#557 - Sahyadri Adventure Vol.1 : Anirudh’s Dream

by Deepak Dalal

“Sahyadri Adventure Vol.1 : Anirudh’s Dream” by Deepak Dalal. Published by Penguin. The first part of a gripping tale of history meeting adventure in one of the most beautiful locales of India.

In this book from the Vikram Aditya series, the two friends Vikram and Aditya are spending their summer holidays at Pune’s National Defence Academy (NDA). Aditya’s father who was an airforce pilot and had studied there before, rated it amongst the best colleges in the world. Vikram finds himself being partnered with a boy named Anirudh Dongre in the Inland Water Championship which is an annual sailing race held at Pune’s Khadakwasla Lake. There was nothing remarkable about Anirudh and he was extremely scared of water. Vikram ends up forming an unusual bonding with Anirudh and tries to help him face and overcome his fears. Vikram and Aditya go on an excursion to Torna Fort in the Sahyadri hills with their friends Kiran and Chitra  accompanied by their guide Salim who was from that region. Vikram finds out that there is more to Anirudh than meets the eye during the trip. He seemed to know a lot about the hills though he had never been there before.

The friends have a harrowing experience when two men seem to come out of nowhere with the intent of attacking Salim. They manage to get rid of the men and leave Torna to climb the plateau of  Koleshwar next. During their climb, they realise that they are being pursued by a gang of armed men. Anirudh suddenly declares that he knows a cave in which they can take shelter and thereby escape being caught. The rest of the group have no choice but to follow him having run out of options. The cave is indeed there to everyone’s astonishment. Even Salim is unaware of it. When Anirudh has a fall in the cave, he has a strange dream from a bygone era. There was a boy named Irfan in the 1850s living in the then city of Bombay which was completely different from today’s Mumbai. The seven islands of the city were separated by channels. On one of the islands stood a fort guarded by cannons. A boy named Irfan who originally hailed from Mahabaleshwar lived in the fort. Anirudh begins to see the life of Irfan unfold in his dreams and the strange events that took place then. Read the page turner of a book to unravel the mystery of Anirudh’s dream and get a glimpse of the Bombay of nineteenth century.

To say that the book is one of Deepak Dalal’s best would be an understatement. He has brilliantly spawned multiple threads and deftly woven them together gradually leading the reader to try and make sense of what is unfolding before them. For the first time in the series, history is entwined along with adventure and the landscape, flora and fauna of a region. The mystery and suspense is  enthralling. Shifting effortlessly across timelines and characters, the narrative is gripping. My ten year old and I read the book eagerly trying to make sense of what was happening and why. The book was such a thriller that we couldn’t just guess what was coming up next and why. At the end of the book, many of our questions have remained unanswered. But this is just the first part and the sequel looks promising. My son and I couldn’t just resist and immediately started reading the sequel. Thankfully we had picked up both the books or else a wait would have been too much to bear :)

We now look forward to figure out the next part of Irfan’s life and what is the connection between him and Anirudh. We are also eager to know why Anirudh has been getting this dream and what happens to him. While Anirudh is clearly the focus of these two books, Vikram and Aditya must have some key roles to play. We just can’t wait to find out all these aspects. The beauty of the Sahyadri hills has been portrayed in all its glory making us want to go there and experience it. In addition, the glimpse into the Bombay of the past was quite a revelation. The series so far has been fabulous and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is 9/10 years and above. It is a perfect gifting option for a tween, teen, young adult or even an adult for that matter who loves adventure, mystery and nature.

P.S - The books that we have read so far from the series in sequence are “Ranthambore Adventure”, “Ladakh Adventure”, “Snow Leopard Adventure” and “Lakshadweep Adventure”.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for anyone aged 13 and above for self reading but can be read to a younger child like we did (at his insistence of course!).