Who is Ashok Banker?
My favourite answer to that question is: “Ashok Kumar Banker is a fictional construct invented by you. You claim he is the author of the internationally acclaimed, bestselling Ramayana series, and several other books, stories, poetry, articles, scripts, and graphic novels. You allege also that he is 45 years old, married with two teenage children, and lives in Mumbai, India. To date, no factual evidence has been found to support your wild allegations regarding this fictional character. He is a figment of your imagination and an indication that you need to seek professional help. Ashok wishes you a speedy recovery.”
At last count, that one resulted in no less than 17 admissions to psychiatric wards, with several dozen more seeking psycho-therapy, and an unknown number of people running screaming through bookstores, yelling, ‘He exists, he exists!”
But in the interests of maintaining the mental health of my readers, I offer a few slightly saner answers to the question.
A must-read: My views on publicity, PR, promotion, media and non-aggressive communication.
Click here to read My Lifetime Writing Plan.
Check out my Bibliography.
Read ‘Retelling the Ramayana’.
Meet Willow!
If you want to get really personal then take a look at this rambling, incomplete but heartfelt attempt at a mini-autobiography.
Click here to keep in touch with me on Facebook.
I have a place-holder page on MySpace but I prefer the privacy options of Facebook. I find myspace too self-promotional for my tastes.
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Twitter is A micro-blogging site where you can keep in touch with what I’m upto throughout the day through short, pithy updates by me (140 characters or less, a couple of sentences) which you can choose to receive via sms on your cellphone or online. And yes, I update often, about half a dozen times a day at least. You can always find my last 20 Tweets in the right-hand sidebar on this page. Click here to follow me 24/7 on Twitter.
Sword of Dharma and Mahabaalak
(UPDATE JAN 2009: Both projects were shelved subsequent to the economic slowdown and the backing out of a major financier.)
Two original feature film projects created and written by me are in development.
The first is titled Sword of Dharma. The website doesn’t have much to say and probably won’t for several months yet, because as you know, I prefer to let the work speak for itself when the time is right, rather than let the media hype machine take over.
All I’m willing to say at this time is that it’s a live-action VFX project, with what I hope will be cutting-edge, mind-dazzling effects driving a powerful, intense action-packed story with a uniquely Indian spiritual core.
The genre is a hybrid of SF, Fantasy and what I like to call Post-Mythology.
More when I’m ready to talk about it.
The project is currently in development by a new but very promising film production house with solid backing. I’m to be the screenwriter and co-producer of the project. My son Ayush Banker is partnering with me in the development and co-production. In fact, he’s the co-creator of the concept with me.
Ayush and I are also simultaneously developing Sword of Dharma as a game, because that’s where the germ of the idea came from originally, as a console videogame. It’s likely we’ll explore the possibility of an MMORPG too, since Sword of Dharma is just perfect for that environment.
There may or may not be books set in the same world, written by me. I’m really not sure of that right now, because to my mind, this is so totally an audiovisual experience, and a mindblowing one at that. But you never know.
MAHABAALAK is at the other end of the spectrum from Sword of Dharma in content terms. It’s an animated fantasy adventure with elements from Indian itihasa and mythology, and it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever thought up or worked on! What a blast it is just to think about it.
In this case too, I’ve created the “property” as they call it in IT (Intellectual Property) terms these days, and have written the screenplay.
But there’s more.
I’m also making my directorial debut with Mahabaalak. And co-producing it as well!
This one’s in collaboration with a major computer animation studio, and there are some really talented people on board. (And I don’t mean myself!)
That’s all I can say about it right now.
In due course, you’ll find updates on The official Mahabaalak website and The official Sword of Dharma website. (The Sword site is just a place-holder, and the Mahabaalak site isn’t even up yet. But you can bookmark them if you like, and check back in a couple of months.)
Both projects will take a fair bit of time before they reach your neighbourhood multiplex, at least a couple of years.
So why am I informing you about it now?
Well, partly because I’m just so excited to be working on these two projects–and to see these two stories that are so close to my heart reach the development and execution stages–and partly because I want to quell any rumours and gossip before they arise.
Sword of Dharma and Mahabaalak are both being developed and co-produced under the Epic India banner.
The titles Sword of Dharma and Mahabaalak are copyrighted and trademarked by Epic India Intellectual Properties Pvt. Ltd.
Ramayana Series – The Film?
Important Update, 28 Jan 2008: Since this post, major new developments have occurred. The Ramayana film is now underway. It’s still too early to give specific details, and truth be told, even I don’t have them yet, as the producers say they’re still negotiating with cast and crew. But the big news is that it’s happening. Read more about it in this Q&A with me.
There’s been some speculation about whether or not my Ramayana series is being adapted to film. I’m so totally out of circulation with media and film folk that I only just learned that people in the field are apparently convinced that there is a major film adaptation in the offing, and some even have names and famous people attached to the ‘project’ in their minds.
Well, I wish it were true, but it isn’t.
What is true is that I’ve had several major offers to buy the film rights to my Ramayana series over the past year or so.
The first offer, to be strictly accurate, came from a producer named David Hamilton, who has produced several films directed by Deepa Mehta. This was actually several years ago, back in 2003. At that time I was represented, very badly I must add, by an American literary agent. She brusquely told off Mr Hamilton, and assumed he was some wannabe–I was quite upset at the time when I heard about it, since I greatly admire Deepa Mehta’s work and I would have gladly been interested in discussing the possibility of her adapting my books to film. But the damage had apparently been done and neither the agent nor I ever heard from Hamilton again.
After that, there was a lull of a few years. Mainly because, I feel, my books are nearly impossible to adapt to film. The sheer amount of detail I use in my writing, especially visual detail, means that my novels read almost like films in your head. That’s just the way I write. Some people mistakenly assume that it makes them easier to adapt, but in fact the opposite is true. The best films are adapted from simple, literary stories, usually short stories, with very little detail and not much complexity. That allows the director and the rest of the film talent to contribute to the project’s execution, instead of trying to live up to any expectations of seeing the author’s richly detailed world captured on film.
So it was with some surprise that I reacted to an offer that came my way last November 2006. It was from a major Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., and a substantial offer at that. Negotiations followed, predicated not only on my attempting to secure the best financial deal possible, but also to ensure that if I did sell the rights to Warner, they would respect the cultural artifacts at the core of the story. After all, this is the Ramayana we’re talking about, not just a novel by me. Sums quite dizzying were bandied about. Creative control was promised–in fact, Warner were quite keen to have me aboard as a consultant and scriptwriter. Negotiations went on for several weeks, with the lawyers nitpicking clauses and sub-clauses–and I nitpicking even more minutely than the lawyers. After all, this was more than just about film rights and money–it was an entire nation’s mythology at stake. Finally, I was satisfied that Warner would do justice to the books as well as the culture at the core of the story, and was almost ready to sign on the dotted line and accept a very substantial cheque for the option, subject to some technical phrases being altered in the final draft contract.
