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The Ekkos Clan

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"The Ekkos Clan" is the story of Kratu’s search for the killers of his family, his own roots and the mystery behind his grandmother’s stories.

It’s the fascinating account of Kubha and the basketful of folklore she inherited from her ancestors. The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters – Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist.

Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales – they contain rich linguistic fossils and layers of histories.

In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle had not been so lucky. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed?

Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories.

At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the first book written by mankind.

282 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

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About the author

Sudipto Das

10 books28 followers
Sudipto Das was born in Calcutta in 1973 to a family that fled Bangladesh during the partition riots of 1947. He grew up listening to horrid stories of the partition, something he has extensively used in his debut novel, The Ekkos Clan, published in 2013. A violinist trained in Western classical music, Sudipto debuted as a music composer in 2014, when he recreated Eastern European melodies of the 1940s for the War Musical "Schweyk in the Second World War" by Bertolt Brecht. An engineer by profession, Sudipto is a veteran in the semiconductor industry and an entrepreneur, having co-founded two start-ups. He is also a columnist and a speaker at TEDx events. Sudipto lives in Bangalore with his family. History, culture, language, writing, and music are of special interest to him. A member of an amateur music band, Kohal, he also enjoys travelling.

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Rubina.
Author 18 books86 followers
November 20, 2014
What a horror it must have been to live during the times of partition of India! I have heard some horror stories of those times from my Dadu (grandfather). To me they were just stories. Fascinating since I was hearing it from the mouth of the experienced. Reading Ekkos Clan by Sudipto Das brought out the horrors again. Chilling! Heartfelt and sadistically fascinating.

The story has many shades. The modern times depicting the lives of Kratu, Tits and Afsar. then the ones who were caught between the past and present in the form of Bhrigu or Kaushik and above all those who had created these situations - Kubha and Zakar.

There lives are intervined in the pages of history. The modern generation caught in the mysteries of the past and above all the intrinsic clues hidden in etymology.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the author on his research. The effects of using mnemonic associations on vocabulary is by itself very vast and on top of that understanding and using examples of cognates from Indo-European languages is a feat to achieve. The cognates have been used very effectively in Kratu's journey to solve the mysteries of Kubha's story.

That being said, the story to me as a reader, took my full attention. This is no light read. Those who have a slight inclination towards ancients texts and their mysteries, this is a book for them. You really have to love history (and to some extent geography :P) to enjoy this one. The best characters etched were of Kubha and Kratu. Both are different from each other yet similar to the extent that can be openly termed as genetics.Like two somnambulists, they walked on the path of destiny without caring where the path led them.

The Author uses words to draw many portraits of nature.

"He would bring us here during the evenings when the sun sank behind the smoke coming out of the tall chimneys of the factories on the Howrah side of the river. Lying on the deck and staring at the rippled reflection of the sun on the waters of the river he would talk about a totally different kind of boat ride. "

Whether emotions or landscape he is very liberal with words, threading them across main story of Kratu's discovery of his grandma's past. There are scenes where I have felt the lump in my throat, specially when the journey of Brighu begins. When Kubha's fear of her being called a "dharshita, a despised woman" is portrayed, I shed a few tears. It was heart touching.

The Aryan story line is also well conceive and a very controversial one. Sanskrit and the languages of North India were found to be relatives of the languages of Europe, while the Dravidian languages of south India were found to be another language family.Using this the author forms the building block of his story. Very interesting. One very interesting point that I found here was the way the European solstice were also woven in. Yes, there are lots of similarities between those festivals and ours. We are all bound to nature.

My only peeve is the author must have been so lost in his writing, that he went on and on on some scenes. Some scenes could have been shorter and thus made the story move faster. For eg. " One group migrated to the east through the land of the Danus rivers, the big bends on Don and Volga near Volgograd, the crescent on Volga at Samara and finally reached Arkaim, travelling along the Samara and Ural rivers. This particular story—The Land of the Danus Rivers and the Ekwos Sea—seems to trace the Aryan Trail from their original homeland till the Samara Bend.’ It sounds wonderful to all the history students out there. I lapped it up but for it being a work of fiction, the writer has to walk on a thin line of too much information and story telling.

