THE GENIUS OF INDRAPRASTHA(Gondwana Chronicles Book-I) by HARSHWARDHAN PADOLE

"Maturity is just a state of mind. It has nothing to do with age. A mind which is ready to accept the reality of situation as it can be called mature. A mind which doesn't react to the situation but responds, which can differentiate between right and wrong can be called mature. Often the context, the situation and the experience makes a person mature. So to judge the maturity of a person , always try to correlate the past of the person with his present context."

We all have heard of the Mahabharata as being one of the devastating and most advanced and psychological, political and strategical war in the history of Indian myth, but very rare do we wonder what followed next.

The rich vedic fiction, The Genius of Indraprastha gives us a clear view of what might have happened to the technologies and the political situation of our country post-Mahabharata.

The story is about the post-war apocalypse, where the Indian peninsula or Gondwana as the author calls it, was facing conflicts amongst itself. The five major races: Aryans, Vaishyas, Garudas, Waanars and Asuras were somehow maintaining a fair trade of peace and common fellowship amongst them whence the Sayyids from the Arabian due to lack of their own natural resources and envy tried to invade Gondwana for its rich natural flora and fauna.

The Sayyids establish a settlement of their own which slowly turns into an independent Empire of Khidmatgar. Now slowly on the pressure of the Sayyids' never-ending needs, the Khidmatgars are forced to wage war with the Tribes of Gondwana for to take their land for both geo- political and financial reasons, which results in the War of Indraprastha.

I would not go further into the story, but the protagonist, young Prince Martand, the literal Genius of indraprastha, whose tale is narrated in the Saptasindhu Mandal to the young prince and princesses of the present, who revolted against the Khidmatgar Empire some 23-24 years ago and almost came close to crush them single handedly.

The same threat is posed by the Khidmatgar Empire again as some scientific weapon from Mahabharata times, the scrolls, falls in the hands of Commander of Khidmatgars, Bahkt Khan, who now is only a few steps away from taking away, snatching the whole Gondwana from their inhabitants and make it their own.

The story ends with the End of Great War of Indraprastha, the past.

The best thing about this story was, it was very well paced. Each chapter revealed something astonishing which really made this book a real page-turner. I liked how the author gave both the sides, equal character development which made us relate with the characters and understand their psychological depth.

Enjoyed reading it, and I couldn't wait for the Book-II as this one ends with a great cliffhanger.

"Gyanam Amulyam Asti"

"Knowledge is invaluable"

Thank you for reading.