Kirjahaku

Karna could never have lost the final battle to Arjuna had he not given away his Kavach (armour) and Kundal (earrings) that were a gift from his father, Surya. The armour rendered Karna invincible against any foe. We are in the 21st century. What if someone can find that armour today? Vasu, a resolute man, sets out to retrieve the Kavach-Kundal. To guide him Karna himself turns up from the past. The hunt takes them to the Himalayas in the North, Dwarka in the West, Rameshwaram in the South and Konark in the East. And at each leg, they have to surmount hurdles of catastrophic proportions.And Vasu is not the only one interested in this quest. A dubious character gets on Vasu's trail and casts traps on his path. The young and charming Sahar, a marine archaeologist, joins Vasu to help him in the race. Join Vasu and Sahar in this thrilling adventure to know why the armour was all that potent, and if it still exists. **COMMENT BY RUSKIN BOND What stands out in this story is not whether Vasu completes the task, but how he undertakes the mission and what the expedition turns him into. Here, the journey is more important than the destination, and the reader shall see the protagonist going through a subtle spiritual transformation. ---- Ruskin Bond **COMMENT BY KAVITA KAN A riveting, modern take on the mystery of the kavach and the kundal and that enduring mystique of Karna. A must-read thriller. ---- Kavita Kan **** Finally, here's a video (1 min. 17 sec) about the book on YouTube: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-nDCcCFtSM

Karna, the ill-fated hero of 'The Mahabharata', was killed by Arjuna in the final battle. (Karna-Arjuna rivalry was much like Hector vs. Achilles.)5000 years later, we have a man named Vasu, who is quite like Karna - born illegitimate, very talented but denied all credits in life, rejected in love. He begins to identify himself with Karna. Vasu misses a medal in the Asian games, gets caught for telling an innocent lie and is overlooked for promotion. And interestingly Karna appears to him after every debacle to assuage and encourage him.It seems Vasu is Karna's alter ego; but will he, finally, break the jinx? Will he win the endgame? This is not a mythological tale but a contemporary take on mythology.SOME PRAISE: A work of fiction that tries to connect millennia past with our age, Surendra Nath's Karna's Alter Ego deserves tributes that should go to imaginative handling of an unusual plot. - Manoj Das, Author I have been wondering what the genre of this book is. Is it mythological? Or is it social, with a quotidian theme? Perhaps, spiritual or philosophical? Maybe, a thriller It's better you read it and find out for yourself. - Ruskin Bond, Author See Reviews of this book on Goodreads.com (https: //www.goodreads.com/book/show/26142328-karna-s-alter-ego)