Then came the real surprise: One, two, three….a total of six more offers rolled in even before I could sign with Warner. They were equally major and even more exciting in some ways. One was from Sir Ben Kingsley, one of the actors I admire most on the international film scene. He did me the honour of speaking to me on the phone more than once, and corresponding by email, and I was thrilled to bits to hear him praising my work and the books so highly. I was even more astonished when he told me he’d been showing the books to several prominent ‘friends’, all of whom were major box office stars and great actors to boot. He truly had a great vision for the films, one that was even more faithful and caring than the way Warner promised to approach it.
The other parties were also equally excited and adoring of the books, and more than willing to match the terms I was already being offered. By this time, the figures were amazingly high, I must tell you. And we were talking about a series of films that would probably be the most ambitious film series ever attempted, even in Hollywood. What was more, the films would be shot entirely in India, at my insistence, would feature only Indian actors (not necessarily stars, but actors most suited for the role, even if that meant casting total newcomers) in the Indian roles (Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Dasaratha, Kausalya, etc) and foreign actors only in the non-Indian and/or non-human roles (Ravana, Supanakha, the various rakshasas and asuras, etc). The script would be faithful to the books but more importantly, would be respectful of the core story and characters, and be very careful not to portray any of them in a potentially offensive or disrespectful light.
At this point, things got quite crazy. It was virtually a bidding war of sorts, with me at the center of it all. Warner was quite agitated by now, not having taken me seriously earlier when I told them I had other offers (they probably thought I was just trying to up the money) and suddenly finding themselves way past the curve. I think this was possibly the fault of their lawyers, who inadvertently didn’t take me seriously when I told them I had other offers, and still refused to change the minor technical clauses I was objecting to in the final draft contract; on the other hand, I don’t blame even the lawyers. After all, they were repping one of the biggest studios in the world, while I was just a middle-range Indian author who didn’t even do publicity!
Anyway, by the time the dust cleared, I had decided to go with Sir Ben Kingsley and another producer, Simone Sheffield who normally co-produces with Sir Ben, alongwith a consortium of backers brought together by Simone and Sir Ben. I shook hands with their representative in Mumbai and everything was settled.
Then, I suppose, what happened next was what happens routinely in Hollywood affairs. The NRI representing Sir Ben Kingsley, who was merely supposed to contact me, inform me of Sir Ben’s extreme keenness to buy the rights, and put me in touch with Sir Ben, suddenly did a volte-face. He split with Sir Ben, citing odd excuses that seemed quite lame, and said he would be signing contracts directly with me. I was apprehensive. Hell, I was uncomfortable! Why should I sign with an unknown NRI businessman when I had settled terms with Sir Ben Kingsley? But apparently the NRI was here in Mumbai and able to do the deal with me, including the crucial ‘put your money where your mouth is’ part, whereas for various practical reasons it would take Sir Ben some time to do the same. Even so, I wasn’t convinced. The NRI assured me that he was only seeking to carry through Sir Ben’s vision.
Finally, we reached an accomodation. I agreed to sign with the NRI on condition that he went back to the USA and patched things up with Sir Ben and Simone. He agreed to this, and I even spoke to both Sir Ben and Simone and smoothed the way. Everything was settled. We signed an option contract–which only permits the party to develop and plan a film project based on my books, not to actually get the rights or to start production. This is usual in film adaptations of books.
But some time later, I was dismayed to learn that the NRI had failed to patch things up with Sir Ben and Simone, and was seeking to produce the film on his own. He spent many months desperately trying to convince me of his capabilities and even insisted that I write the screenplay because he felt that nobody else could do justice to the books. I was doubtful but I honoured my agreement with him.
As things turned out though, it never worked out. As of this writing, the NRI hasn’t been able to come to exercise the option and actually purchase the rights the books. In due course, the option agreement I signed with him will lapse, of course, and I’ll be able to resell the option–and the rights–to another party if I so wish. Frankly, I still think that Sir Ben would be the best option, and if he still wanted to make the film, I would gladly give it to him.
But that’s the way the film biz works. A writer has little control at this stage except to say ‘Okay, take the option’ and later, ‘Okay, take the rights’ and cash the cheque he’s given. The NRI in question hasn’t been in touch with me for months now, and seems to have forgotten even about my being ‘the best choice’ to write the screenplay. I think that’s understandable. A screenplay is only useful if you have a film!
And as of now, there’s no film.
There is huge interest in Hollywood in a film adaptation of my Ramayana series. This I know for a fact from several sources–the offers haven’t stopped rolling in, by the way, in fact, they’ve only increased. I know for a fact that at least two major studios and several producers are willing to invest anything from $80 million to $200 million per film for either three films based on six books, or even six films based on six books. Major stars are very keen to play various roles. Big-name directors are enthusiastic about helming the project. So money isn’t a problem. Talent isn’t a problem. But as anyone who knows the movie business should know, money and talent are not the only things that make movies.
So for now, I’m still waiting to see what happens next. The ball is up in the air. I suspect that the NRI who took the option is running around frantically, trying desperately to keep up with the sheer momentum of the interest in the project, and to make the right decisions. Not easy for someone who has never dealt with the film world before, that too at a multi-million dollar scale. I’m also hoping that he will realize this is too big for him and come to his senses, maybe even put the project back in the hands of seasoned professionals who know what they’re doing. Better still, go back to Sir Ben Kingsley and Simone Sheffield, who, I’m sure, would do a great job of the films. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If you would love to see my Ramayana adapted well to film, then I suggest you do the same.
I even discussed a few names from my dream cast list with Sir Ben and Simone and just for your entertainment, I’m posting it below. Some of the names are actually aware of the books (some have even read them and loved them) and have expressed a great interest in starring in the film. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which ones! I also welcome your suggestions for casting, if and when the project takes off. Feel free to post your casting and other suggestions on the Readerswrite Page.
YOUNG RAMA – Unknown Indian actor
RAMA – Unknown Indian actor, or possibly Abhishek Bachchan
DASARATHA – Amitabh Bachchan
KAUSALYA – Jaya Bachchan
SITA – Aishwarya Rai, or unknown Indian actress
LAKSHMAN – Unknown Indian actor
RAVANA – Daniel Craig
OR
RAVANA – Shah Rukh Khan
SUPANAKHA – Nicole Kidman
VIBHISHANA – Sir Ben Kingsley
OR
VISHWAMITRA – Sir Ben Kingsley
In The Works–My Unpublished Symphonies
UPDATED: NOVEMBER 2007
The question I’m asked most frequently these days–and in fact, since my Ramayana series first broke into print–is ‘When is your Mahabharata coming out?’ I’m still not able to answer that question because, as I’ve explained on the Mba Page, until I submit the manuscripts to a publisher, they can’t schedule a publication date. And as I’ve been hinting recently, that might be a while yet. Not for another year or so still, I’m sorry to say, but I’m sure you understand that something as epic as a retelling of the world’s greatest and largest epic takes time, and hopefully, the series will be well worth the wait.
But some of you, a fair number now in fact, are aware that I’ve been working on various other books and projects. I’m told there are ‘fan groups’ on Orkut with a few hundred members dedicated only to speculation about these various books and projects. I’ve even read rumours and gossip on the net about what such-and-such book is about, when it’s likely to be published, and so on. All this is very flattering, and I’m constantly bemused by all this fuss over what’s essentially just one man sitting alone and writing what he feels like when he feels like it. But then the reader I am taps me on the shoulder–or elbows me in the ribs–and says, ‘Hey, they must like your work, or they wouldn’t give a damn.’
