Keepers of Kaalchakra (Hindi)

A seemingly random selection of heads of state are struck down by unnamed killers who work with the clinical efficiency of butchers and leave no trace of their methods. Welcome back to the shadowy and addictive world of Ashwin Sanghi. In this fearsome tale, Sanghi paints a world of people at war with one another in a boomeranging conflict of faiths. Caught in this madness is Vijay Sundaram, a geek scientist who is only dimly aware that the world outside his laboratory is about to be savagely torn apart. Events conspire to propel Vijay into the labyrinth of Milesian Labs, a research facility deep in the forests of Uttarakhand. What he stumbles upon is a primordial clue to a galactic secret that could accelerate the downward spiral of humankind. Trapped and wholly unaware of his actual foe, Vijay races against time to save humanity—and himself. Zigzagging from Rama’s crossing to Lanka to the birth of Buddhism; from the origin of Wahhabism to the gravitational wave-detectors of LIGO; from the charnel-grounds of tantric practitioners to the bespoke suits of the Oval Office; and from the frankincense-shrouded rites of Minerva to the dark ruins of Nalanda, Keepers of the Kalachakra is a journey that will have you gasping for breath—but one that you cannot abandon till all the pieces of the jigsaw come together. Till you come up gobsmack against an end that you simply did not see coming.