The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi


What is Order? Google defines it as “a structured arrangement, sequence, or organization of items.” But how is this structure created? For something to come into order, there must be some raw material, something at least. And if something exists which doesn’t have an order yet, it means it is in disorder. This implies that order is created from disorder. Order can be changed, from one type of structure to another, but it is clear that the base material for the order is disorder. The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi is a fascinating tale that mirrors this dance of order and disorder, sometimes called Kalachakra in Indian mythology.

Kalachakra, or the Wheel of Time, refers to “movement of the cosmos,” from birth to rebirth, from creation to destruction to creation again. The players change, but this dance from disorder to order remains consistent, almost like a song, whose graph undulates between highs and lows, in its own unique rhythm. The novel blends everything from mythology to mathematics, from physics to history, from geography to spirituality, from suspense to mystery, and everything in between – a cocktail of arts and sciences to project a world that mimics the ancient life of Lord Krishna and how he materialized on Earth as an order-restorer when the world needed it.

An unputdownable thriller, The Krishna Key is divided into 108 chapters, each chapter unfolding a new piece of a bigger puzzle. It is written in a dual-narrative structure involving the first-person narratives of Lord Krishna’s life, from his birth in the prison cell to the destruction of his kingdom Dwarka, sewn together with a modern-day mystery connected to a series of murders and a set of four seals, which, apparently, are clues to the Krishna Key. The Krishna Key is nothing but these four seals put together.

The inciting incident opens with the murder of a renowned historian named Anil Varshney. The last person to meet him before his murder was Dr. Ravi Mohan Saini, his close friend. When the police suspects Saini as his murderer, he takes the help of his favorite student Priya Ratnani, whose father is a reputed lawyer. With Priya’s help, he escapes but he must solve the mystery that Varshney left, the only clue being a blood-splattered base plate and a cryptic code scrawled on it.

After some investigation, Saini realizes that Varshney’s code led to four seals, which when put together would form the Krishna Key. He had just one of the seals and the remaining three were with Varshney’s friends Devendra Chhedi, Rajaram Kurkude, and Dr. Nikhil Bhojaraj. Together with Priya, Saini travels different parts across India to find the seals - Indus Valley ruins of Kalibangan to the temples of Somnath and Vrindavan, from Jodhpur to Mount Abu, only to be met by a series of murders. Each person holding a seal is being murdered by a mysterious assailant.

Behind the scenes, this assailant, who’s revealed to be Taarak Vakil, is shown to follow the instructions of the Mataji, a cult-like woman who has programmed his mind with the belief that he is the modern-day Kalki avatar of Vishnu and their goal is to find the Syamantaka gem, a precious gem that brings immense wealth and power. Each chapter includes an ancient narrative from Lord Krishna’s life to the modern-day episode of Saini’s quest.

Meanwhile, CBI officer Radhika Singh is racing around to catch Saini, believing that he’s the one behind these murders. Many people join Saini and Priya, eventually leaving or getting killed. As Saini decodes the puzzle, he realizes that the killer is using ten avatars of Vishnu as a blueprint for his murders. Saini uses his knowledge of history deconstruct the clues obtained at every step and deduce the location of the Krishna Key.

Eventually, Radhika realizes that Saini is not the culprit. But by then, it’s too late, because the culprit, Taarak, and his Mataji have already planned their murder. Thanks to an officer named Rathore who saves their lives. And as they combine the four seals and get the location of the Krishna Key, it is revealed to be the very source of spiritual energy. Taarak realizes the misunderstanding and the true culprit behind the whole scheme emerges, the Mataji, who was none other than Saini’s beloved student Priya.

