Book Review: The Krishna Key

'The Krishna Key' by Ashwin Sanghi is a fabulous read. One cannot escape the thought of seeing similarities in concept with 'Angels and Demons' or The 'Da Vinci Code' of Dan Brown, but the adaptation and creativity involved in setting it in Indian context is extremely appealing. The characters and the interweaving of them with Indian Mythology is something to appreciate. No wonder, a lot of study and data collection has been into it and the effort is visible. Anil Varshney,the youngest linguist and symbolist of India, who had spent significant portion of his work-life at archaeological sites had found four seals and a base-plate in Kalibangan site. The seals formed a prized possession and in order to safe-guard them, Prof Varshney keeps each seal with three trusted friends of his and saves the base-plate with himself.

Taarik Vakil, a serial killer and a firm believer of his being the kalki avatar (the 10th) of Lord Krishna, whose motive is to retrieve the seals starts plotting and killing the current owners of the seals to own them. He is richly influenced by Mataji, who as a teacher in his school-days had heavy impact on him. Prof.Ravi Mohan Saini,a Historian and one of the best friends of Prof.Varshney, who had possessed one of the seals, is suspected of killing him and others who possessed the other seals. With eminent police force led by Ms. Radhika, how Mr. Saini escapes from the police-clutches and decodes and uses the hints to unveil the mystery is the core of the story. In Mr.Saini's efforts, is a helping hand given by his doctoral student,Priya. 

At every stage, how the modern facts are linked and traced back to the mythological aspects,is very impressive and convincing. The story is well built and unfolds at a brilliant pace keeping the reader engrossed and amazed at the research gone into information gathering. How the author can convince the reader that nuclear weapons existed back in the ages of Krishna and how the astronomical data indicates the happenings of the past are convincing enough, aren't they? 

 The juxtaposition of the Krishna-avatar bits and the current story makes it a wonderful read. An awesome thriller with a surprising climax is worth a read. A different genre in Indian context. It would be criminal to prospective readers to reveal the juicy details of the story and turn a spoiler, although can't help but appreciate every bit of literature in there. If you were a strong believer earlier that Maharabharata didn't really happen, this book makes an attempt to think otherwise, with its own logic and narration. If that it can do, its a significant attempt for it is trying to question our belief of ages and gives an interpretation to the story we have heard of Krishna and Mahabharata for ages!

 This is my first read of Ashwin Sanghi's books and most certainly will not be the last one. It has opened the avenue for a new genre and a great writer for me and I will certainly read his 'Chanakya Chant' and 'The Rozabal Line'. All in all, a must-read thriller and my rating 4/5.
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Book Review: The Reluctant Detective

"The Reluctant Detective" is the story of Kanan Mehra aka Kay, a home-maker married to an MBA-husband and having a five year old son, who is driven into being a detective or someone close owing to the situation where there were back-to-back murders in the locality.

Just when the Mehra family was headed to a party, the police knock on the doors of the Mehra house to indicate that  Mrs.Sheetal Jaiswal, the person who Mrs. Mehra used to see everyday when out for the morning jog and had vaguely known, was murdered.

When the Mehra family was getting back from the Bollywood party they had attended in the evening, they encounter the dead body of a man close to their apartment complex.

The serial murders pushes the folks of the locality to panic and fear and a lot of curiosity on how Mrs. Sheetal Jaiwal was murdered.  While Mrs. Mehra is panic-stricken herself, she gets a calling from within her heart to help find justice to Sheetal, who she establishes a virtual bond with. Kay feels Sheetal was always trying to say something to her via the dreams the former saw. 

While the police made a thief confess for the murder of Sheetal, Kay refuses to believe that Sheetal was murdered for reasons of theft alone, because in the death spot, the ipod Sheetal had been using was left alone. Kay tries to find clues to nail down the actual reason/person being Sheetal's murder. She talks to the maids, her detective friend Runa and inspects the location where the murder took place to find clues which ultimately gives good reasons to suspect and identify the person responsible for Sheetal's murder. I will spare the thrill-factor here by not mentioning who the person was.

While the story line is a bit guessable, a little weak, there is a dash of humor to the whole story. Bound to enjoy the funny narrations in some pieces, but it seems an over doze in several other situations. When talking of murder and death, perhaps, humor is not always recommended or natural. Kay seems overly obsessed with the weight and looks she possessed and on ways to improve it, a reader gets about fifty percent of the book to read about the description of the weight/dress issues which gets a little redundant.

Some things that I couldn't stop taking notice of, how can a child "talk" with wrong spellings, "write" I agree. Although I understand the intent and perhaps the idea was to differentiate the kid's conversation and say that the child pronounces words differently, but he also happens to talk in sms language. How can a child say "u" instead of "you", as I said, for writing, I agree and its believable.

Another observation was, if only Mr.Mehra who followed Kay during her morning walk post the murders to ensure her safety had called out her name instead of seeming like stealthily following her, he would have been spared the pepper-spray treatment! Perhaps, I was getting a little too involved here!

Nevertheless, it brings out the thought that situations can turn a home-maker who had  very normal agendas in her daily routine into someone to help in different capacities. The concept is appealing. Good attempt for a first-time novelist. I wish the author many more successful ventures ahead.

Rating: 3/5

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