Tahseen Nakavi

The concept is fascinating albeit not entirely innovative as dan Brown has already travelled on this route with his masterpiece `Da Vinci Code'. The book is fascinating but only in parts and patches. Ashwin Sanghi cannot be a Dan Brown no matter how hard he tries. I have always felt that he gets overwhelmed with the research he does and gets carried away with his narrative. His writing style detracts from keeping the readers bound in his web. There are so many scenes going up and down time and space in history that the readers lose track of what to gather and what to assimilate. This constant jumping makes reading into a tiresome affair and the flow is not smooth after the initial few chapters. Sanghi likes to jump all around places. It is interesting to note about the possibilities of Jesus travelling to India before he was 29 but it is too far-fetched to say that he died here and was buried and had two marriages and a big lineage. Also linking Maria Magdalena to Ashoka's Magadha empire is fantasy in a bizarre slot. The karma and rebirth mantra is rejected by me.