saniya varkhandkar

A hasty marriage, an extramarital affair, an inability to co-operate with colleagues, a careless dabbling in the occult–Medha displays all the attributes of an adult with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
Things get messy when her four year old child, Som, is diagnosed with the same condition. Offended with the school authorities who ask her to medicate her child, she takes an impulsive decision to homeschool. The journey, though, is more arduous than the one she has expected.
Overwhelmed by the child’s responsibility, bereft of family support and guilt-ridden because of her affair, Medha eventually escapes into the world of occult. In the process she experiences supernatural phenomena and unearths divine secrets which help her decode the connection between religion, divinity and psyche.
But where will this knowledge lead her? Will her spiritual endeavour reconcile her with her family or turn her into a recluse?
Revealing the hidden workings of the human brain, The Recluse is a contemporary novel that explores the fine line between madness and genius.