When Loss Is Gain by Pavan K. Varma

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only a few months to live, Anand, a budding Delhi lawyer, who is obsessed with his own ambition and the politics of his workplace, thinks his life has hit rock bottom. But then further misfortune strikes: his wife Tanu leaves him for his best friend Adi, the owner of the law firm for which he works. As Anand surveys the wreckage of everything that has mattered to him, and realizes how misplaced his priorities have been, he is unexpectedly granted a reprieve. His doctor tells him that the initial diagnosis was wrong and that he is cancer-free.

Determined to make the most of his second chance, Anand quits his high-powered job, and deliberately loses himself in the myriad simple joys of life for which he has never had the time. But when the old concerns and habits begin to creep back, he decides, on a whim, to journey to the remote Bhutanese retreat of Wangsisina to think about his future in solitude. Should he renounce the temptations of the city forever? Should he abjure romantic love? Should he spend the rest of his days as a recluse? Or should he start taking the first tentative steps back to a fuller life, which Chimi, his Bhutanese friend, encourages him to do? As he wrestles with these questions in the shadow of Bhutan's dramatic cliffs and mountains, he runs into the enigmatic Tara, a woman fleeing her own tragic past, and his life looks set to take yet another unexpected turn ...

Action-packed yet contemplative, Pavan K. Varma’s first novel is a powerful story of love and loss, despair and hope, chance and destiny, and the true meaning of joy and sorrow in every human life.

About The Author :

Pavan K. Varma studied history at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and took a degree in law from Delhi University. A member of the Indian Foreign Service, he has been press secretary to the president of India, the official spokesman of the Foreign Office as well as the director general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. His assignments abroad include a stint in Moscow, in New York at the Indian mission to the United Nations, in London where he was director of the Nehru Centre, and as India’s high commissioner in Cyprus. He is at present India’s ambassador to Bhutan.

Pavan K. Varma is the author of several acclaimed and bestselling books, among them, Ghalib: The Man, The Times; Krishna: The Playful Divine; The Great Indian Middle Class; Being Indian: The truth about why the 21st century will be India’s and Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity. He has also translated into English the poetry of Gulzar, Kaifi Azmi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When Loss Is Gain is his first work of fiction.