Preface of Kurukshetra Anusmaranaya

 

Kurukshetra Anusmaranaya

කුරුක්ෂේත්‍ර අනුස්මරණය

Here is the preface of the historical fiction, Kurukshetra Anusmaranaya, the debut book of Arun Kotha. 

March 3rd 2021

4:20 AM

Hyderabad, India.

 

It was a plain day, until I realized I was about to turn to an exciting page of my life; the page that, much like a wormhole, made me travel back in time to 250 B.C. through a lucid dream.

I woke from the dream to the noise when my wife rolled over in sleep and something like a remote controller dropped off the bed. For a minute or two after waking up from the dream, I couldn't comprehend what had happened to me. I was trying to figure out which was the dream and which was reality.

After deep contemplation, I realized I had dreamed something momentous; like Stephenie Meyer saw vampires in her dreams, like Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya had visualized lord Balaji in his dreams, like Beethoven had heard his piano sonatas in his dreams, like Paul McCartney had heard The Beatles Song in his dreams, like Kukulé saw the ring structure of Benzene molecule in his dreams, like Srinivasa Ramanujan saw goddess Namakkal telling him complex theorems in his dreams. 

The story revolves around a famous Bactrian war mathematician from 250 BC and his association with the legendary war of Kurukshetra. Though a major portion of the main plot is fictional (straight from the dream), the anecdotes recalled from Mahabharat are in accordance with the original epic and the key connections made with the then-contemporary events are in accordance with the history and the legend, making the resulting narrative a finely-woven tale of Historical Fiction. 

The great Indian epic Mahabharat has a million tales to boast about. This book, Kurukshetra Anusmaranaya will remind us of a few of the best tales amongst them. Before attempting to pen down certain portions of the story that happened in areas estimated to be located in present-day Sri Lanka, Iran and Afghanistan, I did extensive research about the culture and the language in those days to such an extent that I felt I had actually lived in 250 B.C. 

The book is divided into two parts, namely "Arrival of the Saviour" and "Secret of Avatara". The first of the series is "Arrival of the Saviour", through which, I would like to reintroduce readers to the forgotten anecdotes of humanity's greatest war from the perspective of an ancient war mathematician. 

I thanked my sleeping wife for her perfect timing. Had she woken me up too late, I would not have remembered the whole of it; had she woken me up too early, I would not have completed it.

As a namesake of the charioteer of lord Surya, I offer my prayers to lord Surya, the creator of the material universe (including this book). Let us bow to lord Surya, the solar deity of the Hindu pantheon, to continue to bestow wisdom and create a life of abundance. With this prayer ||Suryaya Namaha||, we worship the "dispeller of darkness". You will find this prayer throughout the book at the end of each segment of the story.

I wish all the readers Happy reading, under the soft lamp's light. May each page of this book embrace the spirit of the reader in you and may you ask for more. 

Please write to kurukshetraanusmaranaya@gmail.com to order a copy of the book. For more updates, please join our WhatsApp group using the link below: 

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Arun Kotha