Autumn Leaves: Seasons of Life (Paperback or Softback)

The common thread that connects all the stories in the book is the Fall or the Autumn. Autumn symbolizes a time of self-reflection. It is also the transition from light to darkness like twilight when day slowly melts away into the darkness but not before revealing the resplendency of the setting sun. It is also a period of accepting the reality of the present and moving towards and preparing oneself for the future: a period of contemplation and accepting impermanence. Like the seasons, we also change within ourselves whether it is coping with impermanence, overcoming the ghosts of the past, or learning to make our lives more meaningful.

‘Autumn Leaves’ narrates the reality of being left alone as one ages due to the splintering of families and the slow drifting away of relationships. The story traces one family’s travel through four generations.

‘Amora’ is all about the failure to distinguish between love and infatuation before realizing that relationships are based on understanding and acceptance and that alone is permanent.

‘Enigma’, brings together two individuals who are diametrically opposite in nature but stay bonded till the end. The story is about friendship, love and that the meaning of our existence lies in how useful a life we have led.

G. S. Subbu, in his third book 'Autumn Leaves', explores the reality of human existence whether it is aging and loneliness, infatuation and love, or finding an authenticity in one's life through a synthesis of the opposing forces within oneself. He relies on simple language to get across his deeply philosophical meditations to the reader. He goes back and forth from the present to the past and back to the present, avoiding the monotony of a straight narrative to keep the reader engrossed.

An engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, by qualification and a banker by profession, he retired from the State Bank of India in the year 2010 and settled down in Chennai. His two previous books are 'I am just An Ordinary Man' and 'Darkness and Beyond - A Medley of Many Lives'. He regularly writes in his blog 'Sublimation'.