Photos & Videos of The Ekkos Clan

 

The Ekkos Clan: Events

• 3 August, 2013: Book launch, Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha, Bangalore

• 16 August, 2013: The Ekkos Clan made featured book & Sudipto Das featured author at JustBooks
• 24 August, 2013: Talk at Amaatra Academy, Bangalore

• 27 August, 2013: The Ekkos Clan announced as prize for "Photographer of the week" in IIT Kharagpur
• 14 September, 2013: Book launch and reading session, Oxford Bookstore, 1MG Mall, Bangalore

• 15 September, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Kuvempunagar, Mysore

• 21 September, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Vidyaranyapuram, Bangalore
• 22 September, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Banashankari, Bangalore
• 27 Seprember, 2013: "Meet the Author" in Sandvik, Pune
• 28 September, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Pimple Saudagar, Pune

• 29 September, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Viman Nagar, Pune

• 29 September: 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Kothrud, Pune
• 5 October, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Panampilly Nagar, Cochin
• 9 October, 2013: Book reading, Oxford, Connaught Place, Delhi

• 19 October, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Koramangala, Bangalore

• 20 October, 2013: Book reading, JustBooks, Basaveshwaranagar, Bangalore

• 9 November, 2013: Book reading @ Just Books, salt Lake City, Calcutta

• 23 November, 2013: Author's Talk, Amaatra Academy, Bangalore

• 20 December, 2013: Greet & Meet Sudipto Das on a Mysterious Talk Session on "The Ekkos Clan", Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore

• 7 June, 2014: Meet the author, Vermilion House, Bangalore

• 25 June, 2014: MaathuKathe, Interactive discussion, India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore

The Ekkos Clan - In Media

September 26, 2013: The Hindu

Sudipto Das’ debut novel combines ancient history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics, music and a mystery story 

If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then The Ekkos Clan by Sudipto Das might just be the book for you. Ancient Indian history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics and interesting insights on music are held together by a gripping mystery in Sudipto’s debut novel. 

The Ekkos Clan (Niyogi Books, Rs. 350) tells the tale of how Kratu, a graduate student at Stanford, his best friend Tista and linguistic palaeontologist Afsar Fareedi, discover that the bedtime stories Kratu’s grandmother Kubha inherited from her ancestors, have hidden within them linguistic fossils and layers of history. This leads the trio on a quest to trace the origin of her stories and in the process they make some fascinating discoveries. 

It took Sudipto intensive research to put the novel together. “I read up on ancient Indian history between 2008 and 2010. 

By July 2010, I thought I would start writing because as Newton said the more you know, the more you realise how little you know. I thought I had to start writing,” says Sudipto who holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and is also a member of a music band Kohal. 

The first draft was written in six months. Sudipto then chose a sample of 25 readers, which included his friends, acquaintances and relatives, between the ages of 18 and 60, and gave them the first draft to read for feedback. He also sent in the manuscript to the Literary Consultancy, London. “They are known to be one of the best literary reviewers. They gave me detailed feedback.” The book was released recently at Oxford Bookstore. 

The first two chapters of the novel, which also have an autobiographical element, are set against the 1946 Noakhali Riots. “I thought I had to write about the Partition of Bengal, as not much is written about it. I wanted to write about the survivors of the Noakhali riots. My father and his family came to Kolkata when the riots broke out. My father went onto become an engineer and provided well for his family. There were survivors who made a life for themselves despite being affected by the riots; I wanted to explore such stories in my novel.” 

Sudipto developed an interest in music, history, mathematics and literature as a child. So, combining these aspects in The Ekkos Clan seemed only natural to him. “I knew the right thing about Indian culture. I have closely read Tagore’s works and had studied at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute. I have also always been fascinated by the poetry in the Rig Veda and the historicity of it. There is an inner meaning in the poems that are simple, yet profound. I wanted to demystify the Rig Veda in this book,” says Sudipto. 

Speaking of the relevance of linguistic palaeontology in ancient Indian history, Sudipto says: “Historical proof is very limited in ancient Indian history, but linguistic palaeontology proof is plentiful.”

September 22, 2013: Sakal Times, Pune

September 20, 2013: Bangalore Mirror

A tale of discovery and unraveling mystery. It's the story of grandmother Kubha and her grandson Kratu who belong to one of the traditional clans. Unaware of his grandmother's origins, Kratu goes in search to find the missing link with his two best friends Tista and Afsar across continents and discovers his ancestry. An interesting read for an afternoon.

