God Never Laughed

Fifteen hundred years back a major climatic change on planet earth caused brilliant men from the two hemispheres to meet, collaborate and come up with reparation that remained concealed in an incredible place for hundreds of years. Before the great wars, portions of this document were discovered unknowingly by some archaeologists. The quest for the newfound Holy Grail resurfaces again in recent years from the finding of a war diary - a path strewn with mystery, death, unexpected twists that could ultimately lead to a revelation; a revelation perhaps too advanced for humankind.


I chose 599 CE for the book when the language was predominantly moving from verbal to written. It was just the reverse of what we witness today - a sentence spoken verbally could very well carry a code under the guise of a ballad, meter or lyric, while writing the same was not easy; the sentence constructs did not permit so. What the verbal Puranas and unified Veda were trying to communicate became distorted (or perhaps even modified deliberately to meet the needs of the times) to present day anecdotes. Here's an example of what I think of numbers - 108 the magical number is 27x4 - four lunar months or Chaturmas - where the sages would sit tight for the rains to be complete. The challenge was how to count the days while you are locked up inside - the prayer beads and the temple stones. Mind you 108 is not an easy number. So they must have decomposed it to its core - 1^1 x 2^2 x 3^3 - easy instructions for the temple maker to set the stones and assemble the prayer beads.

Numbers were represented by consonants. The Arabic or Roman number system was adapted much later. Bhagavad Gita 17.2 reads - “datavyam (worth giving) iti (thus) yat (that which) danam (charity)”. I have kept the transliteration next to the words. Datavyamiti - broken up in consonants is 31415 - looks like a sequence, but it is the value of PI - 3.1415 - I reckon the meaning must have been a “charity is truly circular and complete with a thousand donations”. Some folks may call it absurd and completely pooh-pooh it, but there must be something in the sequence.

Paul Bradshaw travels thousands of miles to the land of Vedas to find that a quest that began fourteen hundred years before remains shrouded in mysterious disappearances. Is Paul at the end of this frantic hunt? Who is the real enemy? Why broken terracotta tablets are such a closely guarded secret? Can he defy death that lurks in every shadow?

God Never Laughed brings out such a story of man's struggle with powers fiercer than his.

What happened in 577 CE and 799 CE is still beyond the anvils of a wordsmith and the flash of a fine sword of steel. 

Review By Mamta Madhavan for Reader's Favorite: "Most parts of the story are set in the Himalayas and there is a spiritual vibe that runs through the story, giving it an aura of mysticism despite the harshness that permeates the plot. The narration is descriptive, detailed and aesthetic so that it is able to capture the scenes visually. The word choices are exquisite, adding to the aura of the plot."