Krishna Key : Ashwin Sanghi

It is fascinating to think of Krishna as someone from history, rather than as a mythological character. Various theories of the actual existence of the lost city of Dwaraka, of the Brahmastra being the metaphor for a nuclear blast are all very intriguing. Sanghi’s use of Sanskrit, the various shlokas from the Vedas and Upanishads, the theory of Big Bang, the similarity in the Shiv Ling and the nuke reactors, make for a very curiosity generating read.

The similarities Ashwin Sanghi’s Krishna Key holds to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons are too many to ignore.

• ü  A central character who is an academician,
• ü  An ancient secret rooted in history & mythology,
• ü  Death of friends/eminent personalities in the same/related field,
• ü  A female ‘sidekick’
• ü  Religious symbolism, ancient codes and puzzles that need to be solved,
• ü  A psychopathic killer,
• ü  Twist ending, on who the villain is.

Belonging to a family of devout Hindus, I was all the drawn to the title of this book, claiming to be some sort of a key to Krishna. But something happens to the author and he misses the mark of awesomeness (Set so very high by Da Vinci Code) by a few notches. Somehow I found myself not connecting to any of the characters emotionally and not missing a heart beat when the twists and turns in the plot were revealed.

The Krishna Key focuses (too much) on history and the explanations according to mythology that the core narrative is lost in between, and Sanghi fails to come up with a masterpiece.

The convincing powers of the author are certainly questionable; as none of his characters make that indelible mark on the readers’ psyche that connects the reader to one of the characters in the plot. Neither is Sanghi able to answer logic in terms of why the killer had become a killer, nor is he able to justify the twists and turns in the love life of his central man, Ravi Saini. A book dealing with history and mythology could have done without the bit of romance, in my view. 

Overall, a very readable book, but not definitely one to cherish.