The Krishna Key : Strawberry Krishna Reads

Our Pick Up Line : The self has to turn into gold, not the iron

The average attention span of human beings has come down to 8.7 seconds, less than the 9 seconds for gold fish.
It means every message has to be delivered to them within 8.7 seconds or they wander off, making SMS based education of epics a necessity.

It’s a fact that 99% of Indian youth would have nothing to do with Mahabharata in its original form and they got an introduction through TV in the eighties. Now that half an hour span of attention also may not be available for awareness about epics. Ashwin Sanghi has undertaken the dissemination of Mahabharata in WhatsApp forward sized messages.

He is reputed to be the Dan Brown of India and Krishna Key is likened to ‘The Lost Symbol’ or one of its genre, in story structure and style.
Each chapter begins with a paragraph of Mahabharata episode, as Saini and Radhika hunt for the lost key and in turn chased by the villainous gang also trying to capture the key.

In the course of their hunt, Saini gets to educate Radhika about various aspects of history and legends in a mysterious and conspiracy theory angle. The story is well researched for this angle and the style is easy to read to serve it’s intended readership. The premise that Saini knows everything but Radhika knows nothing is an artificial construction and makes reading credulous. Radhika appears to have been created just for the purpose of asking questions at every step. Without her questions many chapters can be written as essays. The Krishna key is a brave and necessary attempt by the author to spread popular awareness of Mahabharata by juxtaposition with a modern day treasure hunt.