September 1, 2013: Deccan Herald

The Ekkos Clan, Sudipto Das, Niyogi, 2013, pp 282, 350 

Someone wants Kratu’s whole family dead. Is it personal vendetta or is it because they have access to Kratu’s grandmother Kubha’s stories, which conceal perilous secrets. The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. 

August 23, 2013: iitkgp.org

“The Ekkos Clan”, the debut novel of Sudipto Das (1996/ECE/RK), is already at position 3 in the best sellers list in the Literature and Fiction Section in Flipkart in less than a fortnight. 

“A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction”, said Jug Suraiya, a senior columnist with Times of India, about the book. 

Get your copy from Flipkart and country-wide any store of Sapna (Karnataka, & Tamil Nadu only), Oxford & Crossword.

Read online reviews on http://www.flipkart.com/the-ekkos-clan/product-reviews/ITMDMTDCQ5GTGTYM

August 17, 2013: Sunday Guardian

For a novel whose setting stretches from the Partition-affected villages of Noakhali, Bngladesh to Arkaim in the Southern Urals , The Ekkos Clan is a daring novel. The scope of the narrative is magnanimous and deftly handled. But perhaps where the book falls short is the way that it is written. Though a racy and gripping read, there are rarely any flashes of literary brilliance, when it comes to the descriptive and the introspective. Involving elements of ancient history, mathematics, music, orality and linguistics, author Sudipto Das has weaved a cinematic tale of migration, revenge, and how the everyday preserves history in unique ways, unceremoniously occupying our locale. The narrative spins around the stories which Krotus, the protagonist, grandmother Kubha used to tell. Two successive deaths in his family kicks start a chain of events and discoveries which transforms the innocent childhood tales into caskets of hidden secrets. The Ekkos Clan should be read for its sheer aspiration and the intelligent handling of historical material.

August 2, 2013: The Hindu

Legends of India will feature a sarod recital by Ustad Aashish Khan, a performance by music ensemble New Shanti, an Indo jazz group led by Ustad Aashish Khan and a book launch of The Ekkos Clan by Sudipto Das will be held on August 3... 

Sudipto Das’s debut novel The Ekkos Clan is a contemporary thriller.

Readers' reviews of "The Ekkos Clan"

It's heartening to see so many of you reading my book and taking time out to put your valuable comments. Any creation of art is always a subjective thing and it always can be further improved, or rather made to be liked more by others, unless the creator (or the author in my case) decides that he or she has created a masterpiece, which I'm aware I haven't. So it will be a conscious and continuous endeavor to make my writings better and better, within my capacity. That's where your comments are of great help to me. I believe the fine space between success and failure is not the talent or skill that much, as is the understanding of what's lacking.

In my opinion, (at least that's what I've intended to do) “The Ekkos Clan” is a contemporary thriller set against ancient Indian history. 

The motivation behind the book has been always the rich and the fascinating history of our country, which is not only among the oldest but also among the most intriguing ones. But somehow it hasn’t been well presented for a general reading in a way that’s interesting. 

As many of you've commented, yes, I was indeed inspired by characters like Robert Langdon and Indiana Jones who solve intriguing mysteries about Christianity in popular thrillers. I’ve attempted to do a similar thing with the Indian perspective, but putting my book in the same genre as those of the above may be misleading.

Mine is more of a mystery novel, where there are lot of riddles in the form of small stories, each leading to some prehistoric event or anecdote, all of which together tell a tale of our civilization, our culture. It demystifies Rig Veda to a great extent, going into the behind-the-scene stories of Rig Veda and the ancient people who wrote them. It deals with fanaticism in the garb of an extremist nationalism, something that gave rise to Nazism. It deals with the identity of India and the Indian civilization. It deals with the gradual evolution of hierarchies in a society and many more and all the while I've tried not to disrupt the fast pace of a mystery novel.

I hope more people like my book. Thanks again to all of you for pouring your thoughts in this forum.

Online reviews: http://www.flipkart.com/the-ekkos-clan/product-reviews/ITMDMTDCQ5GTGTYM

Book Launch of "The Ekkos Clan" - 3rd August, @ Indiranaar Sangeetha Sabha

My book "The Ekkos Clan" will be launched at an event on 3rd August, 2013. 

Here are the event details: 

• Date: 3rd of  August, 2013 & Venue: Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha. Time: 6 pm onward.
• Highlight: Sarode recital by Ustad Aashish Khan, accompanied by Arijit Tagore on Tabla and Pakhahwaj. 
• Music ensemble: Aashish Khan's New Shanti, an Indo Jazz group.
• Book Launch of "The Ekkos Clan" by Sudipto Das.

