The Warriors' story

Educationist Shubira Prasad takes a keen interest in the human psyche and believes that we all have some demonic qualities which have to be contained in order to bring out the best in us. She is also an avid follower of the Indian epics, providing new interpretations for the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita. She feels that mythological stories are true happenings and demonic forces resurface on this earth periodically, to be restrained by the incarnation of the deities who too reappear intermittently to sustain and protect the Earth.

Her book 'The Demons of Jaitraya' is a thriller that takes off from the point right after the war, In Ramayana, after the war is won and Hanuman is entrusted with the task to find and kill the demons that may have gone hiding. The story is set in the current times where the earth is seeing gruesome killings and mass illnesses and it's now upon the brave warriors of Hanuman to free it from the clutches of the demons that are back from hibernation.

The epics say, in the great War of Ramayana, a number of rakshasas escaped. They hid in the bowels of the Earth, in the water and in space, and remained dormant for eons. In the 20th century of the Christian era, however, some of them reappeared in different forms to plague the Earth with Wars and illnesses. At the end of his war with Ravana, Rama had asked Hanuman to raise and train a contingent of warriors who would take birth multiple times on Earth, to contain the demons. Aishani and Adheesh are two such warriors, blessed with divine weapons and powers to fight the world's evils at present times. The Demons of Jaitraya is the first book of the trilogy of the war between demons and humans.

An extract from the book:

Early Twentieth Century Aishani

She was in the last year of her graduation pursuing Psychology as her major subject. She had a keen interest in the human psyche, and with her astute understanding of human nature, she was able to excel in her chosen subject. Like any modern girl, she was smartly dressed and carried herself with utmost grace. Her father, Pandit Ram Sharan, was a pandit and an Ayurvedic doctor. She had a younger brother Jayant who was in senior school and her mother, Madhu, was a homemaker. Theirs was a normal middle-class family which led a normal life doing all the mundane things that an average ordinary family does.

However, there was much beyond the ordinariness that the family showcased. Along with their usual school and college, Aishani and her brother Jayant attended another school which had different subjects and different kinds of training. This was an Ashram or Gurukul which was known as the School of Ancient Warfare. Here they were taught ancient methods of fighting in a war with enemies who were other entities apart from human beings. These were known to be creatures which had escaped from the great war of the Ramayana. These creatures were expected to attack the Earth and its inhabitants in myriad evil and cruel ways.

Despite her unwillingness to miss any of her college studies, Aishani had to miss quite a lot of her classes because of her training at home and in the Martial Arts Academy. Many times she had to miss her classes at home because her fatherPandit Ram Sharan was not available. He was also her

teacher who taught her Ayurveda and all esoteric subjects. She had a very good knowledge of Ayurveda and always suggested herbs and special spices to patients who suffered from mild illnesses. She was at her best helping people and animals, birds and even insects. Her kind nature and inner beauty shone like the sun but it was her simplicity that immediately made the people around her very comfortable and relaxed, especially her father's patients who were happy whenever she was there to look after them in his absence. Her mere presence provided them solace and they felt special.

Her hair was like molten chocolate cascading over her shoulders. Sometimes, when she was very moved by a happening or somebody's plight, her hair helped in hiding her face and thus her emotions too. The aura that emanated from her made her look much taller than she was and made people want to look up to her. There were no pretensions about her; she was what she was, in and out, and people around her knew it and were reassured by it. They trusted her knowing that their trust would never be betrayed.