• Title – The Krishna Key
• Author – Ashwin Sanghi
• Publisher – Westland Ltd.
• Genre – Thriller
• Pages – 475
• ISBN – 978-93-81626-68-9
• Price – Rs 250

Synopsis: In this heart-stopping tale, the arrival of a murderer who executes his gruesome and brilliantly thought-out schemes in the name of God is the first clue to a sinister conspiracy to expose an ancient secret – Krishna’s priceless legacy to mankind.

Historian Ravi Mohan Saini must breathlessly dash from the submerged remains of Dwarka and the mysterious lingam of Somnath to the icy heights of Mount Kailash, in a quest to discover the location of Krishna’s most prized possession. Saini must also delve into antiquity to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice.

Review: I am a very curious person. Getting hold of a thriller means I will try my best to read the book in 24 hours. But, this book made me slow down. I took four days to finish it not because the book wasn’t engaging or the plot too predictive, but because the book has an enormous amount of interesting facts that need time to gradually seep in your mind.

The very first thing that strikes the reader is the exhaustive research done by the author in stirring up a whopper of a plot. Picking up teachings from the Vedas to the events of the past, gently mixing them with the geological and nuclear sciences and stirring up with mythological and theological information. The book has been churned out as a massive learning experience even though the teachings are a part of the mystery behind serial killings by a little rich boy who grows up believing that he is the final Vishnu avatar.

I congratulate the author for successfully keeping me on my tenterhooks even though my mind was busy assimilating the  delicious morsels of the way the number 108 stands to be the holy numeric designating the Almighty, as deduced by the many examples cited throughout the book. The book takes care to gradually allow each character to evolve and shares their past, present and their perspective in intricate detail.

Great care has been taken to research the minutest details of the cities and places mentioned in the book. I have personally known many of these places. I was amazed by the way I actually got a chance to experience the historical, mythological and even the underlying philosophical aspects behind the Somnath, Mount Kailash to the sand-washed remains of Kalibangan, Dwarka to Vrindavan and even the epitome of beauty and love the Taj Mahal.

The incredible alternative interpretations of the Vedic age scriptures with quotation of the literary works and their sources in detail revived my interest in history that I seem to have lost over the years.

Though from my words it might seem that the book is more about the mythology and religion, the truth stands that the book is a piece of fiction backed with great analysis that the reader is forced to believe in the presented alternate hypothesis.

The book is divided into 108 chapters. Each of them begins with an excerpt of Mahabharata as narrated by Krishna himself. In the start though it gives the impression of being done to maintain the grip of mythology over the plot but slowly emerges the sublime chemistry between the thriller story gently entwining inspirations from the events stated in the Mahabharata. I thoroughly enjoyed a recapitulation of the great epic from the beginning to the end.

The book never fails to surprise and throughout springs up findings from unexpected corners. I could hear the theme music of the Bourne series ringing in my ears, with the clues being decoded with genius logic. The best part is the author has not left anything to imagination. All free ends of the plot have gradually been interlaced to create an artistic image painted in words.

The only thing that was a bit of a distraction for me was the intense debates among Ravi Saini (the protagonist) and other characters sometimes went into too many intricate details about the ancient civilizations that made me lose interest in the book on many occasions, though the gripping plot succeeded in making me read to the end.

The author is often referred as the Dan Brown of India for the book holds striking similarity to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code & Angels and Demons. Nevertheless, Ashwin Sanghi deserves due credit for he has put in tremendous effort in research and putting forth a magnificent re-visit to our glorious history.

I highly recommend the book with the note that the book be read with patience, for it has much more to offer than a mere thriller plot. It’s a reading experience that educates besides entertaining. I am glad I decided to chew upon the facts and to reflect on them in the light of my own (limited) knowledge of mythology.

Quoting Ashwin Sanghi, reading the book is indeed alchemy in progress.

Rating : 4/5

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