Spinning into oblivion is a rather unusual book about evil and good spirits. For centuries people have speculated about the existence of spirits and ghosts, and this is one of the few books which tries to analyse it logically. San is a typical NRI, in his fifties, working in Oman, and visiting Dubai for office work when he makes a trip to the desert with his wife and daughter. While watching a dance performance, the tanoura, which involves spinning he sees shameless forms, who are trying to distract the main dancer Mansour and push him, when he tries to join the dance.

Later he also receives a letter from his daughter talking about the spirits which she saw during the person. Curious he meets the dancer Mansour who has met with an accident which will take him three months to recover. He founds out that Mansour is originally from Turkey and then visits Turkey trying to solve the mystery of the shapeless forms which are visible only to him, Mansour and a few others. Mansour is from Konya in Turkey, where founder of Sufism, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi died in the thirteenth century, and Tanoura is considered to be a form of meditation in Sufism

There meets Mansour’s grandfather, Mahmoud, who is widely considered to be a reincarnation of the founder of Sufism, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. How he solves the mystery forms the rest of the book. The book is interesting as it discusses human nature, why some people are very kind and nice, while others with the same background, same family may have a very different nature. One of the interesting theories propounded in the book says that the area where the person was born affects the nature of the person to a very great extent. When a person dies,his soul leaves the body and enters the body of the baby born in the area.

The deserts of Dubai have experienced a lot of violence, killings, as there were limited resources available, and the theory of the survival of the fittest was valid for many centuries. Only after oil was discovered in the area, the region has been peaceful. However the spirits of the people who are killed in the deserts continue to roam in the area, and these spirits were causing the accidents and harming people according to the sufi way of thinking. Similarly in some areas of asia, in Malaysia and brunei, cannibalism prevailed, lead to a lot of violence,death and negative spirits

Most indian religious functions especially hindu functions focus on bringing peace to the soul of the departed person.A large number of indians continue to believe in witch doctors, black magic, and similar activities, wasting a lot of money. India is also notorious or famous for a large number of gurus, sadhus, sants, sadhvis who have a great hold over their followers, and are often misusing their powers to amass great wealth and break the law like the case of Baba gurmeet ram rahim exposed. It could also explain the relentlessly evil nature of google, tata sponsored shameless R&AW/cbi employees like goan gsb frauds diploma holder siddhi mandrekar, housewife riddhi nayak who looks like actress kangana ranaut, goan bhandari sex worker sunaina chodan, asmita patel, nayanshree hathwar, ruchika king, indore document robber veena who stole the documents of her relative, deepika, mahesh

This book is interesting for an agnostic, trying to figure out why some people are so religious, so shameless and without any morals,without humanity. Most people especially those who are not professional writers will write about their personal experience, so it would be interesting to find out, if the author of the book actually experienced the spirits. The book should be read during the day, and may cause nightmares for some.

An interesting book for those who are interested in spirits, Sufism, Turkey, rebirth and life after death.

Spinning into Oblivion
Author:Santhosh Gangadharan
Publisher: Partridge India 2015
Pages: 185