So for those of you are interested, here’s a list of works in progress with short notes on where they stand in terms of manuscript completion, revision, publication possibilities, and most of all, the likelihood of their ever seeing print. As those of you who’ve corresponded with me regularly know by now, with me the biggest hurdle is getting myself to agree that a manuscript is publishable, only then does the equally hard search for a publisher begin. I’m relatively blessed right now, thanks to the success of my Ramayana series, to have a publisher in India who loves my work (and those sales figures don’t hurt either) and is willing to publish any good book I write next. There’s no question that the one they (and several other publishers in India) want next is my Mba, but they’re willing to settle for any other good book as well. But that still doesn’t mean I’m going to just give them anything I’ve completed, just because I’ve completed it. Hell, I actually have completed books lying around that I have publishing contracts for, and which my editors think are terrific and want to publish, but I still won’t let them. That’s me.
Anyway, here’s the list. Remember, don’t get too excited. Some or all of these may never see light of day, especially if Banker the Bandmaster vetoes them even after years of research, writing and revisions. On the other hand, they exist, and that’s the point of this list, to tell you that hey, Ashok Banker has written this book about… Now, if only the dude will turn it into his publisher and let it go through the presses, then we can all decide for ourselves whether it’s worth a read or not.
To which I say, sabar ka phal meetha… In other words, patience, dudes and dudettes.
ASHOK BANKER’S WORKS IN PROGRESS
Title: VENGEANCE OF RAVANA: BOOK 7 OF THE RAMAYANA SERIES
Description: Seventh book in the Ramayana series, direct sequel to King of Ayodhya, describing the events that follow immediately after the end of the War of Lanka. Also answers several pending questions raised in the earlier volumes of the series and finally reveals the mystery of the ‘Riddle of Ten’, the real reason why Ravana allowed himself to be vanquished so easily by Rama at the end of the war, and why Ravana began his whole campaigne of persecution against Rama and the moral realm. In this book, Rama also discovers his own true identity at last. How these revelations affect Rama and change him, and his subsequent dilemma when he is faced with the choice of exiling Sita to ‘uphold dharma’ in Ayodhya form the core of this book. Meanwhile, Hanuman, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrugan and Rama’s other friends and allies do battle against a powerful resurgence of forces released by the killing of Ravana and the final accomplishment of the Lord of Lanka’s brilliant campaign. Will Rama and his loved ones withstand and survive the ‘vengeance of Ravana’? Will he succumb and exile Sita unfairly and in defiance of all he feels and believes as a man, a husband, a father-to-be simply to obey his ‘dharma’ as a king? All questions will be answered in this, the seventh and most crucial volume of Ashok K. Banker’s Ramayana series! Dan-dan-dan!
Status: First Draft complete.
Publication: Watch this space.
Forecast: If submitted by Ashok to his publishers, and if accepted by the latter, then it could be published as early as mid-2008. Watch this space for updates.
Title: SONS OF SITA: BOOK 8 OF THE RAMAYANA SERIES
Description: Eighth and final volume of the Ramayana series. Direct sequel to Vengeance of Ravana. I won’t tell you too much about the plot of this one to avoid ruining the suspense of the seventh volume. But the name pretty much telegraphs what you can expect, apart from lots of battles, high drama, and the final resolution of all questions, all conflicts, all mysteries and riddles and enigmas, in this the last and perhaps the most moving and memorable book in the series.
Status: First draft complete.
Publication: If Vengeance of Ravana is submitted and accepted for publication, Sons of Sita will follow close on its heels, nipping sharply. Publication could be as early as late 2008.
Forecast: It’s up to you. See the ongoing discussion on the Readerswrite Page, leave your vote of support, and help nudge Ashok into sending it in to his publishers. For the love of Rama!
Title: SHOCKWAVE: A TALE OF THE VORTAL (aka VORTAL)
Description: Contemporary fantasy thriller, planned as first of a series. Original storyline loosely linked to Iron Gods and AKB’s overall ‘Epic India’ cycle.
Status: Manuscript 100% complete, much-revised. Ready for submission but unsubmitted.
Publication: Uncontracted. Unsubmitted. Originally commissed for and published in multimedia CD-Rom ‘Mahazine’ in 1999-2000. An early draft was later revised and serialized online by AKB himself at Vortal and Vortal Archives. More recently, Puffin Books India editor has read a part of the manuscript and selected an excerpt which will appear in the forthcoming YA anthology titled ‘Shockwave & other Cyber Tales’.
Forecast: Ashok’s 14-year old daughter Yashka is a huge fan of this story and has urged her father to please, please, please publish it soon. Ashok is now ready to submit it to a publisher…someday.
Title: UNTITLED “KALI” GRAPHIC NOVEL for DC/Vertigo Comics (working titles “Age of Kali”, “Road to Kali”, “Becoming Kali”)
Description: A monthly comic book written in multiple-issue story arcs (which will be collected periodically in graphic novels). Story projected to take about 150 monthly issues. Teenage Indian-American becomes reluctant avatar of Kali and, accompanied by unlikely companions, embarks on mission to free the devas who are enslaved on Prithvi-loka by the asuras, find Shiva who has gone missing for millennia, and mate with him to birth Kalki, the last avatar at the end of the Day of Brahma. Your basic let’s save the world by destroying it first story, set in contemporary India (with plenty of side-trips to the mythical as well as historical past), edited by the legendary Karen Berger, illustrated by Peter Gross (of Lucifer fame), and published by DC’s Vertigo Comics division. Film and media rights optioned by Warner Bros.
Status: First story arc written, pencilled, inked and coloured, awaiting final lettering.
Publication: Scheduled for early 2008.
Forecast: Watch this space for publication dates.
Title: IRON GODS (aka The Ganesa Palindrome: Book 1: Palimpsest)
Description: “Post-Mythology” novel, possibly first of a series of 5, original storyline but broadly connected to my overall ‘Epic India’ cycle.
Status: First Draft 75% complete. Unsubmitted.
Publication: Contracted to Penguin Books India. Unsubmitted as of September 2007.
Forecast: AKB intends to relook at the first draft, revise it thoroughly, then finish the end (which he always leaves for last). Hopefully, he’ll do so before end-2007.
Title: VETAAL: THE FIRST VAMPIRE
Description: Original graphic novel. A contemporary supernatural urban thriller which references elements of the Simhasana Dvatrimsika and Vetalapancavinsati to explore the idea that the Vetal of Indian folklore and legend was in fact the first ‘vampire’ and inspired the western myth of the vampire during his travels abroad with the migrating Indian banjaras (a.k.a. ‘gypsies’ to the western world) while fleeing his arch-nemesis ‘Yogi’, the most powerful Sadhu of all time. Also planned as a series of short interlocking thriller novellas.
Status: Graphic novel script partially written.
Publication: No plans. Unsubmitted.
Forecast: Would love to write this further, but where are the publishers willing to take on original graphic novels in India?
