A meditation on displacement, intimacy, and myth-making
Piyush Mahiskey’s latest literary offering, Durga in Nigeria, is a profound exploration of emotional transformation, faith, and the myths we create to make sense of trauma. Rooted in the story of Saanidhya Ashtankar—“Saani”—a disciplined product strategist from Pune who finds herself in Lagos, the novel unfolds as a delicate meditation on how silence, survival, and suffering can be recast as sanctity.
At the heart of the narrative lies Saani’s near-death experience, which spirals into a public myth, casting her as a divine revelation across India. Yet, Mahiskey refuses the sensational. Instead of miracle, the novel offers emotional inevitability, giving readers an intimate view of how individuals become symbols.
Spanning 23 chapters, Durga in Nigeria traces multiple intertwined journeys. Anant Joshi’s move from Pune to Lagos leaves behind his wife, Roshni, and son, Kush. In Lagos, his connection with Saani evolves from professional partnership to a companionship that borders on the sacred. Parallelly, Roshni embodies resilience through her devotion, Kush emerges as a symbolic presence, Anant collapses into broken heart syndrome, and Saani wrestles with her own interiority.
The “Nine Days of Battle,” echoing the rhythms of Navratri, anchor the narrative’s emotional intensity, culminating in Saani’s unintended deification. The closing chapter, Godwoman, reframes her silence as scripture—a haunting testament to how myths are born and sustained.
Lagos, in Mahiskey’s hands, is not a distant, exotic landscape but a terrain of feeling. It becomes the stage upon which displacement and belonging, faith and commodification, intimacy and alienation, all collide. The novel asks piercing questions: How does trauma travel across borders? When does silence become sanctity? Can faith survive outside its rituals and temples?
Written in restrained, emotionally precise prose, Durga in Nigeria blends the language of product strategy with cultural symbolism, creating a text that is simultaneously grounded and mythic. Rather than relying on melodrama, Mahiskey chooses ambiguity, nuance, and earned mystery—crafting a work that lingers long after its last page.Durga in Nigeria is not just a novel—it is a meditation on emotional truth. Deeply influenced by Marathi nuance and diaspora psychology, it resonates far beyond boundaries, speaking to universal questions of love, faith, and meaning.