Krishna Udayasankar's latest book, Immortal , sounds like any good pot-boiler. A professor is approached by enigmatic young woman for help in finding a mysterious artefact. The only difference here is, the protagonist happens to be Asvatthama, the cursed immortal warrior from the Mahabharata , wandering the Earth in the guise of Professor Bharadvaj.
At the launch of the book in Bengaluru a while ago, Krishna explained that the character of Ashvatthama was one that most appealed to her from her earlier trilogy, The Aryavarta Chronicles . “He was one of the characters I wanted to expand upon from the Aryavarta books, and that is how Immortal came about. It is actually more of an adventure thriller, and despite being unable to die, the protagonist still has his fears and flaws, so there is still depth to his character,” she adds.
Despite Bharadvaj being portrayed as a whisky-loving globetrotter, Krishna has set a majority of the book in familiar locales, even reading out a passage where Bharadvaj visits Blossoms bookstore in Bengaluru. “The book is set mostly in this part of the world, but there are a lot of references to ancient history, as he has lived through it all,” she says.
Prodded on by eager fans, Krishna revealed that though she had originally planned Immortal as a standalone title, she may write more in future. “He is a very charming character, and I am not sure I can let go of him yet. That said, I don’t have a plot in mind, but maybe one night he’ll wake me up and tell me the story and say ‘Let’s write it’.” She also said a prequel to her popular Aryavarta series is in the works.
Immortal is out now and available in bookstores and on Amazon.
