Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Readers' reviews of "The Ekkos Clan"

It's heartening to see so many of you reading my book and taking time out to put your valuable comments. Any creation of art is always a subjective thing and it always can be further improved, or rather made to be liked more by others, unless the creator (or the author in my case) decides that he or she has created a masterpiece, which I'm aware I haven't. So it will be a conscious and continuous endeavor to make my writings better and better, within my capacity. That's where your comments are of great help to me. I believe the fine space between success and failure is not the talent or skill that much, as is the understanding of what's lacking.

In my opinion, (at least that's what I've intended to do) “The Ekkos Clan” is a contemporary thriller set against ancient Indian history. 

The motivation behind the book has been always the rich and the fascinating history of our country, which is not only among the oldest but also among the most intriguing ones. But somehow it hasn’t been well presented for a general reading in a way that’s interesting. 

As many of you've commented, yes, I was indeed inspired by characters like Robert Langdon and Indiana Jones who solve intriguing mysteries about Christianity in popular thrillers. I’ve attempted to do a similar thing with the Indian perspective, but putting my book in the same genre as those of the above may be misleading.

Mine is more of a mystery novel, where there are lot of riddles in the form of small stories, each leading to some prehistoric event or anecdote, all of which together tell a tale of our civilization, our culture. It demystifies Rig Veda to a great extent, going into the behind-the-scene stories of Rig Veda and the ancient people who wrote them. It deals with fanaticism in the garb of an extremist nationalism, something that gave rise to Nazism. It deals with the identity of India and the Indian civilization. It deals with the gradual evolution of hierarchies in a society and many more and all the while I've tried not to disrupt the fast pace of a mystery novel.

I hope more people like my book. Thanks again to all of you for pouring your thoughts in this forum.

Online reviews: http://www.flipkart.com/the-ekkos-clan/product-reviews/ITMDMTDCQ5GTGTYM