The Aryabhata Clan

Book : The Aryabhata Clan
Author : Sudipto Das
Pages : 476
Price : 444/-
Publication : Niyogi Books

Gripping tale of finding the secret behind 1000 years old carpets.

Story

The story starts a girl named Kubha trapped & rapped in a place called Eight Heaven. Later we find out, three murders have been successfully done and people are collecting information about specific ‘carpets’.

21-year-old Kubha is the daughter of a linguistic paleontologist, Afsar and Kratu. Her maternal grandfather, Faraz Fareedi owned a business of sourcing oriental carpets from Asia and selling them worldwide. Soon the illustration on carpet are being noticed by many, and who ever gets to discover the secret behind are in high danger.
Kubha is the only one who can save the disaster to happen.

Her parents devastated by her kidnap, will ever make it to understand the reason behind all this ?
What is the secret of Khushawari rugs ?
Why the book is named on the great Mathematician Aryabhata ?
How politics in India make it weak and let other religion take India over ?
Is Taj Mahal is really an Indian Shivo Mahalay ?

For all this answers, you need to read and explore through this journey of Kubha, Afsar, Kratu, Fazal, Parush, Shamshur. Together they make one mystery sometimes nail biting thriller.

Writing

Kudos to author Sudipto for choosing such an interesting plot, that works around many topics, the Islamic state taking over , Taj Mahal’s famous myth being a Shiva Temple (Tejo Mahalay), unraveling secret of rugs that were 1000 years old, politician drawbacks of not being unite.

The writing was crisp, and narration was beautiful. The characters are shows and given enough time to build story around them and are uniquely differentiated from each other.
I loved how author have used images/diagram to portray and unravel the mystery of rugs and everything else (saved you from spoiler 😛 ). The amount of research and fact building author has done is overwhelming.
The fact that I don’t like Mathematics and I loved a book named around famous mathematician Aryabhata, clearly shows that the book has an impact that will linger.
I loved the variety of encryption/cryptic things where used in story. The rugs were obvious but then there were cryptic song, cryptic watch timings. This kept me glued to learn about them. But then I am sure a person with great music background will be able to understand them well.

Even though I loved it all most every point, few things that didn’t worked for me was when Afsar and Kratu abruptly came to decision of decrypting certain things in certain manner. The amount of background for so many different languages are given was difficult to keep in mind. The diagrams/illustration were very handy for such things. Moving places and topics made me confused sometimes, like when Fazal story came up I was confused in the starting later when it was connected I felt ok so that was that.
First chapter one was difficult for me, it was unsettling to read a rape scene in just few pages down, and the apt-Nance of it happened in Eight Heaven made my mind link it so much with recent Asifa’s case. It was strange for me to calm down after I ended first chapter, the similarity was so much. I almost stopped book at that point for a day, and came back later when I was ready to read ahead.

This review will be incomplete if I don’t talk about characters.
Kubha our protagonist, a girl that is gang raped and still has the urge to save India. In all the midst of what has happened with her, she definitely is shown strong to stand up again and do what she wants to do. In such cases, a regular person will surely be out of mind, but Kubha shows her intelligence when she delivers a secret message to her parents when she sings.

Afsar Fareedi, mother of Kubha . We have seen Robert Landon in so many movies doing and solving difficult symbols, decryption hidden motives. And we will surely appreciate what Afsar did. She is a way ahead of this century, she has knowledge and the way she uses it is amazing. I loved how Afsar had kept it all together even after seeing her daughter in such a state. May be Kubha got this trait from her mother.

Kratu Sen, father of Kubha. I loved him more than Afsar, he was the one with clear head more times and connected the dots that Afsar abruptly left. His ability to come up with different programs that helped Afsar to decode the hidden message is what I became a fan of.

Parush is another person whose age I am still confused of. May be he his like dad-age to Kubha , but the relationship they share is pure, and a bit weird because that can’t happen in our ‘society’. Moreover, he is the cop that always saves the day, he has his trusted men, and multi tasks and thinks ahead of the villain of any century.

This was my first read of author Sudipto Das, but I surely willing to read Ekkos Clan for such a journey.

Things that worked out for me :

> Character building and helping each other to solve this mystery.
> Amount of research author has done to write this, has definitely paid off in this novel.
> Multiple issues were given equal importance.
> The ways to encrypt message is what I felt like learning after this.
> Taking a real event like Taj Mahal named as Tejo Mahalay and building story around it. is Commendable.
> Women in book are shown so much strong head and heart wise.

Things that didn’t worked for me :

> The story sometimes when into to much depth, & descriptive. I was unable to follow it.
> Starting a book with uneventful scene make me leave this book for a day until I was all prep for it.
> Sometimes there were places and time traveling which confused me.

 

Final Note :

If you are looking for a novel which has base on 1000 years old contents. This is for you.
If you love reading in descriptive form, and amount of information gives you kicks. This is for you.

Cover: 3.5/5
Title: 3.5/5
Blurb: 3.5/5
Theme: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Overall: 3.9/5

**Book was provided by Author, in return of an honest review.**