It is story of a journey through different realms and a collage of descriptions of journey moving through changing spheres: As one moves through the real world one enters the surreal world; as one exits the surreal world one enters the cosmos and then reenters the mundane world of the human life again. There is no causal connections in these events which may define time. Through a rich stream of visions and words the journey makes transitions from one realm to the other. In a surreal moonlit meadow, or in the memory of village landscapes experienced in the childhood, or in the void and nothingness of the dark realm of the cosmos the protagonist turns into a camel, or a bullock cart or a mechanized transport (like a train) carrying the burden of the skeletons of one`s own towards an indefinable destination: On the way the starry world burns, pyre licks the sky and festive people move in processions to immerse their deities. Amidst these, from the living world three characters return again and again to give him company: Father, mother, and a competitor who always challenges him in finding a worthier way of the journey. All these three characters change robes again and again: Father sometimes turns into a cosmic being, sometime as a mortal man who has given birth of him, sometimes as a surreal character emerging from himself. Similarly, the mother turns from a female comforting the child in her caring breast to a wife, a seducer and  a lover or a killing goddess, and a dark force drawing all towards annihilation. The challenger engages him in life`s pursuits and card plays, sometimes change as a human being, sometimes as the Devil of the dark.  In “time in ashes” the protagonist moves while attempting not to move; like a disc he rotates while he may refuse to go anywhere. The cart progresses even though he seeks to stop the whirling of the rims of the wheels. It is story of an existential state through which the life of the author has passed before he started composing his long poems of the “Stream of consciousness genre”. In his later work the writing had taken more poetic form while the content had become more effusive and intermixed with different realms of the mind. “Time in Ashes” is a English rendering of the title “Gorur Gari” written in Bengali language.

                                                                       - This introduction is written  by Anup Rej

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