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Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Book Review - The Krishna Key

I am a huge fans of books that deal with Indian mythology. Ashwin Sanghi, the author of Rozabal Line and Chanakya's Chant, both popular books in their own right, has now come out with a new book called The Krishna Key. I loved Sanghi's Rozabal line......liked his Chanakya's Chant and am a little ambivalent about this one.
The book is evidently extremely well researched. There is a lot of information, which in the beginning, though captivating and interesting, after a little while, starts to get overwhelming. To quote one of the characters in the story, there is so much information that it makes one's head reel.
This genre of stories became popular with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and in the Indian context, there are so many mysteries.....so many myths that could be beautifully woven together to make a story which leaves one wondering if everything we've been taught to believe of as the truth is, in reality, true or not.
Sanghi's novel uses the story of Krishna as the background. It particularly deals with the final avatar of Krishna - the Kalki avatar, the story of which generations of Indians have listened to while growing up. The Kalki avatar is believed to arise when dark forces are on the rise and is believed to be the annihilator of all evil. A young man, believed to be the final avatar, kills people in a particular manner, each time leaving behind one of the sacred symbols of Vishnu.
What is the purpose of these killings? Is this young man truly the Kalki avatar or is he merely someone who is a pawn in the hands of a much more powerful entity?

A book written by an author who went by the pseudonym Shawn Haigins while publishing his first book, cannot be complete without word play – and there is, expectedly, a lot of that. Anagrams,word puzzles, coding and decoding of letters - all these are there in plenty in various parts of the book. 
Initially, the book is fast paced and keeps you wanting to read more. However, like I said in the beginning, in a while, you are bombarded with so much information, that a part of it is not even processed by the brain.
The author takes the reader on a journey to several places that are famous for their connection to Krishna and Shiva- Dwaraka, Vrindavan, Kalibangan, Kailash & Somnath, in an attempt to find a priceless treasure that is believed to have been left behind by Krishna. 
Is Krishna a real being that lived in India several centuries back or is he merely a figment of the collective over imagination of a people who idolized their Gods? Could India truly have been the forerunner in several fields including medicine, science, architecture and mathematics? Is it possible that ancient Indians new much more than all the best brains of the developed world put together? These are some of the questions that came to my mind as I was reading "The Krishna Key".
The Krishna Key is published by Westland and is available in shops for Rs 250/-
While the price makes it an attractive buy, I do not think that it is as good as Sanghi's Rozabal Line. That doesn't mean that it is a bad read. It is definitely something that you should read atleast once, especially if you are interested in this kind of fiction.
This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books! 

2 comments:

sra said...

This sounds interesting because of the questions you raised. I'll look out for it.

Chitra said...

Nice review :)