Confessions of an Epic Indian

Last Updated: 2nd May 2008

Sometime on the evening of 18th of January 2008, my endless tinkering and revising and polishing of my seemingly endless Mba manuscript, now in its fifth year and growing as prodigiously as a North Mumbaikar on a McDonald’s diet (but with muscle, hopefully, and good fat!), finally turned into something else.

Because writing is not like constructing a building, there is no clear-cut line between writing and revising, tinkering and polishing, editing and rewriting. That’s why it took me several days to realize that what happened that day was in fact the start of the final draft of Book 1.

I finished reading over the first several chapters, slept on them (well, not literally, but you get my drift), and woke up secure in the knowledge that I was now on the final stretch, the last mile, whatchmacallit.

I was approaching the end of my Mahabharata retelling.

Now, in the case of any ordinary novel, that would mean I was only a few days away, perhaps weeks away, certainly no more than a few months away from writing ‘the end’.

In this case, it will still be years before I write ‘Ati-samaptam’. Because, unlike any ordinary novel, this story is several thousands of pages long–well over ten thousand pages long in manuscript, in fact.

So, it will still be anywhere from two to four years more before I finally sign off on the last page of the last volume of the last book of this massive undertaking. And, based on current publishing realities, it will take years for any publisher anywhere in the world to bring out the entire series.

That means it’s still going to be a while before you get to read ‘Ati-samaptam’ on the printed page of a bound book purchased from a bookstore–or even ‘Prarambha’ for that matter.

So I still can’t tell you precisely when, which month of which year the series will start being published, and what the schedule of publication will be thereafter. Those are decisions that will be taken by my publishers only after the first manuscript is delivered to them in a form suitable for publication.

And that won’t happen until I’m completely satisfied with the first manuscript.

This being a large work, and a long series, I’m not going to turn in that first manuscript a day sooner. As I’m sure you’ll agree, it deserves every hour, every day spent working on it, and even after I’m done with that first manuscript, I need to be sure that I can deliver the subsequent volumes in quick succession, without compromising on them either.

That means, I will still be waiting and continuing my revisions and rewriting, not only of Book 1, but the subsequent ones as well. As and when I’m finally sure I can start delivering volumes to a reasonable schedule–let’s say, one every six months, which is the gap between parts that my publishers in India prefer–I will start submitting them for publication.

So don’t look for a publication date on this page just yet!

But the good news is that I’m on the last mile. After close to five years of just writing and rewriting, revising and polishing, editing and re-editing, without having shown a word of a page to anybody–even my editors don’t get to see anything I write until I turn in the final manuscript, and the same goes for my family too–after all those tens of thousands of hours of work, I’m finally typing out the words as they will finally appear on those printed pages.

Some of you may have read an ‘excerpt’ I had posted from the first volume of my Mba some years ago–back in 2005, I think. It was titled “Bhishma on the bed of arrows”.

Some of you may have read me commenting on various beginnings I was toying around with, several approaches.

This is nothing like those.

It’s a fresh approach, a consolidation of many I’ve considered before, but in itself a wholly new line of thought.

It’s a true beginning.

It’s true to the original Vyasa Sanskrit poem. And, as I’ve always promised, it will contain every single story contained in the original Mahabharata.

By which I refer not to the original ‘Jaya’ composed by Krishna-Dweipayana Vyasa (whom we know today as ‘Ved’ Vyasa) of 8,800 shlokas. Nor even the expanded ‘Bharata’ revised and expanded by Vyasa himself alongwith his son and disciple Vaisampayana, of 24,000 shlokas. I mean the full unabridged ‘Mahabharata’ of 100,000 shlokas, which I have used as my source, then expanded and dramatized throughout in my own way.

This shall indeed be the first complete Mahabharata retold for modern readers. That is partly why it’s going to be so huge.

The Mahabharata portions run into 9 volumes of over 1,000 pages each. Plus there’s the Harivamsha sections which I am collecting in my ‘Krishna’ series in 8 volumes of over 800 pages each.

(Earlier I had mentioned there would be 18 books. That hasn’t changed–there will still be 18 parvas, exactly as per the original Vyasa Mahabarata. But now, when I say nine books, I mean nine double-sized volumes. To give you an example, each of these nine Mba volumes will be thrice as large as a single Ramayana paperback book–and even larger than a Ramayana hardcover omnibus! The only difference is that I’m now submitting the Mba to my publishers in nine bigger volumes rather than 18 relatively ’smaller’ volumes, in order to see the full series published faster. Since publishers insist on a certain minimum gap between books, I felt that it would be best to have nine big books, instead of 18. But by ‘normal’ standards, these nine volumes are each the size of several ‘normal’ novels. Had I split the Mba into the same sized books as my Ramayana, it would fill 27 paperbacks of around 600 pages each!)

The style is very different from my Ramayana, less wordy, more compressed, more powerful, more appropriate to an epic so massive, packed so full of action, deed, drama, character, and story.

I do take off on my own fanciful imaginative flights, swooping in and out of the story in my own idiosyncratic way. I take my own left turns and U-turns when I please, in flagrant violation of all traffic rules. I ride my chariot of imagination as I wish, where I please, when I desire.

But, as with my Ramayana–in fact, much more so this time–I stick closely to the basic structure of the epic. So much so that I have worked with one eye on the original Sanskrit and the other eye on several excellent translations, every step of the way. That was in a way the hardest part for me, not to just go riding wildly off in all directions at once as I like to do, but to follow the broad path that Vyasa gave us. The great Indian trunk road.

Oh, I meander. I admit it freely. I meander, I wander, I browse, I graze, I follow side-paths and foolish fancies. I wander lonely as a cloud and bustle like bristling crowds.

But I’m always following the path of the river, from the glacial Himalayas down to the sea.

The great river of story…down to the ocean of story.

Kathasaritsagara.

And now, I can say with full confidence, that I am on the right course. And I will stay this course until it is done.

You probably have many questions now:

When will it be published? When will the first book be out? Will it be published in the UK, USA, Germany, Japan, etc, etc, etc.?

I can’t answer any or all of those questions now.

Keep checking back from time to time. I will try to update this Mba page as often as possible in the months and years to come.

And the minute I submit this final, complete manuscript of the first book to a publisher, I will share the news with you.

This also means I won’t blog as often as I might want to, or update this website as often either. I’m sure you’d rather have me finishing the Mba than posting my thoughts about books, movies, current events, or links to other websites!

One thing that’s already been taking up a bit of my time, unexpectedly is the sudden surge in interest in the film rights to the series. Perhaps following the purchase of film rights to my Ramayana, or because of the success of the Ramayana series books, I’ve been approached by several producers enquiring if film rights are available for my Mba.

I’ve told all three producers who have approached me so far–all major international names, two based in the UK and one a major American studio–that I will not even consider offers until the first book is published, or at the very least in the publication pipeline at least.

After that, it will be out of my hands, and in…their hands.

And from their hands…to your’s.

And there’s not long to wait.

Only a matter of time now.

Counting down…