Tales of Alibaba, Sindbad and Aladdin twisted in new novel

The age-old fables of Alibaba and his forty thieves, Sindbad the sailor and Aladdin�s lamp have now been given a contemporary twist in a new literary fiction. '2012 Nights' by Bangalore-based debutant novelist Vipul Rikhi is set in a year where apocalypse is on the horizon. As a paranoid and drunk writer narrates tales to his cat Schahriar, he comes up with tales of compassion and greed, destruction and loss, allegorical and modern versions of Sindbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin. Narrated like a metaphor to the stories in �The Arabian Nights�, each night he spins a yarn of beautifully crafted stories which has strong political and mythological undercurrents. Rikhi picks up the stories related with King Solomon, Aladdin, Sindbad and Alibaba and then twists them under the light of history, mythology, politics, allegorical and the modern world. Convinced that world is going to end soon, the writer- protagonist narrates stories to the cat, his only audience, for 1001 nights in a row, pausing at dawn in order to keep himself alive another day. Old tales are re-spinned to tell new ones about the journey of humankind, cutting through pious euphemisms to expose the folly underneath. The stories and metaphors unfold thick and fast, pushing the reader to spin out of control and surrender to their pulsating chaos. '2012 Nights' is set in the background of men being haunted by the premonition of complete annihilation in 2012, as foretold since time immemorial by a number of ancient prophecies and scriptures. Priced at Rs 195, the book is published by Fingerprint.