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Bibliophilic banker Amit Bansal has penned his first ever novella based on his own spiritual journey and it has already attracted plaudits from the top Indian diplomat in the country.
The Call of Mahadev was written by Amit during the pandemic based on stories he used to tell his children when they were young.
“This novella was born many years ago as a bedtime story for my children,” the 43-year-old ICICI bank country head in Bahrain, told GulfWeekly during an interview.
“I started telling it to them one night and just kept stretching it over several days by adding adventurous episodes. When the pandemic started in 2020, I was working from home for a few weeks and I took the time away from a busy calendar to write down the story.
“Originally, it was going to be part of a collection of stories but it took on a life of its own, evolving into a more refined tale and went into dimensions that were not part of the original story. It’s like the story itself grew, much like the protagonist within it.”
The book tells the story of Raghu, a devotee of Shiva, who embarks on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash – considered the sacred abode of the Hindu God.
The road trip takes him on a long and winding journey, full of exhilarating and frustrating experiences, interspersed with spiritual lessons throughout.
In a short book spanning just 122 pages, Amit invites his readers into the supernatural dimensions of space and time on a life-altering journey.
“Although I have not completed this pilgrimage myself, I was able to vicariously do so and learn about the journey through the lens of Raghu,” Amit added.
The book, which is written from a third-person limited point-of-view, packs in much more than the typical novella – it also packs in spiritual lessons from Shaivism, a major Hindu religious community within India, and offers readers a preview of meditation.
It reads less like a typical literary work filled with dense and difficult language, and more like a story being verbally communicated to the reader.
Ultimately, it is a road trip story and much of the catharsis comes from Raghu’s journey, rather than his destination, much like the experience for Amit, a lifelong worshipper of Shiva, colloquially called a ‘shivbhakt’.
“I have received a lot of feedback on the book, but amongst the impactful was that my wife Shalu, who is not a heavy reader, read it cover to cover, enjoying the story,” Amit added.
The Call of Mahadev is Amit’s first book and he finished it in three months, lucking out with the publisher to whom he had sent it – Garuda Publishing.
It was published in September last year.
Meanwhile, Amit is already busy working on his next book – a collection of short children’s stories, once again inspired by his lifelong journey as a father and storyteller for his children.
“I think my son, 17 and daughter, 12, are a bit too old now to hear stories from their father, so I thought it’s a good time to start sharing these tales with the world!”
The Call of Mahadev is available in City Mart in Hoora and Goyal Books in Gudaibiya, in addition to being sold on Amazon.
For more details, follow @amitbansal.4 on Instagram.
