‘Indian gods are cool’
His famous Shiva trilogy has sold millions of copies and now banker-turned-author Amish Tripathi is ready with his new book, Scion of Ikshvaku, the first instalment of a five-book series based on Lord Rama. We caught up with The Immortals of Meluha author on his recent trip to Delhi and asked if he is planning to write anything apart from the mythology genre. “I have many ideas in my mind, but the problem is lack of time. I need to focus on the ideas for various books. You never know where life will take you ... I may write books on other genres, but right now, most of my ideas are from the mythology genre,” he told us.
Asked what drives him to write books on mythology, he said, “I don’t care about what others think. The thing that drives me is a fascinating story, and I think our gods are very cool,” said Tripathi, adding, “There is a lot that we can learn from our traditional stories and maybe that is what I am passionate about.”
The author said that his writing involves a lot of research on various mythological characters. “I read a lot for my research. But I don’t read for the sake of writing. I love books and have been reading about four to five books every month since the last 30 years; And research has had an impact on me.”
Although Tripathi is not from Delhi, he is all praises for the city’s infrastructure. “I think the one thing that instantly draws attention is Delhi’s brilliant infrastructure. In the past 15 years, the place has become world class ... for example, the airport is fantastic! Delhi has a lovely reading culture too. Most leading publishing houses are based here and the readers have easy access to some of the best books” said Amish, whose book Scion of Ikshvaku’s Kindle version is available on www.amazon.com.