The Epic India Saga–A Lifetime Writing Plan in Four Wheels
Sep 30th, 2007 by Ashok
EPIC INDIA: THE FIRST WHEEL
The Ramayana Series
Prince of Ayodhya
Siege of Mithila
Demons of Chitrakut
Armies of Hanuman
Bridge of Rama
King of Ayodhya
Vengeance of Ravana*
Sons of Sita*
Collected as omnibus volumes
PRINCE OF DHARMA
PRINCE IN EXILE
PRINCE AT WAR
KING OF DHARMA*
The Krishnavatara Series*
Dance of Govinda
Slayer of Kamsa
Flute of Vrindavan
Throne of Dwarka
Field of Kurukshetra
Chariot of Arjuna
Coils of Ananta
Lord of Vaikunta
To be collected as omnibus volumes
KRISHNA LEELA
RADHEY SHYAM
GITA GOVINDA
VISHNU ANANTA
The Mahabharata*
The Seeds Of War
The Children Of Midnight
As The Blind King Watched
Brothers In Exile
While War Lords Speak Of Peace
Upon This Crimson Field
When The Blue God Awakens
Beyond Black, White, and Grey
The Age of Kali
*Forthcoming
The Second Wheel of the Epic India Saga will consist of a series of retellings of historical events, starting with the lives of the Buddha, Chandragupta Maurya, Asoka, etc, upto the present day. It’s expected to be at least as long and detailed as the First Wheel, consisting of at least 15 large volumes of intense historical fiction, based entirely on factual research. Although, my very first major attempt at writing fiction was a long incomplete historical novel, titled WITH DAWN (after a quotation from Tagore), way back in my teen years, which I had to abandon because I realized I wasn’t ready to take on such a massive project that early in my life. Even now, almost thirty years later, I still feel like I need at least five more years of research, but it’s finally down to just five years now.
The Third Wheel, life and time permitting, will comprise imaginative tales, some in multiple volumes, others in single books, envisioning itihasa as it might have, should have, could have been. These will include the ‘Indus’ series starting with Gandhi’s War, the Ganesa series (”Iron Gods”, etc), the graphic novels Becoming Kali and Vetaal: The First Vampire, the Vortal Codex and other similar tales of speculative fiction and counter-factual history.
The Fourth Wheel consists of my ‘mainstream’ work such as Vertigo, Byculla Boy, my crime novels (three of which will be republished in an omnibus edition by Penguin India in 2008), several short stories, unsubmitted novels such as The Pasha of Pedder Road, the autobiographical Beautiful Ugly, and other previously published as well as incomplete and/or in-progress works of general or ‘mainstream’ fiction.
The heart of this Wheel consists of a linked set of realistic novels spanning the latter half of the 20th century and the first decade or so of the 21st. For want of a better terms, let’s call these my Bombay sequence:
The Bombay Sequence
The Pasha Of Pedder Road
This Song Like A Stone In My Fist
In India We Do It With Mirchees
Indian English Spoken Here
And in case all the above seems like the insane dream of a bibliomaniac, well, one can dream, can’t one? In any case, I’m only talking about writing the books. As was the case when I started writing my Ramayana series, it’s quite likely no publisher will want to even look at the manuscripts, let alone publish them. It’s equally possible that I won’t live long enough to finish telling all the stories, or even most of them. But what the hey, I’m 43, balding, greying, paunching, father to two fast-growing teenage kids and husband to a schoolteacher wife, I live and work surrounded by books, family, movies, and that’s pretty much it for me. A simple life, almost boring by Bombay/Mumbai standards (or any standards for that matter.) So at the least, at the very very least, I can afford to dream big, can’t I?
In the end, that’s all it may remain. The grand dream of a 14-year old back in 1978, except that now, three decades of living, learning and writing later, I finally have most of the titles right and about a dozen of the volumes written. So, who knows…
Ganesa, those are probably more armies of words than even you bargained on. But I’ll ask you anyway, please do lead on!
And you, my friend, read on.
Because in the end, after all’s said and done, written and published (or not), and I’m barely a memory (”Ashok who?“), it’s you who will decide whether or not it was all worth anything at all, or nothing. I’m just one guy trying to speak for himself, and who enjoys telling the tales of our culture. As I like to say, this isn’t just my story, it’s your story, ourstory…and above all, it’s history.
Whether or not we make itihasa together…
…let’s have fun trying!
I couldn’t think of a better way to spend this lifetime.
Thank you for your support.