Personally, I loved the way Lord Krishna’s stories are stitched together with the modern-day narratives of mystery and how they mirror the same emotion, same process, suggesting how the battle remains the same in every age, just the players and the appearances vary. It’s the same battle, from disorder to order, but the form and visual of this battle differs from time to time. Almost every chapter has a strong ending, sometimes with a cliffhanger, other times with a plot twist. The 108 chapters are organized like pieces of a giant puzzle, unleashed in the reader’s mind for solving. Characters are relatable, especially for Indian readers. And lastly, I loved the fact that chapter names are designed like a lock in each chapter, a perfect way to keep the symbolism of Krishna Key alive throughout the book.


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Overwhelm - Short inner monologue film

 

I entered my room and slouched on the bed. I grabbed the folded blanket kept on my side, wrung it loose, and flopped it over my legs. It was cold and I needed warmth. The blanket trembled like non-circular ripples and long ribbons someone’s shaking from a stick. I sat there and started thinking about a feeling I was feeling in that moment. I couldn’t find a word from my memory to describe this feeling. I kept thinking, and meanwhile, turned my head to stare on an untidy pile of notebooks that lay on the bed and on the side table and all around me. My head was buzzing with thoughts and I needed to quieten their restless voices by giving them shelter in a notebook. But then I started thinking which notebook should I choose to do this task. It was a huge and laborious task. First, I needed to organize these voices in different categories and in the second step, I needed to see which notebook was to be assigned to thoughts of a particular category. So, now I was thinking about two things. One, finding a word to describe the feeling that I was feeling and second, which notebook should I select from the heaps to write down the thoughts spinning in my head. Both steps. I was still jostling with these two tasks when a third one popped up. A question that left me curious and terrified at the same time. Do I have all the words I need in my memory to describe everything I want, now or in the future? If not, then it’s a crisis. The thought jolted me in a bad cognitive dissonance. The emotion of insecurity gripped me. And envy. What if the other writer, who I despise, knows some words that I don’t? I clenched my fists. My fingers were sweaty and my elbows were quivering. My eyes became glassy with an intrusive pang of fear, the fear of impending doom, doom of my writing career. And before I could overcome this fear, I remembered that I still hadn’t found the word to describe the feeling that I was feeling a few moments ago and I hadn’t even selected a notebook for putting down my restless thoughts. I sat there, inside the warm blanket, frozen. And glassy eyed. After thinking some more for a while, I ditched the heap of notebooks. I regretted and mourned the loss of my ability to retrieve a suitable word to describe that feeling. And I apologized to my restless thoughts because since I hadn’t selected a notebook, I couldn’t do anything about them. After all these cathartic, therapeutic, and healing rituals, I pulled my laptop and wrote down all the things I had just did ever since I started feeling that feeling. I wrote everything down. And then suddenly, I realized, that I could describe that feeling with the word “overwhelm.”

 

And the moment I wrote this word, the restless thoughts quietened down and I no longer needed a notebook to write them down. Now caught red-handed for the feeling they were trying to evoke within me, they settled down, crankily on my shoulders, around my ears, and inside my fingers, well-mannered but frantic, like crowds of refugees in a shelter camp or drops of dew on a tree. And then I took the lead and started calling them one by one. One by one they could come to me and report their stories and questions and worries and I could write these down.

“Fear of losing my identity”

Okay, next. “How to deal with the feeling of overwhelm?”

Well, you write it down.

15 Interesting Words we learned from films and shows

 

