You have a fresh take on the Omnipresent and  the myths associated with Hindu deities. How was the experience of conceiving this novel through impediments of perceived notions.
Maybe my peculiar background helped in that. I come from a religious household. My grandfather was a priest and teacher. My parents are quite religious. So, in our house, we were told stories of all Hindu myths when we were young. But at the same time, it was also a very liberal household. My parents respected all gods of all religions. My father says that if you have a good heart, you will find good things in any religion. Coupled with this was the fact that I was a staunch non-believer till a few years back. I used to think that religion was a key source of the problems and wars in the world. I was such an extremist that many times I would refuse to enter a temple, but wait outside while my wife went in to pray. I have now come to believe that God will find a way to help you and give you peace in a manner suitable to you. Considering my background, the most empowering thought for me is one of the Hindu beliefs that a man rises to become god through his karma. And that is how Lord Shiva came to me in The Immortals of Meluha. And the experience of writing the book has changed me. I am a deeply spiritual person today, with abiding faith in Lord Shiva. I am a man at peace with myself, contented with his place in the world, calmer than I have ever been. It’s almost like a new birth. I didn’t conceive the book. The book conceived me.

Given the once flaunted rigid belief that Gods were  divine beings, who stay afloat in our psyche, how difficult was it to annihilate such figments of imagination.
Like I said, since I was a non-believer, I guess it was relatively easier for me. I wasn’t breaking down an earlier notion of god as a diving being in my mind and recreating god in human form. I simply didn’t believe in god earlier. I have developed faith over the last few years. And the way faith emerged in me was the concept that a man grows to become a god because of his Karma. Think how empowering that thought is. I am telling you that you are a god. You have just forgotten it. You are not dependant on a remote power sitting on a sad height. The power is within you. Discover it. And you will find happiness. You will find that you can give happiness to all the people that matter to you. This is Lord Shiva’s teaching – exemplified best in his cry: Har Har Mahadev! All of us are Mahadevs!

Are you being didactic in your own way in preaching something that confronts the conventional view of religion?
I am too small a man to confront anything. I am sharing a story which has made a hyper-competitive, insecure, unhappy, non-believer like me into a satisfied, happy, believer. I just hope that others can read the story and learn to appreciate the wonderful life that they have been blessed with - as I have learned to do. I have an amazing wife. I have a lovely child. I have a rock-solid family. I never dwelled in the happiness that this gives me and was wasting my life fighting for the next promotion or arguing for the next increment. I am not saying that we should become sages, resign from our jobs and give up our responsibilities to earn money and take care of our family. We have to live up to our responsibilities. We must do well in our jobs. But a sense of balance will ensure that we don’t destroy our souls doing that.

Being a self proclaimed ‘non-believer’, what was the thought process behind wielding the pen in a strange and somewhat eerie world of  the divine?
Firstly, I was a non-believer in the past. Today I am a staunch believer in the power of the divine and a devoted Shiva bhakt. I wear an ‘Om Namah Shivaiy’ kada. I wear a rudraksh mala. I do the ‘Maha Mrityunja Jaap’ every morning. I visit a Shivji temple every Monday. But that is not all. Not only have I discovered faith in Lord Shiva, but also in every spiritual being. So in my puja room at home, I of course have an idol of Lord Shiva in the centre and various other Hindu gods. But I also have a picture of the Kaaba, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, Zaratushtra, Guru Nanak and Buddha. And I pray to all of them every morning. There is so much to be learned from everyone.

As for the book, it started really as a philosophy book, not a religious book. It was a philosophy on ‘what is evil’? Then I got some good advice from my brother and sis-in-law that people aren’t really interested in a philosophy book. Write a thriller and let the philosophy come along with it. Then it may have a chance to sell. So I started writing the present story. And who better to be the hero of a story on the nature of evil than the destroyer of evil himself, Lord Shiva.

Your interest in mythology strikes a wonderful chord with the rudiments of innovative interpretations of a common man’s faith in his /her god. So do you really believe in a faith that transcends the intermingling of myth & idol worship?
Absolutely. Myths and idols are only supports to help you discover faith. The true god lies within you. Within all of us. Just start the journey to discover the power within and your life will be transformed. I am a living example of how faith can transform your life. But it will not transform it in the way we may think. We will not suddenly become all powerful beings who can get whatever they want - the money and power that might attract us. Faith will actually perform an even bigger miracle. It will transform you from the inside. It will give you peace and happiness. And that is worth more than all the money in the world.