Title: GANDHI’S WAR (“Indus Trilogy”)
Description: An alternate history/counter-factual historical fiction series. In the future, India is effectively ‘colonized’ by a clever combination of MNC’s with full-fledged defense authority (much like the East Indian Co. was given permission to maintain standing armies to ‘protect’ their ‘commercial’ interests in India). Everybody is either a consumer or a ‘non-con’. A group of unlikely rebels against the chaffing military-backed commercialism of the western ‘companies’ bands together to find a solution: they accidentally stumble on the scientific basis for the ‘dev-astras’, the legendary weapons of the gods from ancient lore. They then travel back in time and ‘gift’ this secret to a scientist ancestor of one of the group, who happens to be a friend of and supporter of Gandhi and other freedom fighters. The possession of the astras enables Gandhi and the others to confront the British and demand Indian independence without compromises. When the British refuse, partly because of the impending WWII, the more militant faction of the Freedom Fighters, acting expressly against Gandhi’s wishes, unleashes the brahm-astra on English soil to demonstrate their power. This show of power results in WWII being prematurely halted, with several major historical changes resulting–Hitler remains alive and in power in Germany but no Jewish pogrom ensues, no nuclear weapons are detonated in Japan, Russia remains belligerent but unvictorious, the US never enters the war or mobilizes (no Pearl Harbour, Midway, etc), and in the following decades, India becomes the dominant world power, led by Mahatma Gandhi himself. The first book ends with Gandhi praying that the power given to him and his countrymen will not be misused and that the world will finally be at peace, moments before he is assassinated and dies with the words ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips. The second book in the series, set some decades later, opens during the rule of Indira Gandhi with her son Sanjay Gandhi playing a prominent role, in a world dominated by and infused with Indian influences–even in the smallest towns in America and Europe, Bollywood films, music, stars are the rage, and desi food, fashions, styles and thought influence everybody everywhere. ‘Brand India’ is the mantra of globalism, but veiled in a ‘left liberal’ socialist facade. An incident over a movie released in USA which mocks ‘outdated, antiquated’ American and western values and culture, becomes the flashpoint of a major violent confrontation between the western world and their Indian ‘oppressors’. At this point, America revolts and starts a war against India, and the various nations align themselves on either side, some using the opportunity to settle their own old scores (Russia-Germany, Japan-Korea-China, Iran-Iraq, Israel-Middle East, etc, etc) with WWII resulting. Prime Minister and de facto ‘World President’ of the UN, Indira Gandhi, alongwith her spokesperson and Foreign Affairs Minister Sanjay Gandhi, sanction use of the dev astras against the ‘rebels’, leading to global devastation. War, war, and more war results. The third book deals with the assassination of Indira and Sanjay and the rise of a new order of young Indians who seek to end all war and maintain peace through a harmonious co-existence of cultures, both western and Indian, and about their struggle to succeed despite the warmongering of various bloodthirsty revenge-driven factions. The series ends where it began, with a very different world now in place, both better in many ways, and worse in others, and the original group who started it all questioning whether they achieved a better world or worse.
Status: Concept only. Copious notes and research on the historical periods and events and characters, some passages written.
Publication: Hope to write the first several chapters and then decide how to proceed. Unsubmitted.
Forecast: Check back here again in early 2008 to see progress.
Title: SWORD OF DHARMA
Description: The tale of a being who is reincarnated through infinite avatars to do battle against a variety of enemies in different ages, different worlds. (Earlier this was the working title of the follow-up series to my Ramayana books, but I later decided that those books–Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita would be listed as part of the Ramayana series. Sword of Dharma is now a completely independent storyline, and is currently being developed simultaneously for a variety of media, including film, console gaming, MMOG, etc. In fact, it may not be released as a book or series of books first at all, although it’s quite likely that that will follow at some point.
Status: Working.
Production: Development stage.
Forecast: Look for an update in mid-2008. Also keep in touch with The Official Sword of Dharma website.
Title: UNTITLED FANTASY NOVEL (a.k.a. “First To Die”)
Description: A full blown fantasy adventure story set in a non-historical India about three young men who leave their comfortable ’spoiled rich young brat’ lives go on a quest to prove their worth to their fathers, and get tangled in a series of fantastic adventures. Planned as a stand-alone fat fantasy novel.
Status: First draft written.
Publication: Not planned. Unsubmitted.
Forecast: Check back again from time to time.
Title: THE KRISHNA CORIOLIS (aka THE BOOK OF KRISHNA,
Description: A science fictional retelling of the life and adventures of Krishna, from before his birth to after his death, set in a world where the ancient asura ‘maya’ has developed into a highly sophisticated form of techno-magic that can power interplanetary pushpaks (spaceships), advanced weaponry (astras) and enable great feats of engineering and the construction and maintenance of fabulous cities. The followers of ‘maya’ are allied against the forces of the traditionalists who believe in the old, non-maya ways (Sanskriti) and worship the ancient asuras (e.g. Mahishasura, Prahlada, Ravana, etc) as true Aryas who were denied their rightful place by the power-hungry devas. The followers of Maya are led by Ugrasena’s son Kansa and his allies Bana and others. Into this scenario enters Krishna, an avatar-clone sent down by the devas to wipe out Kansa and his faction and restore the Sanskriti of prithvi-loka. All advanced technology–’swords’ that cut through any substance, spaceships, cable-less elevators, flying chariots, etc–are driven by the force of brahman misapplied by maya.
Status: Draft written. Needs revision.
Publication: Not yet planned. Unsubmitted.
Forecast: Check this space in a few months.
Title: THE PASHA OF PEDDER ROAD
Description: Mainstream novel in the vein of my earlier novels Vertigo and Byculla Boy. Set in Mumbai in the mid-to-late Seventies, the story revolves around a small group of young characters and their families, their experiences in growing up in Mumbai in those eventful years. Disco and Emergency, fears of another Indo-Pak war, or a China invasion. Skylabs falling out of the sky, sexual awakening, rock and roll, Walkmans and VCRs. It’s about parenting and growing up, dreams and death, music and madness. Politics. Families. Ideals. Disillusionment.
Status: A very long first draft and a somewhat shorter second draft exist.
Publication: Unknown.
Forecast: Need to revise the whole book, possibly rewrite it, before offering for publication (if at all). Possibly my best work in the realistic Vertigo vein, if not actually my attempt at writing the “great” Indian novel. Therefore, expect it to take at least another few years before I even figure out what to do with this beautiful monster.
Title: BEAUTIFUL UGLY
Description: Autobiographical script for a documentary adapted to a prose book.
Status: Draft written, needs polishing and revision.
Publication: Unknown.
Forecast: I had spoken about the documentary to the media around mid-2005 when news leaked out about it. The resulting hype that resulted made me decide to never speak about it again, and so, as and when it is completed and released, it will happen without a word of warning from me, or any promotional support. This is a project that is about Ashok the person, not Ashok the author. And whatever I have to say about it, I will say in the book and the documentary, nowhere else. Enough said.
And to see how these and other works all fit together into my overall lifetime writing plan, see the next post, below: The Epic India Library.
Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita
Would you like to see two more books in my Ramayana series published?
Not written, mind you, because they’re already written, but published.
You do?
Well, what are you waiting for?
Head on over to the Readerswrite page, read the ongoing discussion on these two unsubmitted manuscripts lying on my workdesk right now, and pitch in with your comment in favour of (or against) publishing these books.
