…And continuing with our discussion of the rather more obscure writers of the first half of the twenty-first century, we shall devote a few moments to Aquilus. His real name is now lost, if not exactly in the mists of antiquity, then at least in the fog of obscurity.

Aquilus was a product of the middle class in the post-colonial, liberal, global society from whence he came. He was an Indian, however, he wrote in English, and most of his literary influences can be traced to twentieth century European and American literature, as can many of his cultural references. He is generally, if apocryphally, held to be a medical doctor, who wrote part time. It is a fact, however, that many of his writings are set against the backdrop of poverty, disease, and a prevailing ambience of apathy.

Like many of his contemporaries, Aquilus was a man who had no sense of belonging to the society that shaped him. He wavered uncertainly between two sets of societal mores. He spent a large part of his life away from the country of his birth, but always felt estranged from the people of the country that he adopted. Many of his writings mirror that sense of rootlessness. Again, like the fairly typical specimen of the writers of his time that he is, he spent a lot of his time trying to write the definitive coming-of-age story that would establish his career as a writer. It is difficult to ascribe his works to a specific genre, seeing as how he wrote poetry, science fiction, and fantasy, in addition to his attempts to portray real life.

There are those who consider his writing to be an honest attempt at describing his particular niche of the underbelly of his period, though uncharitable critics have described his style as ‘derivative’ and ‘hackneyed’. As to whether he succeeded in writing the book that he himself described as his ‘elusive opus’ most authorities are undecided, although there are those who consider his…