The Book makes a fascinating impact on a cerebral reader’s thought process logistics. So who are your target audience?
When I was writing the book, frankly, I wasn’t really thinking of a target audience. I was writing what came to me and trying my best to be honest to the flow. And from the feedback I have got, the book has surprisingly reached out to a rather broad audience. There is an old IT officer from Delhi who wrote to me that this book has changed his relationship with God. He said the philosophies in the book make him think of god as a friend now and not someone to be afraid of. There is an actress who wrote to me that the love story between Sati and Shiva was deeply engaging and she said that Shiva is any woman’s dream husband – strong, powerful, loving, kind and a great dancer! There is a 19 year old kid who wrote to me saying: ‘Man, you book was one wild ride with a twist and turn on every page!’ There is a young working woman who wrote a post on my youtube trailer film (it’s in the public space) that she is in love with Shiva. I think each person finds his/her own message in the book.

Your views on the exciting new breed of writers, who take up the challenge to throw creative splinters to the clichéd aspects of our socio- cultural being in the contemporary scenario.
I think the burst in creative writing is only a component of the spurt in creativity and freedom in India. We are an ancient culture which is rediscovering its greatness. I believe that whenever India has been true to its fundamental culture – open, liberal and hungry for knowledge from anywhere in the world – we have succeeded. Whenever we have become close-minded and insecure – as we were in the last 200 years – we have failed. I think we are becoming our natural open culture once again.  And hence you find creativity bursting forth. A creativity which refuses to obey old rules and notions, which wants to look at things afresh, which is unafraid, which capable of creating a new way. You find this creativity everywhere now – in our entrepreneurship, in our science, in our films, in our sports and yes, in our books as well. It is an exciting time to be Indian!

The grandeur of the plot and the jazzier and snazier cover illustration of the book grabs the eyeball instantly. How significant was the look of this bold attempt to realistically showcase an ancient era ?
Thank you so much for your kind words. Well the story started small. But as I wrote it more and more, there were new characters that emerged, war scenes became larger and I guess the book kept growing till I had to break it into a trilogy. And now that the book was emerging in this manner, I thought it wise that we must have a cover which suits it. I was lucky to have found a great partner in this – Rashmi Pusalkar. She is the designer of the cover. Would you believe that she has never designed a book cover before? We were very clear that we would use a real man’s shot and not a graphic fantasy figure. People should think that the story sounds plausible and it could have been one possible truth. Rashmi is simply brilliant and I was only a witness to her genius. There is also a map of ancient India and the seal of Lord Shiva (drawn from the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley civilization) that was made by my friend Hrishikesh Sawant. He actually got clay models made of the map and the seal and then shot them – to ensure that they have a realistic look. His commitment was awesome. I think all of this has played a very significant role in recreating the ancient era and in the success of the book. And I say this honestly, the entire credit is due to these great partners that I had.

Your book attempts to permeate through the ignorance of  a believer and provides a visual/thoughtful bait to probe his/her  religious lineage. Do you yourself  try to point at a fulcrum wherein these ‘believers would like to take a dip'?
I think that is too grand for me to aspire to.  I guess my book is a small attempt to share a story which has transformed my life for the better. If it helps even one person amongst those who read it, I will be delighted.

You have taken a lot of liberty in the use of words in a mythological subject. Was it a conscious effort?
Yes it was. The book has been described as a fast-paced page turner. It think a key part of that was the modern language. Classical/mythical language would have slowed the story down. Since the book is long (The Immortals of Meluha is 400 pages), I think the modern, easy language helps people read it quickly and the focus remains on the story. I have got feedback that most people have read the book in one or two sittings.

Amish is a 35 year old, IIM (Kolkata) educated finance professional, who is fascinated by history, philosophy

and the future of human civilisation. The inspiration for this story came from years of reading mythological stories, historical books and invigorating discussions with his family about the destiny of the human body, mind and soul. Amish lives in Mumbai with his wife Preeti and son Neel. He works in IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Co as the National Head – Marketing & Product Management. He has been a finance professional all his life, having worked in organisations such as Standard Chartered Bank, IDBI Bank and Development Bank of Singapore. This is Amish’s debut novel. He is presently writing the second book of the Shiva Trilogy.

The Immortals of Meluha, set in what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley civilisation, tells that tale of Shiva, the simple man, whose Karma recast him as our Mahadev, the God of Gods. This is the first book in the Shiva Trilogy.
	It is set in 1900 BC, in what the modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha – a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. The once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills. The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend – ‘when evil reaches epic
proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge’. Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?

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Interviewed by Kushal Sinha Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee