#559 - Sahyadri Adventure Vol.2 : Koleshwar’s Secret
by Deepak Dalal
“Sahyadri Adventure Vol.2 : Koleshwar’s Secret” by Deepak Dalal. Published by Penguin. A grand sequel to an incredible tale of adventure, history and friendship in one of the most scenic locales of India.
This is the concluding part of the Sahyadri Adventure that started with Anirudh dreaming an extraordinary dream of a bygone era in the first part. Waking up from his dream, he seems to know every single detail of the Mumbai fort which no longer exists. His life seems to have changed forever. His revelations about his dream to his mother shocks her and she just cannot believe how he can know such minute details about a fort of which nothing has survived. Vikram is equally astonished when Anirudh reveals his dream to him with a promise of not speaking about it to anyone including his best friend Aditya. Vikram and Anirudh explore Mumbai trying to make sense of the dream and get some evidence of the existence of Irfan and Rustom. When they realise that the two friends did live once upon a time, they are in for a nasty surprise. Someone is after them now. They are kidnapped.
The action shifts from Mumbai back to the Sahyadris where Anirudh dreamt of Irfan and Rustom. The Koleshwar mountain has a secret treasure buried in it. Only Anirudh seems to have the ability to decode the location of the forgotten treasure. And someone is desperately trying to find it. It seems to be the same men who had attacked the boys and their friends at Torna and Koleshwar earlier. How is the dream connected to what is happening? What is going to happen next? Can the two boys handle the men on their own? Will their other friends be able to help them this time? What secrets are going to be revealed in Koleshwar? Does Anirudh have any kind of connection with Irfan? Read the book to know the secrets of Koleshwar and how the adventure is going to end.
The fast paced and extraordinary thriller kept me and my ten year old son glued to it. It was hard to guess what was coming up next. The twists and the action were clearly the highlights for us. The multiple threads that had been woven in the first part were being untangled in a logical manner. All the questions that we had while reading the first part were being answered gradually one by one. Till the end, there were facts being revealed which made the read very exciting. Anirudh and Vikram became my son’s favourite characters as they deftly handled the challenges that came their way. Aditya did have a key role to play like we had guessed while reading the first part. The riveting tale has a heady mix of mystery, action, adventure and history. To top it all, it is set in the beautiful Sahyadris. Koleshwar has now been added to my son’s wish list of places to go to. The landscape and beauty of the Sahyadris have been portrayed so well through both the books. 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”, “Lakshadweep Adventure” and “Sahyadri Adventure Vol.1 : Anirudh’s Dream”.
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!).