Ustad Aashish Khan, is a 3rd generation stalwart from the lineage of musicians of the Maihar-Seniya gharana.  He is the son of legendary Padma Vibhushan Ali Akbar Khan and the grandson of Padma Vibhushan Baba Allauddin Khan. This is Ustad Aashish Khan's maiden concert in Bangalore.

It's a ticketed show in aid of Bangalore Kidney foundation. Tickets are priced at 250, 200 and 100 INR. 

Online tickets are available with indianstage.in and in.bookmyshow.com.

Soon, tickets will also be available in some major outlets across Bangalore.

Holding the first copy of "The Ekkos Clan"...

Finally that moment, for which I've been waiting breathlessly for so long, when I would hold the first copy of my book on my hands, arrived on 5th July.

My publisher had couriered me 5 copies but I didn't get to see them till quite late in the night when I returned home. I could have torn apart the parcel immediately, but due to some unknown reasons, I delayed that moment I was dying to see. I took longer than usual to wash my face, change my dress. For no reason I turned on the washing machine, something I rarely do at 11:30 in the night. I checked my mails and even responded to some very unimportant ones which could have waited few days. Now I don’t even remember the other insignificant things I did that night, just to kill time.

And then when I couldn't invent anything further, I opened the parcel, slowly. It was wrapped unnecessarily with multiple layers. Any other time I would have got irritated peeling each layer of packaging. But somehow I felt good at that moment, just because it delayed the entire process.

And finally, the book was in my hand. I can’t recall now, how exactly I felt holding it, staring at it, inhaling the fragrance of the newly bound papers, turning the pages, glancing through the words and letters I've seen so many times. I remained awake more than half of the night doing nothing…

Till that moment I'd been luxuriating over the very thought of holding the book in my hand for the first time. I'd remained awake many a night, for long time, thinking what I would be doing exactly when that long awaited moment would finally come, when I would hold in my hand the baby I'd carried within me for more than five years. But when the moment did come finally, suddenly I was  overwhelmed with a remorse, an anxiety, an apprehension. Till that time I'd been happy with the satisfaction of writing a book. But the moment the book was out, the thought of promoting it, selling it and hearing from people how they liked, dawned in me, like a Sphinx rising from beneath the sand that had hidden it since ages. Suddenly I realized that my celebration had been premature. Till that time I'd just done something selfish, just for me, for my own pleasure, for my own satisfaction. It would be only now that I would know if I'd really done something for others, something that could make others happy. This anxiety - whether others would like my book - became so intense that I forgot about the celebration. I felt as if I'd just started a marathon and I was already feeling weary...

The Ekkos Clan

"The Ekkos Clan", my first novel would be released shortly.

 

It's the fascinating account of Kubha and the basketful of folklore she inherited from her ancestors. The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters – Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist.

Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales – they contain rich linguistic fossils and layers of histories.

In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle had not been  so lucky. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed?

Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories.

At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the first book written by mankind. 

Impotents are sympathetic to rapists - India Gate is the next Tiananmen Square

I'm no psychologist, so I may not be the right person to do a psycho analysis of the present government at the helms of our country. But somewhere I have a feeling that impotent people are likely to be sympathetic to rapists. It's like feeling a camaraderie with people who can do something which the impotents can just aspire to do, but can't do in reality.

There's no doubt that our government is impotent. They are senile (so many people at an age when even standing erect is a problem), have no balls (no pun intended), are indecisive (only one crazy person takes all the wrong decisions), are the most fearful (they fear anyone who is strong, they fear the the media, even the students), and finally they sympathize with the rapists (who rape not only women, but also anything possible, starting from the country to the culture).

My hypothesis finally became a law with the government's handling of the situation that erupted after a brutal gang rape in Delhi - one of the many incidents that have almost become a norm in Delhi. The Home Minister relegated the protesters to Maoists, claiming he doesn't need to meet them. He is angry how dare the protesters don't cower down even after he had met Madam in the midnight. As if the biggest thing the government can ever do is meet Madam at the stroke of the midnight.... when the world sleeps and.... (well, the rest is history).

Till now we've been always ahead of China in at least one account - right to protest. Whatever happened to our GDP growth or infrastructure, we were always proud that India would never give rise to Tiananmen Square, come what. But that pride too is shattered now when the police manhandled students at the India Gate protesting against a recent brutal gang rape in Delhi. And the most disgusting thing is the total political apathy towards such incidents. When the entire political class is impotent, useless, shameless, actionless, what do the people do? Can't they even go and meet the President of the country and express their anguish. Why will they have to go in groups of two and three. Why can't they all clog the roads and meet their elected people, when the later do the same to meet them just before the elections?

