The Sialkot Saga: A twisted tale of faith and fate, by Ashwin Sanghi

‘When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.’
The Sialkot Saga is the Story of Power, Race, Intelligence, Rivalry, Voracity, Morality and Betrayal.
The Tale revolves around Arvind Bagadia and Arbaaz Sheikh both were brought up in the early age of Indian independence. Arvind is a Marwari tycoon based out of Calcutta whose sole business is to sell and buy businesses. On other hand Arbaaz Sheikh is a Bombay based Mafia don who climb the ladder of success thru his high-pitched cognizance and moral instinct. Both Arvind and Arbaaz are from different backgrounds and bound by fate and faith, their paths cross from time to time. Both of them attempt all possible ways to gain advantage over each other, trying to cut off each other with tricks that no regular man would be able to figure out easily and because of this the tree of adversary keeps growing with each move. Both are unaware that what they seek and fight over is the very obstacle in realizing an ancient secret that dates back to a time long forgotten. The circumstances turn such way that Arvind’s son and Arbaaz’s Daughter end up dating and marrying each other. Both Arvind and Arbaaz died in terrorist attack and after their demise their kids came to know the mutual trajectory between their fathers. Now here the denotation “The Sialkot Saga” comes in the picture.
I was so engrossed in prime characters Arvind and Arbaaz which left me mesmerized and in awe, that when book done I sensed a hint of sadness and heartache left me wanting for more.
Those who have read previous Books of Mr. Sanghi must be a little disappointed because our Indian Dan Brown has not used conspiracy of symbolism, Antiquity, theology and mystery as monumentally as in previous work. But after reading few pages I realized that the author had jumped to another court which is held by Jeffery Archer in which historic chain of events are related to a fable and hence dashed a great work of creative writing.
Mr. Sanghi’s writing is crisp and gripping. He has explained Calcutta and Bombay of that era so vividly that I felt like I have visited those cities in 80s. Overall, The Sialkot Saga is a great read, and by great I mean a phenomenon where you will be hooked to a 500+ pages book till the time you finish it. Every page that you turn leaves you stunned. And before you know it, a climax will come that will again leave you spell-bound.
The story line is pretty smooth, full of twists and turns that will keep you engaged till the end. The characters are something which will leave an imprint on your mind, making it difficult to move on to another book.