Amazon Savant Bookstore Honolulu Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: Savant Books & Publications ISBN-10:  0982998708 Type: Fiction Pages: 286 Copyright: March 24, 2012 ISBN-13: 9780982998700 Two bright, beautiful, lesbian research assistants accompany their Indian professor to a city near the tense Himalayan borders of China and Nepal to observe the "holy-war" dance of the Mahabharata and its link to polygamy and local heroes (or villains?). Dehradun City, Himalayas, India 1977: Two bright, beautiful, lesbian research assistants accompany their Indian professor to this city near the tense borders of China and Nepal to observe the "holy-war" dance of the Mahabharata and its link to polygamy and local heroes (or villains?). The girls begin to question the holiness of the Bhagavad Gita's two polygamist avatars while watching the dance, even as they fall in love with India and their friendly hosts. While gathering data on women's rights violations, caste discrimination, and animal cruelty, they discover more about their own culture, their relationship and themselves. When their hosts uncover the women's secret love-life, they turn against them and the research team's existence is threatened. Will the Indian "holy-war" become a personal one between locals and outsiders, men against women,polygamists against lesbians, Indians against Americans? The answer lies in the Himalayan nights... "In the Himalayan Nights" is a novel by Anoop Chandola - 286 pages - 6" x 9" Paperback This book is available from the publisher, printer and Amazon.com at http://www.savantbooksandpublications.com/9780982998700.php from Savant Bookstore Honolulu at http://www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com       Excerpt Chapter 1 The Possessed Woman's Question "What is here is out there. What is not here is not anywhere." —Mahabharata Lashing out from under her wildly disheveled hair, Goda's red darting eyes glowed as they caught the firelight. She shook her head in large circles with an intensity that demanded attention, focus. Accordingly, a silence gathered among the onlookers. It was a silence which elongated an evening teetering towards the creeping darkness of night. Sensing the arrival, the onlookers gasped. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Goda. Fearlessly, she stretched her quivering hands out, letting the raging flames lick her fingers. A spell was cast. Possessed, this strange petite woman, or the thing that had entered her, gathered her trembling body and released the moment with a torrent of violent, abandoned screaming. She lunged, grabbing at the drummers. "Five men took turns with me and other women! Why?! Tell me why! Tell me why the heroes of this war…!" Even the crackling of the burning logs seemed to surrender before the primal display which had pulled from deep within Goda. As her questioning echoed across the heads of the onlookers, she began to gyrate in a sacred war dance. All remained suspended in the moment, the space between day and night. The only sound was that of the drummers uttering, in Hindi, a traditional prayer to welcome the arrival, "Jai ho, Mata! Jai ho, Debi!" (Hail,Mother! Hail, Goddess!). No one danced. All eyes were trained on Goda. I noticed a man reach into the fire. As he grabbed a glowing-hot iron ladle from the bonfire, I whispered to my wife with concern creeping into my throat. "Apparently he understood her movements. He has been prepared all along for this moment."

Mythology Retold
17 May 2012 Hindustan Times (Lucknow)-SUKRITI TOLANI: MYTHOLOGY RETOLD
Anoop Chandola’s ‘In the Himalayan Nights’ is a perfect blend of history and the present times. Realising that today’s generation does not like to read mythological books, he has weaved in facts from the mythology and given them modern touch to make it interesting. The story revolves around the city of Dehradun where two lesbian researchers accompany their professor to study the ‘holy-war’ and polygamy among local people. The deeper they go into the study of Bhagwad-gita, the more they question it. And when people find out about these researchers being lesbians, they turn against them. Chandola is a retired professor of University of Arizona and writes about Indo-American based stories. His style of writing is very simple and the way he shows two sides of an issue is commendable.

The book was published on the occasion of Reason Rally, an event celebrating irreligion, atheism and secularity, that happened in Washington DC in March 2012. The novel provokes the reader, forcing him to go into the depth of Indian mythology.