Shankar Kashyap is an orthopaedic surgeon practicing in the UK and like all good doctors moonlights as a novelist. After the autobiographical A Kangaroo Court , Kashyap has embarked on an ambitious historical fiction series set in Harappa. The first two books of the six-part series, The Lure of Soma and The Fall of Shuruppak are out. In an email interview, 60-year-old Kashyap who studied zoology at St Joseph’s College in Bengaluru and medicine at Bangalore Medical College talks about his fascination for history and the Harappan Civilisation in particular. Excerpts.
How did The Lure of Soma come to be?
Ever since I read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas as a kid, I have been fascinated by fantasy and history. I have always been interested in ancient history and read a lot. Most of the books were on Greek, Roman and Egyptian ancient history. Unfortunately, most books on ancient Indian history dealing with Indus valley civilisation are written by academic historians. They are very dry and difficult to read for an average reader. I decided to write a series of books to bring the people of Indus Valley Civilisation to life. I want the man on the street to know about our ancient history; not just the academics!
Why did you set The Lure of Soma in Harrappa?
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are the best-known cities of the time for most Indians and across the world. Harappa was probably one of the provincial cities of the Indus Valley civilisation. Indus Valley civilisation is a misnomer. There are more sites along the Sarasvati bed than along the Indus River. Less than 10 per cent of the sites have been excavated so far. Rakhigarhi (still not excavated fully) was probably the capital of the Harappan Empire and I have used that as such. It is probably more appropriate to call it a Harappan civilisation as many artefacts are linked to different levels of digs at Harappa. Harappa, as a city, lends itself to the story line extremely well.
Are the books part of trilogy?
The Harappa series is a set of six books starting with The Lure of Soma around 2600 BCE and the last book of the series ending around 1900 BCE with the beginning of the collapse of the civilisation. The third book, The Battle of Ten Kings is based on events in the seventh book of Rig Veda
Is the hero, Upaas your alter ego?
Upaas, is based on my characteristics and my ambitions.
How do you balance your two professions — of doctor and writer?
As a practicing orthopaedic surgeon, I am not new to publishing. I have published nearly 40 research papers in peer reviewed clinical journals. My first book, A Kangaroo Court was well received and got me hooked on to writing books. I am proud to say that the book has been instrumental in helping numerous doctors in the UK.
Why do you think there are so many doctors who are writers?
Doctors are natural at writing as they not only need to be compassionate and skilful at their work, but also have good communication skills. Any doctor who wants to succeed has to do research and publish extensively.
There seems to be a rash of historical fiction from Ashwin Sanghi and Manreet Sodhi Someshwar to Amish Tripati. What do you think is the reason for this?
I can only attribute it to the popularity of historical fiction in the West over the last few decades.
Was it difficult to get published?
It was extremely difficult to get published. None of the publishers in the UK was interested in the Harappa series. I suspect they found it difficult to grasp the content and its importance. Once the manuscript was accepted, the struggle did not end. The publisher had his own idea of the content and such a significant interference was not what I expected.
Though set in ancient times, the language is modern. Was this by accident or design?
I have used modern language through the series on purpose, as it makes it easier to read and understand for the common man.
What next?
I am hoping to finish the Harappa Series by 2017 and I have already started some preliminary research into Vijayanagar Empire. I am also busy co-authoring a murder mystery based on true events at present – murder of a Hindu priest in Leicester in October 2000.
