BOOK LAUNCH AT INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE

Monday 10^th April, 2015

·         Apart from some 200 people in the audience I greatly enjoyed the launch of my new novel. Siddharth Shriram released the book and said that though he was not very interested in history this book had been such an easy read that he hugely enjoyed it.

·         Professor Pushpesh Pant (retired professor from JNU, historian and author) endorsed the sentiment saying he had read the entire book in a day and is now reading it for the 3rd time as it contains so many nuggets of information and insights into a fascinating period.

·         I then outlined the thrust of the book that concerned a tipping point in India's history with the orthodox prince Aurangzeb and the liberal Dara Shikoh fighting not only for the Mughal crown but for the very soul of India.

·         Few people know that Dara was a Sanskrit scholar who did the first translations of the Upanishhads and the Bhagavat Gita that were not widely known to most people in Mughal times.

·         I explained that while much had been written about the Mughal emperors very little was known about Dara after the court scribes wrote him off after the battle of Samugarh. As the British had contempt for the `native armies’ very little was also known about the Mughal command and control systems and I had to go to the Military Museum in Istanbul to learn more about them. I also personally walked over many of the battlefields and strategic areas to be able to describe them properly.

·         Several people asked how much of the novel was fiction and how much history. I explained that about 25% of the book concerned the adventures of the purely fictitious narrator, the eunuch Mubarak Ali, but that most of the rest was firmly rooted in history.

·         Several people who had read the novel commented that they were waiting for it to be made into a movie as they saw a panorama of vivid mental images as they read of Mubarak’s adventures in the court and on the battlefields.

·         The battles, romances, betrayals, the events of the harem and the battles were then debated in a very lively discussion with the audience.