My story is based on a possibility of a question which occurred to me nearly five years ago. What would happen if the poison inside Lord Shiva’s throat, the famed Visha released after the Samudra-manthan, found itself on Earth? With its help the Asuras could plan to usurp the Devas to establish their dominance. With the help of the Visha the Asuras could combat the effects of the immortality provided by the Amruth, a counterpart, to the Devas thus laying siege on the entire cosmos. The only other way to stop the fall of Devlok is to wage a war against their enemies on neutral ground, which happens to be earth.

The fictional story dives into the characters, their shortcomings and the story of how they overcame the unimaginable obstacles. These characters have their lives touched by the grace of the Gods. It shows another side to the Devas as well as the Asuras. There are neither fixed heroes nor villains here, but only a powerful story of misunderstanding and untamed forces of the universe. It shows the marvellous capabilities of us humans to dream and perform. It shows endless possibilities of our cultural heritage intertwining with the string of reality. I sincerely hope to captivate the audience into projecting the cultural heritage of our nation into the real world.

This work is purely a work of fiction and should be treated as such. This work is not intended nor created to mock or disgrace the Gods, whom I solemnly bow to at the end of the day. I also hope the audience will keep an open mind filled with imagination to savour this work for its ingenuity. I want to make sure that this work was never meant to hurt any sentiments; religious or moral. If I did, I sincerely apologize for it.

About the Author: My name is Karan Mangeshkar, son of Gajanan and Kavita Madiwal and a proud elder brother to Kartik. It seems that the noble laureate Shri Rabindranath Tagore, when visiting his uncle, was taken aback by the beauty of a coastal town so much that he termed it as ‘the Kashmir of Karnataka’. I was truly blessed in being born and spending my early childhood in this marvellous jewel of a city. Most of my upbringing was in the state of Goa, north of this town. A state famed to be the apple of the eye of its Portuguese occupants, who still seemed to have left a substantial influence even after their departure. I was schooled in a Christian environment but was surrounded with people from diverse cultures, which fortunately imparted me with a sense of brotherhood. This also brought about in me a thirst to know more about the cultures, especially the myths and legends spread across them. I had to move for higher studies and exposure, to Moodbidri – a bustling town city thirty four kilometres from Mangalore city. Although I was born in Karnataka, I never was exposed to the beautiful Kannada language. Now in Moodbidri, surrounded by people from all over Karnataka, I had no choice but to adapt the tongue. First I had my doubts that switching to another language may make me lose my mother tongue; glad to be wrong. Hostel life can surely change the way you look at family, friends and relations. I am an avid reader. I crave mythological, fictional and even supernatural stories. Students were strictly abstained from cell phones, and I was frantically searching for a way to satiate this hunger for mythology and fiction. Although books were allowed, I would exhaust my collection very quickly. And having a collection of books in a hostel is risky business, prone to the words ‘I will surely return the book’, especially if you are addicted to reading. So instead of searching outside I dived inside my mind, pondering on stories. This is when ‘Rise of the Asuras’ was initially conceived. An initial draft of just two pages continued its way to be engineered as I started pursuing my degree. The change from science to engineering brought about many adjustments which deprioritised the manuscript, until one day I hit a rough patch.

Life isn’t always smooth but to have some ‘thing’ to fall back on can be beneficial in every way. Maybe finding that one ‘thing’, that one purpose is what life is all about. I have to admit that I am too young to give out such advice. Nonetheless, it took me five years to create not only this story but a bold enough universe of characters and other stories. Mixing our history and mythology with the modern culture and technology, paved a way for me to create dazzling stories in store for my readers.

When compared to other novels on the market, why does my story stand out? The answer is whether other stories bring such an imagination into the world? Do they bring a story so deeply connected to the modern era? Do they reimagine the heroes of lore as modern superheroes? This is what exactly my story will do. It is what my passion is.

Our millennial generation is overwhelmed by creativity-killing stories, predictable and repetitive. Stories such as Rise of the Asuras will hopefully help them discover to dream and live a fantasy filled with our diverse and unique Indian culture leading them to reimagine and hopefully bring more stories into reality.

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: White Falcon Publishing; 1 edition (2022)
• Author: Karan Mangeshkar
  
• ISBN-13: 9781636404332
• Product Dimensions:  5 x 1 x 8 Inches

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