Tour Stop/Giveaway: Crimson Mirage

 

Check out Crimson Mirage by Babujee today and make sure to enter the tour wide giveaway as the author is giving one lucky person a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. The tour is sponsored by Goddess Fish Promotions and you can find all the tour stops HERE.

Through the eyes: Darkly  

How does one portray evil? Do we depict its abominable ugliness, or do we show the whole person—a blend of normality and perversion?

For millennia, humans have shared stories of good triumphing over evil. Traditionally, these stories were told, described, and narrated. From the Bible to The Canterbury Tales, the narrator or writer would recount events as they happened, often accompanied by illustrations to enhance understanding.

With the advent of live visual media, such as movies and television, the art of storytelling has evolved. Almost all writing programs now emphasize the mantra, "Show, don’t tell." While any rule in a creative and dynamic medium like literature is bound to have exceptions, this style is strongly preferred, especially in academic and university settings. However, this approach often carries an undercurrent of editorializing, glorifying heroes while condemning evil.

In my novel, *Crimson Mirage (CM)*, we take a unique approach. Most of the story is narrated through the eyes of the protagonist, Manush. The format resembles a movie camera, allowing the reader to "see" the narrative and explore the environment. Descriptions occasionally incorporate non-visual senses, such as smell or touch, which a camera cannot capture. However, in *Crimson Mirage*, there is no commentary on the morality or righteousness of the scenes. Readers are mature adults, capable of interpreting the sequences and forming their own judgments.

Consider the movie *Schindler’s List*. In one scene, filmed as a long shot, SS guards are seen shooting prisoners. The characters occupy a corner of the frame, and their interaction appears mundane—until some people suddenly fall to the ground. Without context, the depravity and horror of the crime are not immediately apparent. It looks disturbingly like an ordinary day. That’s what real crime often looks like.

But what happens when we view it from the perpetrators’ perspective? Does it go too far? Does it risk normalizing evil? In *Crimson Mirage*, a character who has cold-bloodedly murdered a helpless youth justifies his actions to an adoring crowd. He invokes the "safety of the country" and even laments that no one appreciates his kindness in returning the body for a proper funeral.

This may infuriate some readers—that a monster is given a platform to defend himself. But that is precisely the intent of this technique. It forces readers to confront how mundane evil can be, how seamlessly it coexists with us, and how easily it can be rationalized. Evil doesn’t announce itself with horns or fire-breathing nostrils. It looks like you and I. It claims its own brand of morality. It can be a father, a sister, a husband—and sometimes, even a good one.

I’ve witnessed this firsthand. A friend’s father, a police officer, was the quintessential annoying adult during our adolescence—always concerned about our safety, keeping us out of trouble, and earning my parents’ trust as a reliable guardian. To make matters worse, he was deeply religious and constantly peppered us with moral stories.

Years later, I learned from an independent source that he had led a "hit squad" responsible for dragging Naxalite youths from their homes at night and executing them. I never had the chance to hear his side of the story, but I imagine it might have resembled the scene I described earlier. Yes, this man inspired that moment in the novel.

Simply condemning an evil act oversimplifies it. It provides an escape route, allowing us to distance ourselves from the evil within and claim moral superiority. But the truth is that all of us harbor the potential for evil. It’s only a matter of time and circumstance before it manifests. To confront the "bad guys," we must first look within ourselves.

The truly terrifying part isn’t the existence of evil—it’s realizing that it could have been one of us.

Crimson Mirage by Babujee

GENRE: Political Psychological Thriller

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Naïve Passionate Dangerous.

 

Manush is all of these—and more. Caught between the heat of first love and the fire of revolution, he confuses desire with destiny and activism with annihilation. What begins with tender hope ends in blood-soaked betrayal.

 

Set against the turbulent backdrop of Calcutta’s Naxalite uprising, this haunting debut novel unravels the journey of a boy-turned-assassin—his convictions twisted, his soul scarred, his story unforgettable.

 

The author grew up in the heart of this upheaval, witnessing firsthand how political fervor tore through families and futures. Crimson Mirage is not just fiction—it’s a reckoning. A meditation on blind love, brutal reprisals, and the elusive promise of freedom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt Two:

 

Beads of persperation had appeared on her temple, shining like moving pearls in the indirect light. Manush was mesmerized. She looked beautiful!

 

Mita looked at him impatiently. “How long will the boy be? Is he fetching tea leaves from the Darjeeling Tea Gardens?” she smiled. An old joke, still, Manush smiled with her.

 

But his heart missed a beat. This was the first time she had smiled only for him. He was happy, angry, pleased, agitated, frustrated—and, above all, confused. What did he want from her? More importantly, did she want anything from him?

 

He remembered his ‘guru’, a college Casanova at Residency. The bloke had taken upon himself the mission of bringing simpletons like him up to speed on how to swing it with girls. The chap sermoned, “Never get confused about a woman. If you feel that way with anyone, turn and run like the wind. Unless you do that, she’ll chew you alive… that is, if she’s kind; an evil one will hook you at the end of a line and play with you as you drown.

 

“Charge like a bull, ask, don’t be sheepish or bashful around women. If the response is ‘Yes’, very well, you’re lucky, buy movie tickets for two. If her response is ‘No’, buy a bottle of Old Monk rum from our good old Shaw & Co.—call me if you can’t handle the whole bottle alone—weep through the night. The next morning, when you’re fit, look around for new pastures.”

 

Manush sighed. As usual, it was easier to preach than act. He did not want to admit he had that indefinable ‘something’—adolescents would call it a ‘crush’—for Mita. But he did not have the courage to ask. If she said, ‘No, ’ he did not have the foggiest idea what he would do. So, he stuffed his feelings in a limbo jar…‘Time in a Bottle…and flew around it in circles.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

The author is a professional who grew up in Kolkata during the turbulent times that serve as the backdrop of this novel. He has written short stories and articles. This is his debut novel. More of his writing at babujee.substack.com/archive. 

Website: https://mailchi.mp/996745dceee3/crimson-mirage