I will assume that you my dear hardy reader has actually read through the novel. It must have struck you as disjointed with no specific timeline and indeed not even a clear protagonist or anti protagonist. It is just a collective of small timers in a village. If you thought so you are right. Life generally has a timeline only for individuals.
Those brave souls who actually finished the book have asked the meaning of the strange ending. The village, as seen by Nanu while in his trance, appears engulfed in a colorful symphony of lights. This scene forms the front cover of the book. Some kind of supernatural fire which does not burn.
Before the Mahabharat war began a warrior who cut off his own head as a bizarre sacrifice. This head was placed on a nearby hill. The disembodied head witnessed the entire war. After the war the head said he had seen just two things. The famed discus of Vishnu circling the battlefield at great speed and the terrible tongue of Devi Kali licking up lives.
The village is doomed to destruction. But the presence of the Sage Munshi ji and an unnamed disciple of his saves the village after an epic battle which only Nanu could witness. The passengers of a bus passing through the village do not notice anything unusual although the eerie flames engulf the village.
The end of the story is not the end of the village. Indeed the Munshi waits for the inhabitants to return.
More about other chapters an characters in future posts.
Pradeep VM