1.    Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – from Mary Poppins - extraordinarily good or extremely wonderful.
2.    Redrum from The Shining – murder spelled backwards – written in lipstick on a bathroom door – serves as a psychic warning for crime and violence
3.    Groovy - From Army of Darkness film - something is excellent, perfect, or cool
4.    Schwing – from Wayne’s world - used to express intense excitement or appreciation for an attractive woman
5.    Yo – Rocky film - a signature greeting, a method to gain attention
6.    Twitterpated – from Bambi - being love-struck, smitten, or overwhelmed by romantic feelings, particularly during springtime
7.    Godfather - The Godfather - a mafia boss (Don) who acts as a powerful patron
8.    Gaslight     from Gaslighting – a form of psychological manipulation where a person,, over an extended period, makes someone question their own reality, memory, or perceptions
9.    Paparazzo from La Dolce Vita - a pushy, intrusive tabloid photographer (played by Walter Santesso) who chases celebrities for candid shots. The name, symbolizing a "buzzing insect" that darts and stings
10.                  Red pill, blue pill from The Matrix - a choice between painful truth and comfortable ignorance. The red pill offers freedom and harsh reality, while the blue pill allows one to remain in a blissful, simulated illusion
11.                  Toast from Ghostbusters - being finished, doomed, dead, or in serious trouble.
12.                  Yippie-ki-yay from Die Hard - an iconic, defiant catchphrase used by John McClane to mock villains, blending a classic cowboy exclamation with vulgarity
13.                  The dark side     Star Wars - represents a path of selfishness, fear, and emotional volatility, diametrically opposed to the selfless light side. It is a corrupting influence driven by raw emotions—anger, hatred, jealousy, and fear of loss
14.                  Nimrod - The Looney Tunes Show – mighty hunter
15.                  Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live – someone who ruins cheerful moments with absurdly negative, pessimistic comments. The term has become common slang for a person who constantly brings down the mood or kills the enthusiasm of others

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Inspiring dialogue between a monk and a man

 

Hooham: What is fear?

OrangeGuy: Fear is the projection of a memory from the past into the future. You cannot be afraid of something you haven’t experienced before.

Hooham: Why fear is created?

OrangeGuy: Depends on how your mind is designed to work. Fear is created from pain and ignorance. If you have experienced getting eaten by a crocodile before, you will feel the fear the next time you approach a crocodile. If you have listened to so many people talk in fear about something, you will experience fear when you experience that thing in your life.

Hooham: Can it be changed?

OrangeGuy: Yes, mind can be changed. But not until you are identifying yourself with the mind.

Hooham: Am I fear or am I fearless?

OrangeGuy: Whether you think you are fear or you think you are fearless, you are that.

Hooham: So from now on I will believe that I am fearless.

OrangeGuy: Whatever you believe, you become. Whatever you know, you are. 

The Fascinating story of Pi

 

Almost everyone of us have listened to this rhyme as a child. In English, the rhyme translates to “Laddu is round, poodi is round. Fat man’s potbelly is round. Earth is round, sky is round. The whole cosmos is round round!”

This rhyme was usually taught to us in the English class, but if it was taught in the mathematics class, your math teacher would probably tell you that everything that is round, or circular, carries a mysterious number called “pi.”

 

Pi is the God of the mathematical world. It never ends, it lasts forever, and it never changes. Basically, it is immortal.

 

Spiritual mystics sometimes call it the ”Absolute truth” or the “universal constant.”

 

You may be fascinated to know that in ancient times, understanding this number wasn’t just curiosity, but a necessity, especially for astronomers and architects. Greeks and Egyptians exhausted every method to calculate the full decimal expression of pi, ultimately surrendering to the fact that it is just eternal, infinite, non-terminating, and unchangeable.

 

In math books, pi is represented by the symbol of two vertical legs supporting a horizontal roof, like a table, with value represented either as 22 by 7 or 3.14….

 

These dots after the decimal represent the never-ending decimal expression of pi, with first two digits always remaining the same 14. It is also represented by the formula: circumference of the circle divided by twice the radius or the diameter.

 

Scientists have spent centuries decoding the mystery of pi, trying to calculate its complete value by using strings to measure the circle, sometimes using sophisticated supercomputers, but they never quite reached the end. Even after trillions of digits, the number didn’t seem to end.

 

Pi is not just the God of the mathematical world, but also the secret hiding in everything that is shaped like a circle. The Ferry wheel, the merry-go-round, the planetary orbits, the chapattis your mom makes, even the brightness of stars.

 

So the next time you are visiting a temple to worship God, don’t forget to ask the priest why didn’t they put a sculpture of this fascinating mathematical God pi alongside the sculptures of other gods and goddesses. 

