In the parched veins of the Doon Valley, some things are too heavy to flow, and some fires are too quiet to extinguish.
For centuries, the Rispana River was a perennial promise. For the aging photographer who lives upon its banks, it was the world’s only honest mirror. But as a seasonal wildfire—the fever—descends from the Himalayan ridges, the valley enters a state of terminal stasis. The river stalls beneath a shroud of ash, and the air grows thick with the scent of a disappearing era.
Inside the house, a parallel erasure is unfolding. His wife, the anchor of his stitched time, is retreating into a dark well of psychological silence where no lens can follow. Caught between an ecological apocalypse and a domestic tragedy, the photographer is forced to quantify the unquantifiable.
Madness explores the terrifying beauty of the witness. It is a story of three erasures: a river that has forgotten its path, a woman who has forgotten her name, and a man standing in the absolute canter of everything he could not save.
A haunting, humanised exploration of the Anthropocene, Madness is a requiem for the landscapes we lose and the shadows we keep.
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Shaleen Rakesh
Shaleen Rakesh is an Indian writer whose work blends lyricism, philosophical inquiry, and an intimate attentiveness to the natural world.
He is the author of The Lion and the Antler (WorldView Publications), a collection of poems exploring love, loss, and the body, and An Equal Indian (OpenWord Publications), a non-fiction examination of sexuality, identity, and social structures in contemporary India. His essays, reflections, and shorter writings have appeared across journals, platforms, and anthologies for more than two decades.
Shaleen divides his life between Delhi and Dehradun, moving between the intensity of the city and the quiet expanses of the hills. His writing is deeply influenced by the landscapes he inhabits…. the forests, rivers, and terraces of Uttarakhand, and by a lifelong curiosity about the human mind, its fractures, its tenderness, and its capacity for renewal.
Madness, his first novel, continues this exploration through the story of an ageing photojournalist walking the banks of the Rispana River. Told in a slow, meditative voice, the book weaves ecology, memory, and cultural disquiet into a lyrical portrait of a man, a river, and the fragile world they share.
Shaleen’s work is known for its minimalism, emotional resonance, and a quiet philosophical undercurrent. He writes with the conviction that stories are not answers but invitations…. to look more deeply, to listen more honestly, and to return to the inner landscapes we often abandon.
