The Krishna Key

“India’s answer to ‘The Da Vinci code’” was the singular thought resonating in my head when I read the back cover of the Krishna Key. This is precisely what made the first half of the book highly predictable and snapped the thrill that Da Vinci Code presented, out from the rest. However the similarity in plot would be a highly unfair reason to dismiss the book off. Despite the ‘been there and seen it all’ plot, there are two things that bind the book together; primary one being Krishna himself, who is so full of fascinating stories and multiple facets. Second is the research that flows through pages after pages in the book, which is entertaining for people like me who have a thing for mythological fiction.

 The Krishna Key revolves around Ravi Mohan Saini who accused of the murder of his childhood friend Anil Varshney. Varshney had left 4 seals with Saini and 3 others along with a base plate in another location. All these put together would point towards a well guarded secret that was passed generations down, fondly called in the book as the Krishna Key. This could be either pointing towards a philosopher’s stone capable of converting lead to gold, or a deadly  Brahmastra kind weapon capable of massive destruction. So Saini would now need to trace his way towards the secret that his murdered friend Varshney had discovered and also prove his innocence. However, there is a young boy who is made to believe by a ‘Mataji’ that he is Kalki, the final avatar of Vishnu and together they need to find the Krishna Key. Anyone coming in their way, simply needs to be eliminated thereby propelling him into a killing spree

This journey in search of the secret takes Saini from Dwarka, to the Somnath temple, to Mount Kailash and the readers through tons of research work. However, the research at some point in time enters such dept that the focus from the core story just dilutes away. I mentioned earlier that mythology fiction lovers will enjoy reading it, however there were places I couldn’t establish connect between the information being shared and its relevance with the core story. I was reminded of my B-School projects where we tried to accommodate every piece of information that we researched into the reports while ignoring relevance aspects. I just wished that instead some more effort was spent on character development, which for some characters like Taraak Vakil started so well, but was just forgotten along the way!

The author Ashwin Sangh very aptly pointed out in the book that ‘history is a simple version of events that can easily be influenced by the political, cultural and religious learning of those who write it’ and in the case of mythological fiction, ‘imagination’ also plays a critical role. So my recommendation for the reader is not to make an effort to filter fact from fiction. Especially with books like these that are liberal in their comments on religion & faith and belief. So what the books holds for the reader is in-depth research and lot of food for thought to understand the intricacies between history and religious faith and how deep rooted the intertwine is. Another word of advice, please avoid reading the introduction, as the author very politely presents certain don’ts which can act as spoilers and somehow we humans are ever so keen to try the don’ts as soon as they are mentioned!

Happy Reading

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