Read online here.

The Story:

The story starts with the end of the Battle of Kurukshetra, when Bheema and Vikarna are standing in front of each other and Bheema telling Vikarna to side with the Pandavas and Vikarna refusing and the slaying of Vikarna at the hands of Bheema. The mankind has plunged into darkness by the curse of queen Gandhari. Pradyumna goes to Gandhari and tells her to take back her curse.

Pradyumna asks Krishna to bring back Vikarna so that he can take him to his mother so that she can take back his curse. Krishna, as Vishnu tells him to take Shiva’s blessings. In Kailasa, the blue lotus and Shiva find him to be arrogant but he tells them that he is there out of his love for humanity. He brings back Vikarna and wants to ask Gandhari to take back her curse, but does not know when to do it.

Krishna tells him to go on a pilgrimage, he meets various Gods, fights various demons and tries to save his clan and the Gita. All through he has the support of his wife Maya and his sons, friends and family.

Will he succeed? Will he overcome Kali?

Read on as Pradyumna, the son of God, fights against a curse….

My take:

The cover of the book is beautiful and once I started reading the book, I got transported back to the days of the Mahabharata. The writing and descriptions are such that it was very easy for me to picturise the entire scene and the set up. Most of the scenes are set in the battlefield, with vivid descriptions. One example, “Their maces descended like lightning and clanged like thunder in a contest of will and skill”.

I read the interaction between Shiva and Pradyumna five times, it was so well written. While reading the interaction between Pradyumna and Yama, I was waiting with bated breath, as to who would win. The peace time conversations between various members of Krishna’s family show the love that they have for each other. The way the family tries to protect Vajra, Pradyumna’s nephew has been described well. Maya’s support to her husband and his family has been beautifully documented.

The language is simple and the book is well paced. The extensive research done is reflected in the way the story flows and it was very difficult for me to separate the fact from the fiction. Hats off to the author for thinking on a different plane because for most of us, the Kurukshetra war ended at the battlefield.

The characters have been created in such a way that when I was reading about them, the seemed lifelike to me and the pictures of Amar Chitra Kathas that we read as kids came to life. The scene when Pradyumna and members of the Pandava and the Kaurava families see their dead ones has been written with so much of feeling, that it brought tears to my eyes.

What was surprising that even though the author has written the story in such a way that even though the story moves from one setting to another and even from one time zone to another, the writing is such that I did not lose track of the book.

Highly recommended.