The Hidden Hindu: Science-Fiction meets Indian mythology in a nail biting thriller set in 2020
Akshat Gupta's debut thriller pitches hard science against ancient Hindu mythology, and the collision is genuinely gripping. At the centre of it all is Om Shastri, an aghori mystic who has somehow eluded death for over two centuries, only to end up sedated and interrogated in a remote, high-security facility off the Indian coast. What spills out under hypnosis is extraordinary: a man who claims to have lived through all four yugas and walked through the events of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as a participant, not a witness. The specialists listening to him don't know what to make of it. Neither will you. Prithvi, twenty-one years old and restless with curiosity, is the one chasing Om's trail from the outside. His pursuit gives the novel its momentum, pulling the reader through a story that keeps widening in unexpected directions. It turns out Om wasn't just surviving the centuries quietly. He was hunting other immortals, scattered across time and myth, each carrying secrets that could upend everything we assume about history, belief, and what it means to be human. Gupta balances the mythological weight of his subject with a pacey, thriller-style narrative that keeps things moving. If you've ever wondered what ancient Hindu cosmology might look like filtered through a sci-fi lens, this book offers a vivid, thought-provoking answer.
- Author: Akshat Gupta
- Publisher: Penguin eBury Press
- Genre: Science Fiction
- ISBN: 978-0571348176
- Pages: 256 pages