Teaser Tuesday ~ Kalki Evian ~ Malay A. Upadhyay
Out of Control
Characters welcomes Malay A. Upadhyay. We’ll be talking about his book, Kalki
Evian and letting you take a peek into this time travel romance novel.
About
the Author:
Malay
A. Upadhyay grew up in the Eastern provinces of paradoxical India. Life in the
industrial town of Jamshedpur was a quiet affair dotted with crossing social
stereotypes at every step. It was perhaps why a part of him changed forever
when fate transpired to take him on a week-long Himalayan excursion,
introducing him to the simple idea that there were things bigger than any of
us, things much more worthy of our time.
After
school, he shifted to Southern India to pursue Engineering, following which he
joined Accenture. That was pretty much a preset career route of the generation
but it was in that small window of transition from school to work that he
embarked on a semi-pan India trip that would lead him to pen his first novel.
Meanwhile, as the urge to diversify gradually festered, he eventually shifted
to Italy to pursue his Masters.
The
time at Bocconi University was a period of change. While the academic
commitments remained on course, the passion for intense observations, exploration
and their expression began to take shape. He was one of 25 individuals selected
from around the globe to envisage the future of textile industry for the Board
of Directors of Marzotto SpA. A brief stint with a consultancy followed in
Dubai before he returned to Milan to finish graduation. Balancing a frantic
episode of multitasking routine that virtually turned him to a robot in the
winter of 2012-13, he developed his dissertation as if in a race to finish it
even before some in the batch before his did. The decision to extend it as
fiction was an inevitable fallout.
Malay
returned to India and joined his uncle in their entrepreneurial venture in
hospitality and began to follow his authorial inclination. By the end of the
second year, his book – Kalki Evian: The Ring of Khaoriphea - was ready to come
out.
The
story of Kalki Evian is inspired as much by legend and characters in real life
as the places Malay has travelled to over the years. All three, in his opinion,
hold a mystery - a story - worthy of narration. Malay blogs at
www.kalkievian.com as a Fly - a concept of humility that aims at the elusively
effervescent, ephemeral connection among beings across space and time. That is
after all, a belief that underlies every piece of literature ever written.
Every
choice we make leads to its own unique consequence. To change the consequence,
therefore, one must travel back in time to change the choice. But what if such
change, instead of altering our future, simply created another - one that came
to exist simultaneously with our world?
This
is a story of how one such moment of love led to two parallel futures; a story
of how your choices have an impact far beyond the world you know; a phenomenon
that we had sensed, and wished for, all along. Set in Italy, while one timeline
scales a city of the future where not just people but also things like money
evolve, the other cradles itself in an amalgamation of contemporary Europe with
ingredients of a new age. Step by step, the story embarks on a journey in a
parallel world that we all live in but rarely see.
Excerpt:
The
room was as dark as darkness could allow without losing out on charm. There
were just two distinct divisions in its ambience, physically divided midway
through its height. The roof and the upper half of the walls seemed stretched
out into an infinite space, showcasing a starry night, populated with little
sparkles beyond count but not without meaning. There lay clear patterns of
constellations and distant hints of planets and moving asteroids as if the room
had lifted itself up into Earth’s exosphere. And yet, it could not possibly be
as the lower half of the room was submerged in soft waves of water, lit up
underneath with careful streaks of turquoise light. The projection lay complete
with a glimpse of the waterbed superimposed on the floor while their bed lay
risen inches above the surface, in between like a hammock.
The
three-dimensional theme had come alive with slight sounds of water hitting
against the surfaces around even as they moved in little waves. As Friuli
stepped in, ripples began to radiate out from her legs. It was all very magical
and yet, all very real.
Friuli
stood in a trance, unmoving. She then turned towards Qin, her lips still parted
but with eyes far more at ease than they had been. He took her hand in his as
he led her to the bed. He moved along to the northern end of the room while she
lay down. Both her legs bent backwards and her head rested on her palm which in
turn rested on the pillow. She looked at the sky, wordlessly staring at the
stars – static and shooting across – while the sounds of the water filled her
senses. She then murmured as if to avoid disturbing the ambience that prevailed
in the room, “Thank you.”
Qin
looked at her and smiled. He followed it up with an equivalent counter,
“Something happened to you back there.” Friuli looked at him and turned back
towards the stars. She did not really wish to talk much but then, he deserved
to be answered.
“What
you said about the past was absurd,” she joked, “but unfortunately, it carried
traces of an inconvenient reality. The group of companies that came to nearly
monopolize all digital space, through acquisitions and a very smart play of
marketing that spanned many years, were led by a similarly ruthless drive of
ambitions that marked perhaps the only emotion left in its bearer. Her name was
Hope Leosword.”
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