And don’t forget to leave your full name when you comment. That’s so that I can thank all of you who join in the discussion if and when these books appear.
How did this come about? Well, a brief explanation…
As some of you who’ve been in touch with me before know quite well, I’m notorious for leaving books unpublished for years after finishing them.
Why? Well, partly because I don’t think an author should publish everything he’s written, no matter how good the books are, because while writing is a creative occupation, publication is a commercial process, and it’s easy for a writer, especially one who’s fairly successful as I seem to be, to get seduced by the lure of capitalistic commerce, and keep publishing everything he writes, until he reaches a point where he looks back and realizes he’s just been publishing to earn money, without regard for his art.
So I write a lot of books, and put them aside, and move on to other books. (I only write, read and spend time with my family, which is why I’m able to produce so much–you’d be surprised how much work you get done when you cut out useless stuff like ‘networking’ and socializing and self-promotional activities from a writer’s life.) And some time later, maybe months, maybe years, maybe even decades, I come back to the manuscript and look at it, and decide, perhaps, to send it to a publisher.
This also ensures that I’m not publishing something just because it’s what readers or publishers want right now. Or because it coincides with a current trend or something that’s in the news. I began writing my Ramayana at a time when it seemed like madness and career suicide to even attempt a modern reteling of the Ramayana, of all things. And by the time it was published, the whole fuss and furore about the Ramayana being potentially ‘controversial’ seemed like a non-issue. As I said at the time, “controversies and politics change every day, the Ramayana has lasted thousands of years.”
That’s what a good story should be: It should be as relevant to read today or twenty three years from now, or even a hundred years later.
But with my Mba requiring at least another year or two to complete, I recently began to think, well, why not look at the pile of completed manuscripts and see if there’s something there that’s worth publishing.
These two novels, Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita seem to fit that bill.
And so, if enough readers out there–this means you, my friend–are still eager to read more in my Ramayana series, well, just post your vote of support on the Readerswrite page now.
And if, in another few weeks, there are enough people voting ‘Aye’, then, yes, I will finally pluck up the courage to send those two manuscripts to my publisher.
And if they also vote ‘Aye’, well, then, about six months after that, you’ll finally know what happened to Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Hanuman, et al, after the war of Lanka.
And what happened after that.
As well as the answers to many questions left unanswered at the end of King of Ayodhya.
So go on, vote by leaving a comment. And let’s see how this turns out.
For once, you’ll be deciding how this ends, instead of me.
FAQs of (my) life: Updated January 2007
These are several Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s), recently updated to include the latest news on my front. If you’d like to ask me a question, visit the Readerswrite page and leave a comment there.
UPDATED: 8 NOVEMBER, 2007.
When is your next book being published?
As of November 2007, I have no new book in the publication pipeline. Although I have several publishable manuscripts, I have chosen not to send any of them to my publishers until I complete my Mba and have a chance to relook at them all and decide which one to publish next. Since the kind of books I write are not topical or dependent on passing fads or trends, nor are they written to deadline, it could be a long time before you see my next book in stores. Perhaps even years.
Update, 24 January 2008: Am now on the final draft of my Mba. I now expect to start offering volumes of the Mba for publication in a few weeks, and the series should start appearing this year itself. Keep checking this page or The Mba Page for updates.
If you don’t promote your books or do book launches, readings, signings, etc, how will we know when your new book is published?
Stay in touch with this website, and I will mention an upcoming book once it’s published–although I won’t promote it even here on my own website, just as I don’t promote my previous books, as you can see for yourself. But you will know that the book is published, and that’s really all that matters, isn’t it?
When will your Mahabharata be published?
When I finish writing it. (For more details, check out the Mba page).
Is your Ramayana series being adapted to film? Details, please!
As of now, there is no film adaptation in production, nor have the rights been purchased, although several substantial offers have been received from major Hollywood studios and production houses including Warner Brothers, Sir Ben Kingsley Pictures, Canyon Entertainment, Endeavour Agency, William Morris Agency, Adlabs Films, and people working with ILM (George Lucas’ special effects company), New Line Cinema, and the director and producer of 300 have all claimed to be huge fans of the books. An option was purchased early in 2007 for a substantial sum of money but to date no film has ensued and the option is due to lapse. Meanwhile, new offers continue to roll in and once the current option period expires, I will be open to new proposals.
Is the film adaptation of your Ramayana series books going to be an animated film? I read something about you writing an animated film.
To the best of my knowledge, no. The film adaptation of my Ramayana series was intended to be a live-action film with Indian actors, shot on actual locations as well as sets. It would be what’s called a VFX film these days, definitely not animation. However, I love the medium of animation and would personally love to see my work adapted to animation, or even write, produce and direct an animation film based on any one of several original stories I have. I know several professionals in the animation industry and am in talks about such a project, but as of now, nothing concrete has been finalized, mainly because I don’t wish to tie myself up with anything that may distract from my book writing.
We’re huge fans of your’s. Would you please, please, please inaugurate our college literary festival?
I’m flattered that you thought of me, but I don’t do any kind of PR at all, not even promoting my own books. In fact, I’m against all book promotion and authorial self-promotion, without exception. You can always keep in touch with me through comments or Live Chat on this website though!
Will you deliver a talk or workshop for our college/cultural group/literary festival, etc?
I’m flattered that you thought of me, but I don’t do any kind of PR at all, not even promoting my own books. You can always keep in touch with me through comments or Live Chat on this website though!
Our bookstore would like to host a book reading and signing with you.
I’m flattered that you thought of me, but I don’t do any kind of PR at all, not even promoting my own books. You can always keep in touch with me through comments or Live Chat on this website though!
May I interview you for my newspaper/channel/magazine/radio channel/site?
I’m flattered that you thought of me, but I don’t do any kind of PR at all, not even promoting my own books. You can always keep in touch with me through comments or Live Chat on this website though!
Who’s your agent or literary representative? And your PR firm?
I don’t use an agent or representative, manager, associate, assistant, PR firm, etc. I work completely alone, and do everything myself, from research to writing to contracts, and even make my own tea.
I’m the Editor of a forthcoming anthology, and would love to include a short story by you. Our pay rate would be xyz.
I’m sorry. While several of my short stories were published internationally over the past twenty years, I haven’t written short stories for several years now. I can’t write a new one for you as I don’t accept commissioned assignments.
Hi. You may remember me from your advertising days. My client is a major MNC/Corporation/well-known brand/etc and thinks highly of your work. We want you to write and direct a TV ad spot for XYZ brand. Please let us know your charges and when you can come in for a briefing.
Hi. It’s been a long time since my brief stint in advertising (in the 80’s). Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t do that kind of work anymore.
Dear Mr Banker, this is Ekta Kapoor. I’m your biggest fan since your novel Vertigo was first published back in 1993. It was one of the inspirations for my first success, as I have said in several media interviews. Congrats on all your success. It would be really great to combine our talents and do something great together. When and where can I meet you to discuss?
Dear Ekta, I’m truly and sincerely flattered by your offer. Yes, I have read your generous comments praising Vertigo and my work. I do appreciate that. However, I don’t do commissioned projects anymore, and no longer write television serials. Thank you for your interest and I wish you all the best.
