Home

Will a series of brutal killings destroy the very foundation of Parsuvarta, an ancient kingdom?
A series of murders have taken place in Parsupur, the capital city of Parsuvarta. Kasyapa and Agastya, two students training to become priests, are asked by their guru to investigate the deaths. Around the same time, there is great turmoil brewing in the city-a palace coup and a battle for supremacy between the traditional Indra worshipers and the new sect of Varuna followers.
It is an age when Vedic gods are worshiped, religious sacrifices are performed regularly, commerce flourishes and kings are guided by their loyal head priests. But beneath this façade of order lie prejudices and political rivalries, jealousy and power games. This is why the murders, which at first seem to be unconnected, soon lead in the same direction. It is now up to Kasyapa and Agastya to find out the common thread and identify the killer.
The First Aryan is a one-of-its-kind murder mystery set in the Vedic times.

“This is a wonderful mystery in a novel setting. I could not put the book down once I got into it. Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot would be proud of this. “
An Amazon Customer

“An excellent book! An intelligent page-turner, enjoyed the read.The Vedic-era setting certainly makes this novel quite unique. I liked it that the early Aryan civilization was portrayed with balance and a good bit of mischief. Just the normalcy with which you portrayed these people, including these early sages (Kasyapa, Agastya, …) was striking. On the same lines, I found some of your choices quite interesting, viewed from today’s politicized lens – for instance your take on the whole or Out-of-India versus Aryan-Migration divide. I suspect neither camp will be entirely happy with your take, which I am sure is a good thing :)Your descriptions of the period, the places, and the sacrificial rituals had just the right amount of detail, and the whole Indra-Varuna religious tussle was good fun. And I did not figure out who the killer was 🙂 Congrats again on a damn good debut novel. Looking forward to your second book.”

Varun Ravichandran

An epic is retold. The actors are familiar but the roles are different. Arjuna is a Program Manager responsible for delivering a set of projects to enhance the defence of the city of Hastinapura; Krishna his coach and mentor. Arjuna faces the challenges and his self-doubt in the high-stakes game competing with the Kauravas to deliver software products that are effective and of lasting robustness. To achieve that, Arjuna aspires to ensure sustained “health” of his projects as opposed to the Kauravas who are approaching the challenge ready to cut all corners for short-term success.

Arjuna and Krishna with a focus on means and not just the ends, together evolve a project health framework for effective delivery, assurance of outcomes and robust products. This is the story of their fascinating journey of discovery interacting with project teams and stakeholders to develop new perspectives in managing projects. The end result is a comprehensive set of project Vital Signs and their manifestations and a 360-degree assessment approach – a framework for early warning to address the not-uncommon syndrome of projects being “in the pink of health till yesterday but in ICU today”.