The treasures of SANUALI

The author wants to thank every one of you for picking the book. You have no idea, how much it means to me. I am beyond thrilled that you've chosen to become part of a journey. Your constant companionship is what I seek.  Before welcoming you into the enchanting world of 'The Sanuali Kingdom': I want to share my source of motivation and the whole history that brought the book into existence in the first place.   Sometime during February 2021, an idea struck my mind as I glared at my cell phone screen and watched some interesting facts about a recent burial site that has been excavated in Sinauli. Sinauli is an archaeological site located in Uttar Pradesh, India and is claimed to exist somewhere in between 1850-1550 BCE (Bronze Age?) and is likely to be a part of one of the many ancient civilizations, The Harappan. (Remember the great bath of Mohanjodaro?) Now, I am not an ‘archeo-freak’ and if you’d be very honest, I never liked history in school. Most often things like monumental sites don’t fascinate me much. Although, I like taking a quick drift or two to the past. But my most historical visit was some of the many magnificent castles in India like the Taj, Qutub Minar, The Great Fort of Rajwada, and the auspicious temples of Mathura (If that counts!)…and that’s it. However, as I watched images flipping off, the promoting idea evolved into a full fantasy novel. The chariot that shook foundations of the Indo-Aryan Migration theory and the seven human burials had me wondering. Not only it hinted at ‘life after death beliefs of the ancient people, but also it reflected a close affinity with Vedic rituals.   As an Asian who has always been fascinated by the tales of Mahabharta, it was the needed catalyst and a source of motivation I need. And from there, an idea of an underworld existing just beneath our feet struck and didn’t let me sleep.   The fascinating tales of treasure hunts, magic, supernatural creatures, and similar other existing and non-existing being has always managed to captivate me earlier. From Thousand and one night to Harry Potter, Alice in wonderland, and Lord of Rings, there couldn't be anything that had caught my attention but flying broomsticks, carpets, genies and kings. However, the imagination had yet to work wonder. As a novice in the fantasy genre, I had a million things to figure out. Somehow, I couldn't trust myself in writing a book of this genre. I was frightened of not making it till the end or end up writing something very ridiculous (This I left to your wise judgements).  But this time, I knew I have made up my mind to serve the best I can manage. And so, the planning began. After hard labour, research, torn pages, and hair pull of a short duration of a month and a half—the plot was finally figured out.   ‘The Swastika: Prologue (I) was drafted in fifteen days. (The longest I had taken in my writing career.) It was difficult to make my fingers punch something aligning with my imagination and not deleting it afterwards. After that and till the conclusion, I am constantly struggling with a busy schedule and time-consuming work. I want this book to turn out as magical and inspirational as the primary idea was. Efforts and persistence of more than six months have me presenting you the FIRST draft of The treasure of Sanuali: A tale of a magical realm.   *As this is a work-in-progress: each of your censors and suggestions is heartily welcome. I would love to make this a benchmark and a true masterpiece.*     Regards Anne S. Rajput