Mr Banker, sir, our client is the main sponsor for the (country name) Cricket team and he is a great admirer of your work. He wishes to commission you to write a book of short stories on the theme of tea, which is the product he manufacturers. On his behalf, we would like to invite you to his tea estate in (country name) as his honoured guest. Please let us know dates convenient to you and your charges for writing the short stories.
Dear sirs, thank you, and please thank your client as well. I’m honoured by his appreciation but I don’t take on commissioned work. I wish you the very best in finding other writers more suited to the task.
I am a great fan of your’s and am really eager to meet you and get a glimpse of the man behind the work. Please don’t say no!
Occasionally, I do meet with readers directly, usually at a food court in a mall over a cup of tea, with my family present. But the last few ‘readers’ who said they needed to meet me urgently turned to be people with various business propositions in mind rather than a mere meeting of minds. So I have to gently suggest that you enjoy the books, and forget about the man who wrote them, thank you for your interest, best wishes.
You can always keep in touch with me through comments or Live Chat on this website though!
Sirji, I am the producer of a forthcoming film on Buddha/Rama/Krishna/ Hanuman/etc and feel that nobody can do justice to the script as you can. Let’s meet to discuss terms and deadlines. We have a $20 million production budget.
Sorry, sirji. I don’t do commissioned work and am not accepting scriptwriting work at present.
Namaskaram, Shri Ashokji. We are the trust that manages the ABCD Temple in (place name). We are great admirers of your Ramayana novels. You are doing a great thing for Indian culture. We would like to meet with you to discuss your writing some scripts for corporate films for us, as well as two books on our sanstha. We are willing to pay a fee of Rs 35 lakhs for each script. Can we meet at Taj Land’s End, Bandra, on (xyz) day at (xyz) time?
Dear Punditji, I am sorry but I don’t take on commissioned assignments, whatever the fee and am not available for scriptwriting work.
Dear Ashok Banker, I am a literary agent based in New York. We handle authors such as (names). Congratulations on the tremendous success of your Ramayana books. We have a publisher who is looking for an Indian writer to produce a non-fiction book on Vaastu Shaastra/Bollywood/Sunjay Dutt/Vedic Mathematics. The advance being offered is $50,000 but it is negotiable.
Dear NYC Literary Agent, I’m sorry but I don’t accept commissioned assignments, whatever the advance. I only write original books that I wish to write and then seek a publisher afterwards. I also don’t work with agents or representatives and only deal directly with publishers–which is why I don’t publish in the USA since all major publishers there only deal through agents.
Hi Ashok, this is XYZ, Editor of (name of publication). We would like you to write an essay/editorial column/book review/etc for our Anniversay issue/Sunday edition/etc. The deadline is (date).
Hi, XYZ, nice hearing from you. Even if I wanted to write, my books seem to demand every last bit of my energy these days, and I’m one of those unfashionably low-profile people who prefers to keep his name out of the media–even as a byline under an essay, article or reivew.
Where can I find copies of your books in the USA?
You can’t. My books are only published in India.
Where do you live, in India, USA or elsewhere?
In India since birth. I don’t own a passport and have never been outside India.
What religion, caste, etc, are you?
I’m of mixed race, mixed religion, and was exposed to so many different cultural and communal influences when growing up that I guess you’d have to just call me ‘Indian’.
Readerswrite — and Writer’s Replies!
There’s an interesting discussion currently taking place on the Readerswrite page. Head on over to browse through the comments and my replies, and feel free to add your own thoughts to the fray.
One interesting observation: Over the years, I’ve found most readers who write in with some initial hostility do so because they have some misconceptions either about me, or the books, or even about my intentions in writing the books. Once those misconceptions are cleared up, virtually every time, those same hostile readers have gone on to become some of my best supporters, corresponding regularly by email or online comments.
So much of our world’s problems come through misunderstandings. I appreciate this feature of the internet hugely–it provides us all with a quick and easy way to communicate with one another and clear up misconceptions. Of course, it also aggravates some misunderstandings. For instance, there are very occasionally some people who write in with their own agenda or who simply want to pick a fight for no good reason at all. Unfortunately, there’s nothing much one can do to placate such individuals. But by and large, I’ve found even my harshest critics always have the same sentiments at heart as I do, and once they open their minds and realize that fact, everything goes smoothly.
For example, one angry reader wrote in to me complaining that I had no right to write about various details of Rama’s and other character’s lives as they perpetuated wrong ideas of Indian life and character. It was a simple task for me to clarify that in fact, all those details he was upset by were taken from reliable sources like Valmiki and had never been disputed for eons. But what was most amazing to me was the discovery that the person in question was not an Indian at all, but a foreigner who had never read the Ramayana before and had certain fixed notions on how Indians were, should be, and must be portrayed in any book. It was no use trying to convince him that his ideas were in error and that in fact, we Indians were quite different from what he believed–his mind was made up and nothing I said could convince him otherwise!
And then there are some fellow Indians who mistakenly assume I am a foreigner or an NRI living abroad and writing my books to earn fat advances by selling ‘exoticized’ ‘fantasy’ to foreign readers. Nothing could be farther from the truth: I am an Indian living in India all my life, I don’t even possess a passport and have (obviously) never left my country, nor felt inclined to do so, and in fact, I write purely for Indian readers and even the few foreign editions of my works that were sold against my wishes by erstwhile literary agents (whom I have since dismissed for that very reason) are disowned by me and in fact, I myself have been campaigning hard to get publishers to cease distributing those editions and return the rights to me, even if it costs me money to do so. I may not be perfect, but I certainly am Indian, and proud to be. Ironically, most of those who make these mistaken assumptions, are usually people of partial or wholly Indian origin who are living and working abroad and therefore assume that I must be like them, or a firang!
Fortunately, most of my readers, apart from these rare exceptions of misunderstanding, read my books in the spirit with which they are intended, and come to love and know these great characters intimately. By far, the good responses outweigh the bad, to the extent of ten thousand rave reviews to perhaps one or two mixed or negative ones, usually because the latter stopped reading the book after a few pages and came to wrong assumptions or never actually read the book at all.
So if you’re interested in what others have to say about my Ramayana books, head on over to the Readerswrite page and join in the healthy discussion.
A Request to Readers of my Ramayana Series
Update: I first posted this message on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in July 2007. Since then, my US publishers have graciously reverted the rights in the series to me. (They hadn’t been able to publish the books in the US anyway and the original publishers had been bought out, restructured, merged and name-changed by now, so it was only fair!) However, a few used copies passed off as ‘new’ are still circulating in the US market–they’re being listed even on online bookstores such as Barnesandnoble.com, which is shocking–so it seemed timely to post this warning again.
If you are reading my Ramayana series, then I gently urge and request you to please not buy the UK or US editions, even if they’re available at bargain prices. Which they probably are, since the publishers there have more or less put the books out of print, due to a lack of interest by non-Indian readers.