Now you speak about the protests turning violent? Come on, how long can people tolerate things without raising their voices? Why corner people so much that they have no other option than to become violent. That's too a psychological phenomenon. Finally it's the survival for the fittest, and when the very survival becomes a matter of concern, what will any other living organism do? They won't think logically, about the ethics or right or wrong. But who's responsible for cornering them in this manner? It's even more shameless to talk about the violence when they are left with no other option.

Still, there's time. The government can still instill hopes if they take some real steps. They can always make the police accountable for any such incident. For every rape that happens and convicts not punished within a stipulated time, there has to be someone whose head should roll. When such cases cross a threshold the supreme cop should be suspended. There's a reason why the CEOs of Apple or Yahoo or Google function so well - because unless they do they lose their job. Even Jobs lost his job in Apple. That's the only way people can work better. That should be applicable not only for the cops, but for all government officials.

Christmas is the time of love and happiness. Let's hope for a better world, better police, better government on this day. Let there be love, let there be peace and happiness.

Love you all!!

The Two Deaths in Bombay

I may run into the chance of being lynched by a group of hooligans, all swearing by the erstwhile last tiger of the land and supporters of the only tiger's party in our biggest democracy, and of course a bunch of impotent  government officials for writing this blog. But then I somehow couldn't stop from writing this.

Well, the title of this blog may not be fully correct, because though one death happened in Bombay, the other not exactly in Bombay, but in Pune. Nevertheless, since we now have the Bombay-Pune Expressway, which has brought the two cities closer, I may be spared on the grounds of blogging license (something similar to poetic license exercised by the poets).

The first death is of course of the Tiger - the Late Balasaheb Thakre. The tiger population in the world has been declining, and it's a shock to lose him. There's no doubt, when it comes to guts and fierceness, Balasaheb was perhaps the only Tiger in politics. The use of its name and symbol by the legendary Shivaji was worth, given the valor and courage he'd shown and eventually converted into a folklore and myth, and so is the epithet being used for Balasaheb. People fear a tiger as much as they do a Balasaheb, even now, after his death. Irrespective of whether you are a jackal or elephant or rabbit or squirrel, you've to pay obeisance to the tiger. And so did everyone to Balasaheb - a politician jackal, an industrialist elephant, a Bollywood squirrel or a 'mango' rabbit.

From the environmental point of view, we do need a Tiger. Any species dying is an ecological hazard, so we do need to preserve everyone, like we need to make every human being live forever. Any death is sad - because a life is being lost. But wouldn't we be happier, if the Tiger were altogether different animals? Say, strong, fierce, powerful, but also loving and endearing like a rabbit and grand like an elephant? Something that even a small kid would love to play with? That would have been an evolutionary disaster, zoological catastrophe,  but no doubt a wonderful thing.

Whatever, I mourn the death of the Tiger. We need more tigers in our country. The Tiger is dead. Long live the Tiger.

The other death is that of a neighbor who had strayed into our house, killed a good part of our family, but still   stayed with us for quite long, enjoying our hospitality because we treat guests as gods. Finally when we ran out of money, we decided to punish him. We hung him - the Late Mohammad Azmal Amir Kasab - yesterday. Another death. Another loss of life. Sad, no doubt, as some intellectuals are saying.

We've been angry that we've been too soft on Kasab. Yes we were. That's where we needed a Tiger.

At the same time, when two young girls were arrested wrongfully by Maharashtra Police, rendered impotent by the followers of the last Tiger, for expressing a view which is neither wrong nor defamatory to anyone, I really feel the jungle would have been better without the Tiger.

Discussions on Govt's proposal for Common Entrance Test (CET) for IITs, NITs and other engineering schools

People have been discussing a lot on this and I felt it’s good to put up in this forum all those we’re having between us.

The contentious issues are as follows:
1. It’s proposed that the CET would have some weightage on the +2 scores of the various central and state boards – many people are not liking this
2. A common test for all schools may also dilute the brand of IIT – this is a very controversial topic
3. Few people feel govt. is interfering too much into IIT, the autonomy is being lost
4. There’s one interesting angle is being also pointed out by few – a conspiracy theory where politicians are alleged to be trying to destroy the brand IIT (Interesting)

These are discussions:

Anandaroop Bhattacharya

I also do not endorse the Common Test proposal.

