It all began with author of the famed The Rozabal Line reminiscing Pune as this hill station where tourists could relish the very famous Shrewsbury biscuits at Kayani Bakery. We know Pune has metamorphosed into a hep, busy city just like author Ashwin Sanghi, who after The Rozabal Line (a mythological fiction) has now picked up Chanakya's character from Indian history and intertwined another story of politics, revenge and manipulation to put together Chanakya's Chant, a political, historic thriller. The book launch, organized by The Tossed Salad Book Club, held at Crossword bookstore on SB Road threw light on how he too has changed gears after his first release.
"With The Rozabal Line I wanted to educate, tell people about this shrine in the heart of Srinagar and the theory that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was whisked away to safety, and the notion that Jesus travelled to India to reunite with the lost tribes of Israel, who had settled in Kashmir. But with Chanakya's Chant my sole mission is to entertain. Here I want to narrate an entertaining story and test my skills as a writer," says Ashwin Sanghi, aka Shawn Haigins (his anagrammatical pseudonym). With his first book being featured on the best seller list for three consecutive months and selling 30,000 copies, Sanghi should certainly not be one to doubt his writing skills.
Ashwin Sanghi at the launch of Chanakya's Chant. Photo by Mehr Singh.
At the book launch there was a book reading session, where the author read out three passages from the book. The narrative of the book seemed very fast paced and graphic, which is the mark of a good thriller. “I asked several random readers to read my early drafts and my sole question to them was: was the story riveting enough for you to move from that page to the next,” says Sanghi, who also happens to be pursuing a doctorate in Creative Writing.
The author has also liberally used unparliamentary language in the book. When asked about this at the launch, Sanghi defended, "I do not write for kids. Besides, the novel is my voice and if I do not use the so-called swear words I am not writing in my voice and not being true to myself and my readers."
But why Chanakya? What made his protagonist Pandit Gangasagar Mishra have so much of Chanakya in him? "The grey characters fascinate me. I see a lot of Chanakyaniti around me in everyday life, let alone politics. In this book I am not saying whether Chanakya was good or bad, but the fact that some things never change and politics is certainly one of them. Moreover when I look around me very little has changed in these 2300 years," says this 40-something author, who holds a Master’s degree from Yale School of Management.
With the character drawn from history, the obvious question put forth to the author at the book launch was, how much of the book is real and how much fiction? The author mentioned here that The Rozabal Line had a lot more research because there he was dealing with a subject closer to people’s faith. But for Chanakya’s Chant he read 12-13 books that consisted of Chanakya’s Arthashastra and biographies of those belonging to the Mauryan dyansty. So the descriptions about Magadh are as is but the story is his own. “I had read somewhere that if you want to lie, lie close to the truth and I have done just that,” chuckles this author, who wears the garb of a "boring" Marwari businessman by the day to earn his daily bread and butter.
At the launch Sanghi also shared that he has already begun penning his third novel, which would again be a fast-paced thriller. He promises that his fans will not have to wait for long before they can snuggle down with it.
To know more about Ashwin Sanghi and his latest novel, watch this space.
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