The Indian editions are the definitive editions of my work, containing a lengthy Introduction by me titled ‘Retelling the Ramayana’, which provides an essential perspective on the work, the final versions of all the books–including some small but significant changes, particularly in some book endings–no glossary, thank God, and are generally the best-edited, designed and published versions, in my opinion at least. In short, they’re the Author’s Preferred Edition, particularly the new hardcover omnibus editions, which represent the story in the way I had originally intended and are truly sumptuous to hold (and behold). Also, significantly, they aren’t packaged as ‘Fantasy’ or ‘SF’ like the firang ones, which is a ridiculously transparent attempt at cashing in on the commercial success of the fantasy genre a la LoTR and Harry Potter. Please, people, my Ramayana series is a retelling of an epic, and that’s exactly what it should be called, ‘Epic’. I’d venture to call it ‘Itihasa’, but even Mythology, which is the label Penguin uses for the books here in India, is acceptable. But certainly not Fantasy as in one of the ubiquitous Tolkien rip-offs that are churned out in droves by western publishers, or even SF, both genres that can sometimes be wonderful in their own right, but are totally inappropriate in the context of an epic that pre-dates Tolkien by some thousands of years, and the entire tradition of western literature as well!
Frankly, I feel so strongly about this that I’d even go so far as to say, if you can’t get the Indian editions, then don’t read the books! That’s why I’m currently in the process of re-acquiring the rights to the US and UK editions and they will soon be out of print everywhere but India. Which is how it ought to be: this is a quintessentially Indian story, written by a contemporary Indian for other contemporary Indians to read. And the Indian editions are really the only way to go.
“I have never liked the Ramayana, ever since I was a young girl…”
I have never liked the Ramayana, ever i snce i was a young girl and heard the epics at the knees of my grandmother. She told the ramayana with such devotion and fear for bad deeds that it made me squirm. I did not want to be sermoned yet again through a story that too.
I loved the Mahabarata though, and got the entire gang(consisting of all the sisters, brothers, relatives of all shapes and sizes) to request for those stories. Not too much protest there, everyone liked the Mahabarata. It was such fun, and real, and most importantly you could enact it the next day. I made copious mental notes and organised the entire troop the next day in the woods to either create the chakravuyvha, or rode into battle with Krishna as Arjuna to defy the arimies of Kauravas. There were nuances that you could incorporate, ideas that you could improve upon and you could actually be mean, nasty and all the rest without being reprimanded by some “maryada purushotam”
30 years later my son then 12 years old was so engrossed in a book that he blackmailed me to do all his chores for the weekend. Suprise! that was book written by Ashok Banker, on the very epic that i had no liking for; The Ramayana. I read all the seven books in the series subseqeuntly.
Banker makes Rama, Sita and the other characters all seem so real , human and so fallible. I loved the fact that they too suffer from self doubts, from pressures of making decisions, and not necessarily being right all the time. Having them think like human beings rather than Devas was interesting and definitely enjoyable. Yes they did have super powers and it was bestowed upon them for doing all the right things. But it was more like a reward for good work than their birthright.
The tale is told in the best traditions of storytelling,making no pauses or stops to tell the reader about Rama the AVatar. (Thank the Lord) The first six books engaged me with its story of a fairly simple tale of a man and his trials.I waited with bated breath for the seventh book and finally got my hands on it the moment it arrived ont he stands.
It is a good read, engaging and interesting but Banker resorts to what other authors have done before him. Deified Rama. What saves this book is the way the characters of Ravana, Surpanakha and others have been potrayed. The Anti Hero is so machivellian that he invokes admiration inspite of his destructive intentions. Banker’s, Ravana is unabashedly ambitious, intelligent and uses all means that he has and some more to WIN. A war is a war is a war.
I am glad that banker has resisted the temptation to write about the Uttarakhand and has ended his epic retelling of the Ramayana with the winning of Lanka.
“I read Byculla Boy by Ashok Banker….it’s brilliant!”
I read Byculla Boy by Ashok Banker a few years back- it’s brilliant! I could hear, actually hear, the people talking out of the book and he’s got everything down correctly from the pork vindaloo to the “Tchah, men”! Two thumbs up, if you’re interested.
“I still get goose pimples when I recall the books…”
A voracious reader like me mentioned that a writer called ashok banker is attempting to rewrite the ramayana in 6 volumes-i was sceptical-what is there about the ramayana to be re written-these tales are part of our oral traditions-what else can be written about the the maryada purusha-i read the preface to the first book-ganesha guide me-the preface raised goose pimples- and these prefaces were humble-not like gb shaws prefaces which overshadow the story-the story written in 6 volumes-converts the whole tale into human terms-i laughed and cried with rama, seeta, and lakshman-brilliant- if you do not believe me- sulekha readers- i challenge you to read the first book and stop with that-that is not all ashok banker has started re telling the mahabharatha in 18 volumes-a challenge to sulekhaites- anyone who reads the first volume of ashok bankers ramayana- and stops at that , contact me-the story teller of this generation- i still get goose pimples when i recall the books.
“That age old story by Valmiki…”
For those philistines who don’t know who Ashok Banker is, he is the author of Ramayana. That age old story by Valmiki has been jazzed up and served with a new twist, thanks to Mr Banker. Please buy a copy today and be a part of the magic.
“The opening pages of Banker’s Prince of Ayodhya immediately bored me to tears…”
First impressions are not always the best ones. The opening pages of Banker’s “Prince Of Ayodhya: Book One� immediately bored me to tears. It took a little patience and a chapter or two for me to get engrossed. Once I did, there was no looking back. Definitely recommended.
“This book has been a profound influence on my metaphysical metamorphosis…”
Though not philosophical, this truly legendary book has been a BIG influence on my thoughts and helped me get over an existential and nihilistic mindset.
Review of Vertigo: “It was a hot Monday morning when I started reading the book…”
Let me confess.

I always thought that Indian writers and Indian literature was a little above soft porn and a little below melodrama a la Ekta serials.

In fact, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Indian writer’s novel on my person. Imagine my irritation when this book found itself in my house, and that too a second hand well worn version of the book.

It was a hot Monday morning when I started reading the book, what kept me into the book was the stark reality and the logic amongst the characters, be it Jay, the Marketing guy, his collegue and companion, or his girl friend, Tuli.

All these people are someone who can look around and find almost everywhere all around you. And this is where the author has won hands down.

The author hasnt prepared a dream for us to dream about, he has prepared a mirror to our society, and so beautiful is the mirror, that we are forced to see our reflections in it.

The novel basically is the life story of the main protagonist, and how he rises in his personal and professional life, with the help of many and almost all women he has ever met.

Once again, Ashok Banker has not created any miracles or any out of the way happenings for Ajay. He has shown the generation next and all the others coming after them that there is no comparison or alternative to those golden qualities of hardwork, talent and then lady luck.

But.. what actually made me remember this novel after almost a year of reading it, is this character which still makes me squirm in embarassment whenever I think about the novel and it’s characters.

The character of Jay’s mother, the doomed woman, who dies a silent and sad death, away from the only person she ever loved, her son, is someone which will wrench the hearts of all ’career oriented young people’ and show them the stark reality of where their preferences should lie.
“As I pause at the 330th page of Book 1…”
As I pause at the 330th page of Book1 of Ashok Banker’s adaptation of The Ramayana, I am amazed to find that a single day of Rama’s life is vividly brought to life in 330 pages of this 550-paged tome. Banker’s story-telling is full of colorful imagery, mental picture of different sounds and presenting the seers and kings without making them appear as caricatures.
