Childhood of Adi seems
similar to mine – while making others in home believe that I am asleep under
the blanket, it would be an interesting storybook being read otherwise under
dim lights passing through the blanket. Adi is a degree holder from Stanford
University and Harvard University. But still Adi is quite impressed by the
versatile religions and their existence in deep harmony in India. Probably that
is one of the reasons that he picked India as the happening place in his first
novel Tantra.
Tantra is an interesting
thriller that strongly engages its readers - page after page, keeping them
hooked onto the plot and thinking about what would be happening next. The cover
image seems quite fitting with the theme and plot of the story knowing that the
lead role is played by a female. Tantra is a word derived from Indian mythical
and spiritual powers. This is probably first attempt from an Indian author on
writing a vampire story and that too successfully. A sincere attempt of
Indianization of a vampire story has probably paid back successfully to Adi.
It is Anu Aggarwal mostly
depicted as having stake in her hand and is in leather pants. She moves from
the United States to Delhi in India in search of Brian’s killer. Brian and Anu
were in love with each other. While trying getting clues of Brian’s killers in
New York she moved to Delhi after getting hints about her target being in
Delhi. But while coming to Delhi she never knew the different kind of adventure
and thrill she would be going to encounter in Delhi. She came with a mission of
finding her target and destroying it completely to take revenge from Brian’s
killers.
Anu decided to wander around
in Delhi during night time so as to find out her target easily. During her hunt
she encounters a vampire who is on a dangerous mission of killing children for
a altogether different purpose. Anu meets Amit become two guardians of the city
that is under danger of getting its innocent children getting killed by a
vampire and no one has got a single clue about who is doing it and what would
be the purpose behind these killings. Both Anu and Amit find a friend in Dr.
Sharma who gives them knowledge about Tantras and Tantric activities being used
by the killer in the city. Gradually they come to know that it is Baba Senaka –
an expert Tantric who is applying his dirty tricks for killing children in the
city with a special mission of his own. Baba Senaka turns out to be a powerful villain
in the story who needs to be tackled in a very different manner.
A number of characters have
been kept as less prominent in this book but might appear strongly and
prominently in next series by Adi. Lot of terms related to Indian mythology and
spirituality would be new for many readers. Keeping that in mind, Adi has taken
care his readers, though encountering those terms for the first time, must get
an idea on what those terms and make them quite clear about the same. Terms
like Tantras, Ratris, evil powers, astras, balancing of power, maya and good
(or satvic) power to encounter tantric power.