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Joan Didion’s “Single Observation” Technique of Writing

 

Imagine you work as a ghost investigator and you’ve been sent to a forest to investigate a ghost who resides in the heart of a secluded underground cave. You need to travel to the forest, catch the ghost, and report all the details to your department. 

When you arrive in the forest, there are a lot of details you can report to your department. The trees, the animals and birds, the flowers, the fragrant breeze, the various sounds, the rocky walls of the cavern, the bats and bugs; and all. Will you stop by and report these details to your office or march right into the cave and report the details of the ghost?

Joan Didion’s writing style, also called “Single Observation and Sparse Prose” bypasses the superfluous or unnecessary details from a piece of writing and jumps right into the “shimmering” highlight. Joan starts her novels with a shimmering “picture in mind” and her job is to decipher the grammar and the grammatical structure behind these images. The technique works on “omission as power.”

As Tom Stevenson writes, 

"Subtracting, Not Adding, Is The Path To A Happier Life." 

Didion’s principle works in the same way.

 

In writing, “single observation” is a stylistic device, but it can also be looked upon as a “philosophy of perception.” In the same way a wild animal strips away the prey’s skin, layer by layer, gnawing it down to the bone, a piece of writing is stripped away of all the adjectives that are not required or are unnecessary to the story. Didion emphasizes on exposing the underlying structure of a situation, to make the reader feel its cold, hard reality underneath.

Didion often described this type of writing as a whirlpool of vertigo and nausea. The technique commits to structural austerity, raw honesty, and an uncompromising “form-follows-function” technique while stripping away too much of flowery descriptions or sentimentality with brutal dispassion and cold detachment. It’s like focusing a camera so devotedly on one crack in a road that the crack unfolds the entire city’s map and its backstory. She often builds the piece around a single, piercing or devastating observation, from a scene, a dialogue, an object, or any other element.

 

The Science: The Brain Process

Why does this "less is more" approach hit so hard? It involves several key neurological and cognitive mechanisms.

 

It reduces “noise”

The very sad, lonely, and depressed woman sat quietly on the library bench, apparently trying to read a book.

A sentence like this cluttered with multiple adjectives and adverbs makes things difficult and noisy for the brain. It overwhelms the brain with high cognitive load on the language processing centers.

 

By assimilating a cluttered description into a pointed focus concentrates the energy of the brain, controls the information, and declares it quickly rather than elaborating it with long-stretched descriptions. Not that description is bad, but this is just one of the ways we can experiment with our writing.

 

It exercises the brain with “predictive coding”

Since the writing style only enables very sparse, tight, and specific description of the story, it is left to the reader to fill the gaps in this description, which makes them an active co-creator of the story, rather than just being on the other side of it. In the world of science, this process is called “predictive coding.”

 

Reaches straight into the subconscious mind

Abstract concepts or sensory details might trigger certain emotions in a person, but the “single observation” bypasses the world of thoughts, intellect, and senses, and directly reaches into the depths of the subconscious mind, making the reader “experience” the coldness or the sadness, rather than just painting a picture of it. It is the written equivalent of the psychological concept “emotional distancing.”

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Pareto's Law

 

 

In many big brands, greatest percentage of the profits comes from a small portion of their products. A tiny number of bugs are responsible for a large percentage of crashes. Like an iceberg, a great percentage of our life situation depends on our physical, visible actions, and a little percentage is dependent on what we think, believe, or feel about our life. In a restaurant, for instance, most of the orders come from the top few specialities in their menu while the rest of the products are ordered only by a handful of customers. Named after the economist, Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto’s Law states that roughly 80% of the consequences result from 20% of the causes. It is also called as the 80/20 rule or the "law of the vital few and the trivial many.” The law is famously used by businessmen, leaders, economists, shopkeepers, and is of immense help to anyone who desires to sort out their life.