NAME OF THE BOOK : THE EKKOS CLAN
NAME OF THE AUTHOR : SUDIPTO DAS
BLURB : The lives of all the members of Kratu’s family are at stake Reason : the cryptic stories of Kubha, Kratu’s grandmother, which hold keys to the origin of Indo- European civilization. As we embark upon this adventurous journey with Kratu, Afsar and Tits, we are greeted by riddles, threats and a whole new dimension of linguistic paleontology , which we could not even have thought of. Welcome to the world of The Ekkos Clan, where mystery unfolds at every paragraph.
MY RATING : 4.5 out of 5.
MY REVIEW :
‘Another technocrat writing a novel’ : this is what that comes to our mind when we see Sudipto Das, an ex IIT-ian writing a novel. Hold your breath before you come to this conclusion : a whole new set of cognates and elaborate descriptions of music will make you scratch your head and wonder, ‘ Is this author an engineer? ‘. Well, technically, he is one. But author Sudipto Das is far beyond an IIT-ian: he is a researcher before he starts to pen down his thoughts ( see the long reference list at the end of the book ) ; he is a wonderful story teller and will not give you peace until you have listened to the whole story. That is what happened to me as I plummeted to read the book and finished it off in my long flight, while traveling from India to Wichita, Kansas, USA. When I decided to write the review, I had to re read again, fearing I may not do justice to the book and the author.
An M.Phil student of Comparative Literature , Jadavpur University , India, I have been trained to appreciate a novel, provided it has a good theme and a good narration. How can I not extol the book when the book reflects such a strong hold of English language , a very intricate narration and above all, a theme, which is quite uncommon to contemporary Indian fiction. We see thousands of best selling authors writing ‘ chick -lit ‘ which apparently talk about love among teen agers and young adults. The other ones are mythological fictions, which have been borne out of author’s love for history . Sudipto Das’s novel, The Ekkos Clan takes a different route, refilling the necessities of love, humour and wanderlust in new buds. What can be more appealing to an Indian English reader, or perhaps other readers to, than the charm of getting proposed by the Bengali words , ‘ ami tomake bhalobashi’ ? It is a nectar , every Bengali girl desires, an urge, which is even even stronger than 1st college sex; it is the ambrosia which any non-Bengali and non- Indian girl , like Afsar, dreams to sip from a Bengali boy. Perhaps , it is something I felt like saying to the book, ‘ ami tomake bhalobashi ‘. Yes, could not help it listing it as one of my favorites.
The adroit use of Bangal words , filling in the gaps of rootlessness renders versatility to the author. Sudipto Das makes the book interesting even for those, who have no knowledge of linguistics. He seems to me like that ‘ Masterchef’ who carefully chooses a wide variety of ingredients and creates a wonderful platter but makes it sure, that no single spice dominates and the food is not overcooked.
For those who want to buy the book, here is the link :http://www.amazon.com/The-Ekkos-Clan-Sudipto-Das-ebook/dp/B00I48VJV4
To know more about the author, visit the site : http://www.sudiptodas.com
Crystallasia 