However, during my short stay in IIT-B, I had some first hand experience of seeing the present JEE and interacting with some of the students. Let me simply say that the JEE today is not the same that we took in our times. Today's format is purely based on multiple-choice questions where there is hardly any scope for testing "funda", We were given credit for "how" we tried to solve a problem irrespective of whether we succeeded at arriving at the correct answer. That format is a thing of the past. To quote my good friend in KGP, Prof. Suman Chakraborty (one of the most brilliant young profs in KGP today - check his website) "In today's JEE, the students try to eliminate wrong options rather than trying to arrive at the solution." And this is the skill the coaching centres of today impart in the students, most notorious among them being the ones in Kota, Rajasthan.

So, while I do not endorse Sibal's proposal, I strongly feel that the present JEE needs a major revision

In a related context, I would also like to mention that perhaps very few examination systems in the world can match the JEE/GATE in the way it is conducted. It is really unbelievable that such a fair and efficient system is possible in a Govt. organization in India. In so many years, there has been only one instance of paper leak in JEE (1997) - compare that statistics with any other exam in our country including CAT!!

________________________________________________________________________

Kamalesh Ghosh

Folks, anything has a scope for improvement, no matter how good it is. Of course, IIT entrance could be too.

The question to be really asked is, was it higher priority to look at it than numerous other problems facing
the education sector as a whole? Do I need to point out those problems and the seriousness of their nature?

My point is, why has the HRD ministry taken so much interest lately in shaking up the whole IIT system
with various moves like this?  I am a total conspiracy theorist  in this matter.

I have a firm belief that a lobby of powerful politicians and maybe foreign powers too, have a  definite interest
in destroying/ diluting the IIT brand. Every step has been a measured one towards that goal, be it providing 27% obc
quota, opening up 10 more IITs or now this master stroke, to destroy the JEE altogether. Inclusion of board
marks means everything will go haywire as politician's children in Jharkhand and Bihar can get 99 % marks
in board exams if they ask their papa.

We really should try to understand the game behind the scenes and not view this thing as a simple administrative
issue.

____________________________________________________________________

Anandaroop

I agree with you 100% on this. Actually, I had posted something very similar in the IITians FB page sometime last year. Essentially, it's almost identical to what you are alluding to.
https://www.facebook.com/alliits/posts/197691450301855?comment_id=1735110&offset=0&total_comments=4 

"Through contacts, money and muscle power, one can get his son or daughter a seat/job anywhere in India and maybe even to some of the top univs in the world. BUT NOT AT IIT or IIM. Our politicos find this extremely hard to digest!! Therefore, be it MM Joshi, Arjun Singh or Kapil Sibbal and irrespective of party lines, the effort to kill the JEE/GATE/CAT based system has been there for a long time. I hope like in previous instances, IITs push back strongly .... let's see."

_________________________________________________________________________

Rahul Mehta

Guys,

I fully support the points raised in the last two posts on this forum. In fact, I saw something similar in an article by Prof Kanchan Chowdhury. This article can be found here:

http://www.scholarsavenue.org/2009/08/20/letter-from-president-iitta/

Quoting from this article,

For a long time, the IIT system has been the sore point of the moneyed and powerful persons of the country as it allows (apart from close to 50% socially disadvantaged) only the brilliant students to get into the system. Many rich and powerful have sent their children abroad because they could not get into the IITs. How long can this situation be allowed to continue!

Many private institutions have come up with large investments. Foreign Universities (not necessarily the best ones) would be allowed to set up their campuses on Indian soil very soon. How would they get competent faculty? Therefore, it has become absolutely necessary to frustrate the existing and future IIT faculty, particularly the younger teachers, by giving them a raw deal in salary and perks so that they finally decide to switch to systems that can serve the rich and the influential. The plot seems perfect in planning and execution. The first battle has been won by those opposed to IIT system. But Friends, we have to reach to the nation and the people, who are supreme and placed higher than even the Government that has let us down so badly, explaining them the present situation and projection of the future. That is our hope and the only hope to rescue IIT system from extinction.
__________________________________________________________________________
Kanishka

Not to be offensive, but I think this pro JEE bias stinks of a certain kind of casteism - where people who have gone through the grind somehow feel they are superior to those who haven't. If the onus is entirely on the entrance exam to define a population that's capable of growing into competent engineers, it easily leads to an institution that can abdicate it's responsibility towards it's students, since the blessed ones will sail through and shine, no matter how inferior the quality of courses and teaching. 

The GRE or SAT, in spite of being  "easy" exams, still serve as a major part of the admission criteria to institutions with much higher standards than the IITs.

There is immense scope to democratize access to the IITs, and give our teenagers the quality of life they deserve. But whether that is the motive behind the HRD ministry's moves or not, I don't know.