Q&A: Parag Kulkarni, Author of 'The Rebirth of Lilavati'

Parag Kulkarni is a software professional with nearly 19 years of experience in the field of providing IT services to its customers. He is currently working at Opus Consulting as the Principal Architect and helps in design and development of AI bots and Cloud Solutions. He has a keen interest in scientific and historical events, with a specific emphasis on events that connect the two ethos. He is also fond of hobbies like astronomy and star gazing, and he has also started an academy to teach young children about Astronomy and Earth Sciences. He has recently come out with the book The Rebirth of Lilavati, which is a mystery thriller.

I chat with him about his book The Rebirth of Lilavati, his favourite reads in the mystery thriller genre, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello, Parag! Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am, in parts a nerd, and a perennial enthusiast. I find happiness in little things and know how to keep myself busy and interesting. I like teaching children about astronomy and like to show them stars, planets, and other night sky objects.

If you could only describe your book The Rebirth of Lilavati in one sentence, what would it be?

An extraordinary tale of an unusual family caught in the middle of scientific breakthroughs!

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

It is a book about children, but not for children (only grown-ups should read it). The book covers different aspects of how scientifically oriented and smart people behave and how their seemingly simple lives are quite complex. It combines the excitement of scientific adventures with uncertainty of human mind to conjure a dramatic tale of a beautiful and ambitious girl named Sindhu who, in her quest to conquer science, ends up disturbing her own world. It is a tale of an intelligent and mysterious girl-child, Diya, who becomes a child prodigy and discovers an unusual planet in the Solar System. It is also a tale of a smart but ageing retired secret agent, Wikram, who has given up the intelligence world to be in love with Sindhu and has settled in a peaceful city and is supporting Sindhu and Diya in every way possible. But when their worlds collide due to external challenges, internal conflicts and shifts in priorities, they face adversities of vast proportions.

'The Rebirth of Lilavati', published by Locksley Hall Publishing

Please describe your book’s protagonists Wikram, Sindhu and Diya to readers who might not yet be familiar with who they are and what they are dealing with?

Wikram: Earlier a RAW agent, Wikram was absconding for 15 years to protect a stolen Plutonium Core used for building nuclear bombs. On having a chance encounter with Sindhu, he solves the mystery and saves the world from a disaster. The newly found love convinces him to retire as an agent and to settle into a domestic life with meaning. So he starts working as a mathematics professor at Pune University. There he comes across works of ancient mathematicians and becomes curious.

Sindhu: An IIT engineer. With her beauty and charisma, she enchants everyone she comes in contact with. Deeply in love with Wikram, she decides to form a club known as ‘The Phrontisterion’ for the high IQ children and truly takes the educational culture of Pune by storm. Of course she attracts media attention as well as criticism for her unorthodox ways to bring the best out of these children. But in doing so, she also becomes obsessed about becoming a mother, which she realizes cannot happen due to Wikram’s impotency.

Diya: The prodigal daughter of Wikram-Sindhu. She is an epitome of knowledge from early childhood and a pure genius. She is also supremely inquisitive. Wikram-Sindhu recognize her charm from the very beginning. She shows considerable maturity in her thoughts as she grows up. Not only does she have photographic memory, she also has a level of emotional quotient that supersedes any anxiety a girl of her age and in her situation would undergo. So when she realizes that Wikram-Sindhu may not be her real parents, she doesn’t lose her morale; nor does she pester them to find out her real parents, although she does enquire about them from Wikram in confidence; but never from Sindhu. As she grows up, she believes that she is the reincarnated daughter of the great Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya and insists on proving it, unaware of the reality about her.

Is there a scene or element in the novel that you really enjoyed creating and writing?

Yes, there were many in fact, but I liked one scene in particular in which a dying old man is writing an emotional letter to Sindhu, informing her of the secret he has been keeping from her. He apologizes for keeping her in the dark and at the same time, is hopeful that she would forgive him. He is losing his memory so he isn’t sure he could write all of it and as the letter comes to an end, his soul leaves his body.

I got emotional as I wrote and re-wrote this scene but it’s one of the best moments in the book wherein a lot of things become clear to the reader.

Which are your favourite books in the mystery thriller genre, and which authors working in this or other genres have influenced your writing style?

I love all of Dan Brown’s novels – Angels & Demons being my favourite, for its scientific and historical premise. Apart from that, I like books by Frederick Forsyth (The Odessa File, The Devil’s Alternative) and Jeffrey Archer (Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter). And of course, my most favourite books are – The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The fictional parts of my books are all inspired by these legendary books and authors. Coming to Indian authors, I truly admire thriller fictions by Ashwin Sanghi (The Krishna Key) and Amish Tripathi, and find their books interesting and inspiring.

Coming to non-fiction books, I liked India Unbound by Gurcharan Das, and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Wings of Fire was a truly motivating read for me.

All these books and a few more helped me get the right perspective and do my own research to form a narrative for both of my books.

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

I have been in the US since the pandemic began. It’s not that US was not hit, but here our daily lives were less affected due to the locality and accessibility of necessary items along with medical care. Most of my work is online and hence it wasn’t as difficult for me to cope. But I was worried about the rest of my family and friends back in India. With multiple lockdowns, it must have been difficult to cope for them.

The new normal is the awareness that anything can happen, and knowing that caring is also as contagious as the virus. We have seen that the reading habits and other hobbies of people have gone up and people are finding multiple ways to entertain themselves. Of course, the OTT streaming industry is further booming so we writers must do a better job to get and sustain attention of the masses.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I am currently reading a book on Elon Musk by the author Ashlee Lance, titled Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. The book is captivating and provides a great narrative of the life of Elon Musk – the living legend, who revolutionized the technology industry by his entrepreneurial skills by forming companies such as PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity to name a few. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to change the world for the better.

The book ‘The Rebirth of Lilavati’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.

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