t h i n k o p o t a m u s

My latest book is finally out! It's from Penguin, and I've got my author's copies, and hopefully we'll soon find them out in the bookstores. It's called DEVIL'S GARDEN: Tales Of Pappudom, and it's for children, 10 years upwards. I had great fun writing it, imagining myself in the thick of an eerie jungle, especially the days I spent locked up inside my room in a resort in Alleppey as rain and wind lashed against the windows. Which is a great way to write!

Pappudom is a normal run-of-the-mill village on the banks of the
Tarangam River—or so everyone thinks. But Pappu, a boy living in
the village, knows better. He visited the past once, with the ghost of
his great granduncle, Grand Pappu, after whom the village is named,
and together they had defeated the British army using the ‘Forces of
the Future’. But now, events are taking a turn for the worse.
In ancient times, the most horrific spirits known to man had been
sealed in Chekuthan Thodi, or Devil’s Garden, the forest adjoining
the village. A pact between the humans and the spirit world had ensured
a boundary between Pappudom and Devil’s Garden. But someone
from the village has violated the pact and ventured into the forest.
Now the spirits too want to break the pact and enter Pappudom,
which can only lead to havoc and destruction. And, to add to
everyone’s concern, a boy has gone missing…
Pappu goes into Devil’s Garden, looking for the lost boy. But there
are some ghastly shocks awaiting him there, and he finds himself
confronting armies of marching trees, a tapping spirit that will sap his
soul, and the crafty Transformer Spirit. Will Grand Pappu reach him
in time to save him? And how does Jolly Jones of the British army fit
into all of this? Can the Guard of the Bridge repair the breach, or is this
the beginning of the end . . .