjects at an engineering institute, which leads him to a rigorous sentence at a reformatory in Pakistan. The hero, who has a character of more of heroics than wisdom, escapes from prison, finds himself at a made up shrine, which is in control of a woman, who takes advantage of a sanctity of a made up saint to cater the needs of local bandits. A high flood in the river saves him, as he tries to fights wickedness in his way, but fails as his old friend draws him towards an orthodox version of Islam and brain washes him to become a similar adherent that ushers him towards radicalism. The strict code of seclusion of woman at Mullah’s house, not only through veil, but total shunning of them from outsiders, depicted in the tale of man of victim of circumstances, who has to run on the dictate of others forced by the unexpected situation encountered by him. The friend sends him to a seminary, which was a recruiting center of Taliban fighter in the guise of a religious school. A drug baron, who is supporting the insurgents as well, dispatches him to Taliban training center, where he rebels, they order for his execution due to his weak conviction, however the same drug mafia chief saves him, along with a Yemeni boy, with whom the hero has a gay relation in the course of
terror training. The drug baron then sends him with an illicit cargo to another large narcotics smuggler at Lahore. The hero with his Yemeni pal, son of a wealthy Arab, goes to Yemen with contraband heroin and successfully delivers it to his contact at Saudi Arabian border and Yemeni ditches him in his home country. Romance also thrown in between the saga of Pakistani rebel of disruptive forces that are playing with common person’s inspiration of the country. In the second section of the book, the hero assigned the job of gunrunner and drug smuggler to India and it describes the sway of such trade between two warring nations as no well-guarded boundary can check such nefarious activities. The Mao insurgents of India shown as rebels with different cause, however allied to religious terror groups of Pakistan. To check the conversation of tribal into Christianity, Hindu religious schools have emerged in some regions and the hero finds one to his hazard. At the time of 9/11, the hero escapes from India through Nepal after a little drama well depicted. He encounters the tragedy of finding his sister as hooker at a marriage dance, disheartened, his destiny takes him to fight US forces in Afghanistan along with Al-Qaeda in the 3rd part of the novel. Vivid description of a battle of Tora Bora with the escape of Osama Bin Laden from the caves, described as observed by the hero of the novel. His capture and release from the Bay prison with his tete-a- tete with a kind US lady sergeant also focused on. . The hero sent to prison after his release from bay prison, where a mafia man tries to kill him by bomb. He escapes and two sleuths from CIA and Pakistani intelligence contacts him to act as their informer amid Al-Qaeda. In the last chapter hero finds out a plan to steal an atomic bomb for smuggling to USA from a well guarded base in Pakistan, through his acumen he nips in bud the disastrous scheme of terrorist with help of American agencies –a la James Bond style, but in totally different approach than Ian Fleming.