Ashwatthama cannot be counted among my favorite characters from the epic tale of Mahabharata. Sure, he was a great warrior. I won't hold his fighting on the side of Kauravas against him. But his one heinous act of killing Draupadi's sleeping children (he mistook them for Pandavas!) at the end of the war didn't only stain his character for eons to come but also earned him a curse right at the hand of God - the curse to roam this earth for eternity, with the festering wound caused by the ripping of the precious stone out of his forehead. No solace, no peace, no mirth. Who can save one whom God Himself has deserted?
UdayaSankar has a different take on Ashwatthama's tale. He is immortal but not because of some curse. It's an experiment in Alchemy that's caused it, making him an aberration, an anomaly, a freak of nature. His present persona is that of Professor Bharadwaj - a historian who helps private collectors get their hands on obscure, but priceless, pieces of antiquities. Maya, approaches him for one such quest - Nagarjuna's Vajra, an instrument that's supposed to be capable of causing transmutation as well as bestowing immortality. As the legend goes, Nagarjuna had broken up the Vajra into 3 pieces, hiding them in different locations and the details of the same are now lost in the mists of time. Professor Bharadwaj, along with his colleague, embarks on the journey to locate the Vajra but someone else is also on this trail - to make sure that he doesn't succeed.
There cannot be any doubt that the plot has promise. Loads of it. But the problem is that the author has introduced unnecessary complexity at places. One case in point - references to scientists like Issac Newton, Robert Hooke and Niels Bohr and their work towards the end of the book. I really couldn't understand the point of it. The book also leaves a lot of questions unanswered like e.g. if Professor Bharadwaj did finally end up killing Maya why did he let her go earlier? What was he expecting to find in the final place that they visited? I also didn't understand what caused him to turn immortal.
If you are a fan of a fresh take on epics and mythological tales, this book is definitely worth a read. If not, it might leave you with a vague sense of disappointment, and lot of unanswered questions.
UdayaSankar has a different take on Ashwatthama's tale. He is immortal but not because of some curse. It's an experiment in Alchemy that's caused it, making him an aberration, an anomaly, a freak of nature. His present persona is that of Professor Bharadwaj - a historian who helps private collectors get their hands on obscure, but priceless, pieces of antiquities. Maya, approaches him for one such quest - Nagarjuna's Vajra, an instrument that's supposed to be capable of causing transmutation as well as bestowing immortality. As the legend goes, Nagarjuna had broken up the Vajra into 3 pieces, hiding them in different locations and the details of the same are now lost in the mists of time. Professor Bharadwaj, along with his colleague, embarks on the journey to locate the Vajra but someone else is also on this trail - to make sure that he doesn't succeed.
There cannot be any doubt that the plot has promise. Loads of it. But the problem is that the author has introduced unnecessary complexity at places. One case in point - references to scientists like Issac Newton, Robert Hooke and Niels Bohr and their work towards the end of the book. I really couldn't understand the point of it. The book also leaves a lot of questions unanswered like e.g. if Professor Bharadwaj did finally end up killing Maya why did he let her go earlier? What was he expecting to find in the final place that they visited? I also didn't understand what caused him to turn immortal.
If you are a fan of a fresh take on epics and mythological tales, this book is definitely worth a read. If not, it might leave you with a vague sense of disappointment, and lot of unanswered questions.
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