Inside the Mind of the Author

In my family and in the circle of my blood relatives, I am the only author. So, they ask me many questions…

how do you get an idea? How can you write so much? Where do you get the words from? And all the other queries follow.

To such questions, I try praising the almighty as the best response – “it’s the supreme grace of Goddess Saraswati.”

But they are not happy with the answer. They need a more practical one, rather something that they can understand more easily! ‘Divine Grace’ is after all not easy to understand no!?

Well, then I am like, OK, here I go:

“It all begins with an inspiration that ignites an idea. Yes, Ideas and Inspirations are not the same! I explain to them that the inspiration is like a seed and idea is the moment the seed germinates. “

I am like literally driving them nuts. All the eyes are on me now. They want me to explain it with an example and I am bound to give one.

“OK, imagine that the glass you are holding just falls off to the ground and shatters into pieces. Do you see a story in it? Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t, but that is an inspiration which gives me an idea…

It tells me that I can describe your past life through the time the glass slips,  falls on the ground and shatters. In the little droplets of water, I show the various characters in your life and how they went away from you. As the glass twists and turns as it falls, I narrate the ups and downs, the struggles, the successes and failures. In those milliseconds before the glass is about to touch the ground, I can explain how wonderful your life was. Then, a player in the game of fate changes the course…the exact moment when the calamity hits, I create a melancholy, I paint pain through words and tears through punctuations. And so the story ends with the loud shattering sound of glass which grabs the attention of the world. ”

There is absolute silence. My mom and wife look at me with a twinkle in their eyes, while some of the relatives think I am going nuts, and the others just take care of their glasses in their hand.

The one who had asked me the question now grabs the essence in my narrative and compliments me with a smile. He concludes, “Oh yes… it’s the supreme grace of Goddess Saraswati.”

It happened at the dawn of Kaliyug when demon Kali resolved to enter Aryavarta and encountered the last Pandav king. A curse, followed by a blissful enlightenment gave the world its first ‘Nidhi-Palak’ or The Guardian of Treasure Troves in the form of Lord Kuber’s mortal son, Suta. The lineage of Suta has expanded with time and the Guardians have spread all over the world.
Children born under the Guardian lineage possess extraordinary talents. They are deeply connected with the universe and have special abilities to identify treasure trove. They often live a normal life but behind the scenes, they work as catalysts in the gargantuan task of Lok-Kalyan by excavating treasures. Acharya Neelkanth Agnihotri is a committed Guardian. To the world, he is an astrologer, but that is only a garb under which he searches for hidden treasures.
Bound by a complicated framework of coincidence, destiny and fate, the Treasure Syndicate is always a team of five; A destined personification of Knowledge, Wealth, Luck, Skill and Balance. Mahesh is a doctor by profession but he secretly finances missions for Acharya, Kumar is a taxi driver but he seems to be unusually ‘lucky’, Jabbar belongs to a family of legendary diggers and Srikanth is just a common man.
Real time treasure hunting is not a cake walk. There are no keys, no pointers, no maps or puzzles to solve, yet the conditions are never favorable. The trove in question is located under a century old house at a locality called Patthar Galli which has recently become a political hotpot. The syndicate’s record itself is filled with failures and a haunting past is their biggest enemy.
In a mysterious turn of events, Acharya, Jabbar and Kumar are jailed, and the said treasure is GONE!

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