Anu Kumar - Atisa and the Time Machine In Search of Kalidasa

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai 400 001
www.jaicobooks.com

Anu Kumar

ATISA AND THE TIME MACHINE
IN SEARCH OF KALIDASA
ISBN 978-81-8495-629-0

First Jaico Impression: 2014

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

For Ajay, Devyani and of course all my readers

Acknowledgments

Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, then at Puffin, loved the idea of Atisa Atisa and the Seven Wonders could come to life only with her. Id like to thank Sudeshna Shome Ghosh too, also at Puffin, for her wonderful support and encouragement. My parents, Chinmay and Uma Chakrabarty and my siblings Dhruba and Soma, who have always been very supportive.

Kanishka Gupta of Writers Side helped in getting me in touch with Jaico. And to Akash Shah, publisher and my editors Sandhya Iyer and Srija Basu, to whom I am deeply grateful for their faith in the idea, their love of the concept and for all their encouragement to this book and the series. Priya Kuriyans wonderful illustrations have rendered that special touch. Most importantly, i am thankful to all my readers who have loved Atisa and wanted him back. The past stretches a long way back and some adventures have only just begun.

Preface

Atisa and his Time Machine: In search of Kalidasa is the third of Atisas adventures into the past and a different time period. For those of you reading this first, and i hope you will read the other two books too, a little preliminary explanation is always useful.

Atisa lives with his parents in Tawang, far in the northeast of India. His father, who is the inventor and scientist Gesar runs a flying school there, while Gaea named after the ancient Greek Earth goddess, is his archaeologist explorer mother. Atisas teacher who is affectionately called Elder Lama lives at the monastery next door when he is not travelling. It is from Elder Lama that Atisa learns the ancient languages, Prakrit, the more difficult Sanskrit, and he even possesses a smattering of Latin and Aramaic - a knowledge that has often helped him in his adventures.

It is Atisas flying machine that helps him bridge the time divide. This flying machine came his way right at the very beginning of Atisa and the Seven Wonders. It was designed by the ancient Greek inventor, famous in myth, called Daedelus. The latter grateful for Atisas help in finding his lost son, Icarus, presents the machine to him. Later, Atisas inventor father, Gesar makes several additions to it. These include the amazing sound catcher that can catch voices and sounds across millions of miles - sounds that belong to another age, and those that are missed by even the most advanced machines of the world.

The next book in the series, Adventures with Hieun Tsang has Atisa travelling in the footsteps of the Chinese monk Hieun Tsang in the early seventh century CE. Now Gesar has added a special lantern to his flying machine and its light changes colour with the weather. In this, the third adventure, In Search of Kalidasa, Gesar has finally perfected the language decoder, that he has been working on for some time.

In the following adventures, Gesar plans to add more to the flying machine, though he and Gaea worry constantly every time Atisa moves back into the past. Atisa believes that knowing the past helps in better understanding the present and the future!

Prologue

Home Again

T hat year winter had come late to the mountains, but it seemed everyone already had somewhere to be. Many though were travelling just to catch the eclipse, one of the rarest to occur ever. The Moon, the planet Mars and the Earth would be aligned with each other, in one perfect line, facing the majestic sun. And the earths shadow would blank out the moon, with Mars appearing far away, as a cold unblinking red dot in a dark universe. Atisa, however, was at home, still making his plans. Home was right next to the monastery at Tawang in the eastern Himalayas, where Atisa lived with his parents, who were often away travelling his scientist father Gesar and his archaeologist mother Gaea. That winter Atisa would soon leave to join his mother on her latest expedition. Gaea was on a new mission to retrace the secret routes of a tribe called the Sakas, who centuries ago, had travelled across India, moving from the mountains of the north-west, all the way to central India.

Atisa was presently engrossed with the strange, exciting emails he had exchanged a while ago with his teacher, Elder Lama. The emails were to do with his fathers latest mission. It was as exciting an adventure as the one Gaea had set out on. Gesar was headed with his team towards Mount Everest, and they would attempt the worlds first skydiving mission over the worlds highest peak. The team carried some very advanced equipment including special effect cameras, some of which Gesar had designed himself, to photograph the eclipse.

It was a mission deemed almost impossible, but his father and his team had been training hard for it. It is important we do this, Gesar had told him. There is the most unusual eclipse of the moon expected, a rare event. Mars, the Moon and the Earth will fall in a straight line for a few moments. Elder Lamas emails on the same subject had been even more interesting. According to him, an eclipse such as this one had last occurred more than 1800 years ago. He had dug this story out from old texts in the library of the Tawang monastery. There is indeed an old manuscript that tells of this eclipse, he had written. But we only have half of it. Perhaps the rest of it is lying around, forgotten and obscure, in some old library. The ancient astronomer Varahamihira is believed to have composed it. But the thing is, Varahamihira is supposed to have lived at a later time, a little after the time of the eclipse. Atisa could well imagine the rueful look on Elder Lamas face as he ended his email. Elder Lama travelled often, teaching theology in several universities, and could be very mysterious on email. In the end, it was Atisas mother who explained the confusion over Varahamihira. stories have it that Varahamihira lived in King Chandragupta Vikramadityas time, which was almost 1800 years ago.

He was one of the Nine Gems in the kings court, she went on. But historical accounts place him a hundred years later. It could also be that he came from a family of astronomers, many of whom had the same name. Indeed, the Varahamihira who wrote this book might have lived several decades after the one who lived in the kings court. She had ended with a twinkle in her eye, knowing Atisa was all confused and intrigued. All Elder Lama had let on in his last email was this: Wait till I find out more. Let me have my own adventure. In the meantime, maybe you can do a little research for me. Atisa groaned as he read it. Elder Lamas research usually had him poring over old texts. But as he read on, he was surprised at being proved wrong. When you are on the way to join your mothers expedition, you will come to a small town called Jhansi. Jhansi... Atisa stopped in surprise. It was a place his mother had mentioned too.