Nachiketa, the caption of the novel, follows the ideal, protagonist of Kathopnishad. Nachiketa was a truth seeker youth who exposed the deceit of his father, Vajasrava, a famous sage of the Vedic age. The father being publicly insulted reacted and cursed the boy to die instantly. The boy died instantly. But when his soul met Yama, the Lord of death, he refused to admit him in his realm. He asked him to return to life. But the boy refused to come back before acquiring the true knowledge about Life and death. He was blessed with the knowledge he sought and returned back to life as a learned person.
The present novel Nachiketa follows the same ideal of the Kathopanishad. Here, Nachiketa is used as a symbol to represent three aspirant scholars of an Indian University, named Ravenshaw College, situated in the city of Cuttack, Odisha, India.
It is in the aftermath of the Indian Independence when the British bequeathed the powers to the Democratically elected Government of India, on 15 August 1947. The Government of India formed its Govt in Delhi and the provincial Govts started functioning in their own provincial Headquarters, as per constitutional provision.
In the province of Odisha, the provincial Government took oath of the office and started functioning with their Legislative Assembly housed in the premises of the State's premiere education institution, Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. Now, all of a sudden, the character of that historic educational institution of learning turned into shambles and instead of the wise heads, the Academicians and Deans, the college campus buzzed with Ministers, Members of the Legislative Assembly and politicians of all varieties, Congress, Communists, and Socialists etc.
During that period, three bright scholars, Bibhuprasad, Natabar, and Manmohan were doing their pre doctoral research in the department of Chemistry of that college. Until then they looked at their alma mater, Ravenshaw College at par with Cambridge and Oxford Universities of London and dreamed of Nobel Prizes in their chosen
areas of research and studies. But alas! One fine morning they discovered their beloved university turning into the citadel of active politics!
Politicization of education is the poison that killed the whole spirit of knowledge and wisdom for which India was once famous as a country of sages, since the Vedic times, over thousands of years. But the politicians, that inherited the powers from the British for the Governance of India, allowed the rot to spread and India was pushed to the third world category of nations for that single mistake of the politicians who inherited powers from the British in 1947.
The novel is a saga of the desperation of the youths of India, particularly, after the country became independent.
