Amish Tripathi insists that there is a method to his madness, if you can call it that. After the immensely popular Shiva Trilogy — over two million copies have been sold in print — Amish is back with the next series on Lord Rama, with the first book titled Scion of Ikshvaku .
“Actually, once I have written all the books in my head, maybe 25-30 years later, you will find that there is a theme that runs through all of them. All my books tell the tale of the Vedic people, whose culture began more than 12,000 years ago and was destroyed 3,500 years ago,” he says, adding, “If you read through the Shiva Trilogy carefully, you will find that I have left clues for all these books in there!”
In his controversial essay Three Hundred Ramayanas , scholar A.K. Ramanujan mentions that the hundreds of tellings differ from one another. To which, Amish says that his series will be another respectful adaptation of “the great story of Lord Ram and Lady Sita,” based on the many versions he heard while growing up — from the Valmiki Ramayana to the Ramcharitmanas , Kamba Ramayanam , the Adbhuta Ramayana and more.
The book, that will release on June 22, will include a bit of philosophy and deal with societal issues, as with Amish’s other books.
“All my books have a core philosophy, with the story as a vehicle to convey it. The philosophies are usually drawn from my understanding of Indian scriptures and life experiences. In the Shiva Trilogy, the core philosophy was built around this question: What is Evil? The answer is not simple. In the Ram Chandra series, I am trying to explore this question: What is an ideal society? And in this case too, the answer is not simple.”
So what is the message that Scion of Ikshvaku will convey? “I think my attempt is more to speak of philosophies that trigger some thinking in the reader, rather than giving a message. Everyone should figure out the answers to their lives by themselves. Having said that, the idea is not to bore people. And I hope that when readers read the Scion of Ikshvaku , they will appreciate it first as a fast-paced story!”
Earlier this year, Amish, who took part in The Hindu ’s Lit for Life, mentioned that music played an important role in his writing and one of his favourite albums included Kandukondain Kandukondain . While writing the Ram Chandra series, Amish says he listened to almost all kinds of music. “From Indian classical — both Hindustani and Carnatic — to Western classical, Hindi film music, regional language music, English Pop/Rock/Blues and even Heavy Metal, and World music.”
The book jacket of Scion of Ikshvaku has hieroglyphic-like symbols that suggest a bigger part in the story, much similar to what Dan Brown attempts with his books. Amish dismisses any comparisons whatsoever with the U.S.-based author. “My books only sell in the millions while Dan Brown’s books sell in the hundreds of millions! But seriously speaking, symbols are probably at the centre of Dan Brown’s stories. The symbols in my books are an offshoot of the stories and not at the centre. As for the hieroglyphic-like symbols, it is based on the Indus Valley script; it is an undeciphered script, but I have my own (unofficial) interpretation of that script. The symbols in the Ram Chandra Series represent how ‘Ram’ would be written in the Indus Valley script.”
A banker-turned-writer with the Shiva Trilogy, Amish maintains that there was no pressure while writing the Ram Chandra series, but only when it came to marketing it. “I don’t care about anyone else’s opinion when I am writing. I just go with the flow. But yes, when I enter the marketing phase, as I am doing now, some amount of pressure does come in. I will be lying if I don’t admit that. The publisher has invested significant amounts of money in my new book series and it is my duty to make sure that he recovers his money. But some amount of pressure is good. It focuses the mind.”
Published - March 31, 2015 08:19 pm IST
