Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar
Forever There is a historical fantasy novel set in Varanasi. The protagonists belong to the family of ‘The weavers of the Gods’. The story revolves around their family, who find themselves embroiled in upheavals and wars amid an extremely tumultuous period in Kashi when skirmishes and destruction were the order of the day.
The protégés, mere children, join a band of Warrior Monks to help protect the culture of the land. We see history through the eyes of The Four as they transform into warriors – head of the Elite Forces of the Warrior Monks – battle-scarred, wielding weapons of destruction – feared by the enemy, loved and missed by their family.
Be transported to a period when every day brings new adventures to your doorstep.
The book looks at history anew, even as value systems change and cultural plates shift.
What values must one imbibe? Is diversity positive or negative? Should the world be in only one colour, or should it be in many hues and shades? Do acts of violence upon community and culture destroy the inherent essence of civilisation and culture?
Contemporary, poignant, and engaging, this unputdownable book will set your heart aflutter.
Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar lives in South Bangalore, a haven of culture and tradition. She grew up at the feet of her gurus, Swami Chinmayananda and Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who instilled in her a deep and abiding love for Bharata and her culture.
As the Director of Center for Soft Power, she strings together all flowers that make a garland of Indian ethos and aesthetics colourful and fragrant. Her approach to storytelling is creative and innovative. She is presently writing her second novel.
She is the founder-secretary of Heritage, a not-for-profit trust that has conducted for over a decade, a signature temple festival ‘Gudiya Sambhrama’, known for its sense of classicism. She brings a gentle touch of Indianness to everything she curates. Heritage conducts two more annual festivals, ‘Srishti Sambhrama’ and ‘The Heritage Drive’. The drive is a motorsport rally (Regularity Run) that takes participants to heritage temples and includes tree planting as well.
Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar is the Director of Vigirom Pvt. Ltd. and Madhavi Greens Pvt. Ltd., the legacy of her dear husband, Shri Vijayakumar. An avid flyer, sportsperson, dancer, designer, and writer, she has flown powered aircraft, played state level softball, been a Bharatanatyam dancer, given talks on culture and heritage, organised conferences, been on the Central Film and Censor Board, and the National Advisory Board for Philately, is a freelance designer and copywriter, and a member of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India’s Sustainability Commission.
When Magic Served The Devout I had the privilege of reading Vijaylakshmi Vijayakumar’s debut book before it went to press. It is hard to believe it’s her first book. The story-telling has the easy confident flow of a seasoned writer. The story is told around a family of devout weavers in Kashi of about 300 years ago. They live in an unimaginably vast haveli. There’s also a cast of many tens of people and many places but you learn to focus on four young ones of the family who volunteer to train for the defence of Kashi Vishwanatha temple. They fail defending it, but are successful at saving Kardeshwar Temple Vijayalakshmi’s writing style is vivid and youtful. It helps her bring off references to locks that open to the right chant, warriors teleporting themselves, explosives made from particular sediments, magical dolls, underground pathway that connects the haveli with a second home in the forest, and a 200 years old letter forewarning an attack on Kashi. The story ends with Shiva’s promise to distraught : I am ‘Forever There’ The book has a grand preface by MeenakshiJi Jain whose work on our ancestors who fought to protect temples and deities from the medieval Islamic onslaught, has clearly inspired the author. In an afterword G. Shiva Kumar says “We live as much in our cultural imagination as in the material.” I wish this book becomes a movie someday. It will draw the young and old and deliver to them Shiva’s promise. Forever There...: (Kathā Paramparā)
D V Sridharan