This old mythological tale is packaged to suit the literary tastes of the current generation of fantasy-fiction lovers without dwelling on it’s religious elements.
Banker banks on the strength of this epic saga leading us along the main arteries of the story without getting lost in the by-lanes of the minor tales this epic abounds in.
He presents an ensemble of philosophy, action, rivalry and jealousy interweaving it with petty quarrels and mundane conversations.
But I thought the language could have been better than what appears to be school-bookish.
Can’t help but pick nits, what was ‘Harishchandra Avenue’, PFs, the Dark Lord??? Wasn’t it supposed to be set in the 4th century BC !!
Inspite of this, I do not deny that this is an interesting read, wonder if it can be sustained to complete the entire series of the 7 books.
I suddenly morph into a 5 year old sitting on my mother’s lap and listening to this amazing story of good vs evil.
“I don’t usually read Indian writing…”
I don’t usually read indian writing.
They are usually all booker prize winners, or
rather deriative second generation mumble
about life as an asian in the “big” city.
But i love my fantasy.
So i figured, if i already went gallivanting with arthur, percivale and gwenevie
through finding cups to put on round stone tables, why not hang with rama?
One of the most, if not the most famous works of the indian classical age, its 20000 thousand odd verses resonate thoughout indian culture and indeed their psyche.
Furthermore it has armies versus monsters.
So, Mr Ashok has conveniently translated, adapted but not abridged it into a contemporary english novel. With essence intact and in many parts too.
My first impression?
Rollicking story that leaves a lingering aftertaste on the palate, fleshy characters, plot progression and chapter distance being evenly spaced giving a crunchy tartness.
The modern writing conceits gives it a fast and breezy aroma.
“All it took for me to finish the book was (a) neck-breaking night!”
I picked up “The Prince of Ayodhya”, a totally different genre that held me by the balls of my eyes (couldn’t resist the crappy pun). Ashok, from the start, got me to open my mind’s eye by his vivid, visual portraitures and presentments. I could hear each slice of Rama’s sword, each swish of Kausalya’s sari and each glug of Dasa’s drinking, and smell everything from the breath of a fetid rakshasa to the sumptuous repast served at the festival. Needless to say, all it took for me to finish the book was another neck-breaking night.
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Read the full review of Prince of Ayodhya and another book (by another author at Sid Chitnis’s Blog.
“The success of Ashok Banker…is to present Ramayana as a very emotion filled human story…”
How does one write a story that everyone knows by heart and still make it exciting enough, mesmerising enough to be unputdownable. If you don’t know the answer then read this six book series on the Ramayana by author Ashok Banker.
Starting from ‘The Prince of Ayodhya’ and upto the ‘Bridge of Rama’ (i haven’t been able to read the sixth book yet), the author has spun a centuries old yarn in such an eloquent yet identifiable manner that it is unbelievable.
And he’s not only re written the Ramayana, but according to me he’s re-introduced the whole drama in a very civilian way. When i say civilian, i mean in a manner i and you can identify with the characters and their emotions. For in Banker’s ‘Prince of Ayodhya’, Rama is no divine being, but a young prince struggling with his own set of emotions and realities.
And its not one person’s point of view, rather everyone who gets a fair representation in the books. Thus he’s given a colourful and fascinating view of what the thought processes of Dashratha had been and what his weaknesses were and how he coped with them. What Kaushalya feels and why Kaikaiyi behaves the way she does.
In fact he’s done such a brilliant job that even Ravana is not painted totally black. He seems to want to paint various shades into all the characters rather than paint people as black or white.
Along the way he’s also built so many of his own characters and colourful details in to it that one feels like he’s never really read or understood the Ramayana.
In the later books, of course with the entry of Hanuman and the kidnapping of Sita, he does feel the need to project Rama in a more ’superhuman’ light. And maybe in the end (in book six i.e.) he will spring some surprise as well.
And the beauty of it all is that one discovers in a very subtle or nuanced manner the real message of ‘The Ramayana’. Or maybe that’s just my take away. But the essence of ‘Dharma’ and the way it is explained in a very peer to peer manner is very comforting and eye opening. One tends to feel for the characters and identify with them.
And it is in this identification with the character of Rama that one feels empowered. If a ‘man’ (and not god) can behave as Rama does, then what stops us from behaving in that particular way, is the question i am struggling with these days.
The success of Ashok Banker, according to me is to present Ramayana as a tale, a very emotion filled human story, as i suppose it was meant to be and not as a mythological extravaganza. It is in doing so that he so very successfully delivers to us a very, very human Rama and Ramayana.
“Ashok Banker had me craving more…”
Ashok Banker had me craving for more through the Prince of Ayodhya, the first book of his 6-volume Ramayana series.
Banker’s Shorts–and some long ones too!
Update (11 November 2007): The stories on the EI site are currently offline for technical reasons–some formatting errors needed to be corrected. They’ll be up again soon in a few days. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of other great content at Epic India Magazine for you to read and enjoy!
Richard Marcus, Editor of the Epic India Magazine (which I own and publish), is featuring old short stories by me.
Most of them have appeared before somewhere or other. Some have been posted to my old blog Indian English Spoken Here.
But some are being put up for the first time ever, since they were written. It’s also the first time that all of them are being put up in one place, one after the other.
So if you’re one of those who likes my work and has gone grey waiting for my next book to come out (it’s been over a year since King of Ayodhya after all, and even I’ve gone quite grey since then) you may want to drop by at Epic India Magazine and take a look.
Be warned: Some of the stories are quite graphic in language and content. And deal with intense matters, not meant for the faint-hearted, squeamish, or anyone under 18.
Go on, take a look for yourself. And who knows, sometime very soon, you might even get a look at my next novel, or two, or three…
That’s right.
Exclusive previews coming up of my new books…only on Epic India Magazine.
Why?
Arre, yaar. We are like that only.
Go on. Click, click, click.
“I have only recently discovered the true significance of the Ramayana…”
I have only recently discovered the true significance of the Ramayana thanks to Indian author, Ashok K. Banker, and his modern re-telling. I have glimpsed the true depth behind what I once thought was a simple religious story of good versus evil. A simple tale this is not, but rather a deeply complex and illuminating discourse on our very existence and the rules and codes by which we should live.
“a very unique version of the Ramayana”
There’s this book I read… a very unique version of the Ramayana- by Ashok Banker. His writing evoked pictures and scenes of the occurences in the story in my head. I even began to subconsiously plan my own movie! His writing is very vivid and colourful, and has great scope as inspirational material. This is just one scene I pictured when I read it.
“No book has touched me so much…”
No book has touched me so much since Ashok Banker’s Vertigo, another semi-autobiographical first book I picked up from a pavement bookseller in Bombay’s Churchgate. It was mid 90’s and I was a young marketing engineer in that city. I suppose it is the empathy factor that endears one to books so. Banker’s portrayal was the stuff of dark noir beyond my realm even. But the angst of youth with its attendant insecurities and also possibilities is what had me hooked. I have been following the reclusive writer’s fortunes ever since. One got to feel Bombay, raw and smelly yet strangely captivating in those mesmerizing pages.
Sold out on pre-order! 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 