Since Sudipto Das has excelled in the art of story telling, I will overlook the 'too much information' part. :)

Would I recommend this book? To those who loved the hidden truths of the chalice in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, it is a must read for you.


Check out the full review at
http://www.rubinaramesh.com/2014/11/e...

Profile Image for Raka Bose.
3 reviews
August 4, 2013
It's a totally new kind of book I've come across in a long time. There have been lots of books about Greek, Roman or Christian history. Dan Brown has exploited many controversial aspects of Christianity and written very good thrillers. I've always wondered why someone didn't write similar book about ancient Indian history. And now it's there. I won't put it in the same genre as Dan Brown, as this one is not a fast paced thriller. It's quite unique in its own sense. It solves many mysteries held up in the form of riddles which have been hidden in stories that have been transmitted across many generations. It's quite intriguing. A must read for all.
Profile Image for Nikita Jhanglani.
136 reviews23 followers
December 20, 2014
Sudipto Das is being touted as the Indian Dan Brown, is what I’ve heard from several people who’ve read this book. To a huge extent, I agree with them. Dan Brown’s works, prominently the ones that have Robert Langdon, are extensive in the amount of facts presented. And so is Sudipto’s The Ekkos Clan. The amount of research that the author has done is as phenomenal as it is exhaustive, which of course makes it an interesting read.
True to the blurb, there are several bizarre incidents that keep the readers on the edge; just one page more is what I kept telling myself every time I needed to move to another task!
All of Kubha’s stories, the characters and the locations, are linked to the past through interesting word plays that, although interesting, sometimes become a little difficult to remember. Linguistic paleontology has been deeply explored because that is what helps Kratu solve the whole mystery of Kubha’s stories; Kratu’s girlfriend, Afsar Fareedi, is a linguistic paleontologist who helps Kratu and his friend Titsa decipher the hidden facts in Kubha’s stories.
Afsar and Kratu’s little romantic moments tug at your heart in a book that keeps you brain heavily occupied; the balance that the author maintains here is worth appreciating. While the rest of the book is heavy on the head, in a good way of course, the first part is extremely heavy on the heart – I couldn’t read it without a tissue and the emotions stayed with me for a very long time. It is difficult for the faint-hearted to go through those pages without being affected!
I also like the way Sudipto has presented each of his characters, especially Kubha.
In all, this is one very interesting book and the way it has been written keeps the readers hooked.
Profile Image for Arushi Bose.
4 reviews
August 4, 2013
I just enjoyed reading the book. It’s so different from most books I’ve read. It’s not very fast paced. Rather it proceeds languidly, encompassing its vast premise, cutting across continents, ages, cultures and civilizations. It’s an enriching experience reading about so diverse topics ranging from linguistics, archaeology, history and philosophy to music and engineering. The characters are so live and realistic. The mystery unfolds gradually and before you realize you’re already into it.
Profile Image for Priyaanka Batra Harjai.
156 reviews23 followers
November 19, 2014
The Ekkos Clan is a well researched and well drafted effort from a promising debutant Sudipto Das. If this is his first attempt, god knows what all he has with him to offer in years to come. Kudos for the efforts put in! Be it research or be it drafting an intriguing story well knit around social cause discussing rape and life of a rape victim, cultures, ancestry and lineage. This is a story laden with a stench of revenge wiping generations of generations yet unveiling the roots and connections with the past. A strange story wherein the more we dig the past, the more we get into the future!

The story is about Khuba and her journey of life. The more you learn about her, the more mysterious she gets and more enriching the story becomes! Yes, it times, it seemed to be a little complex (for me because I am a Punjabi and had only limited knowledge about the Bangladesh culture and history) but Sudipto has took all the pain and listed all the references (towards theend) to ease down the hunt for more details. It takes generations to transcend the cultures and heritage and further more to unveil and understand them. This is an attempt by Kratu Sen to find his roots to ancestral clan and in the event he learns more about the development of civilizations across ages. He further enriches the readers with varied aspects by touching the notes of linguistic history, architecture, astronomy and complexity of human relations (as defined by social norms).

Source: http://booksnewsindia.wordpress.com/2...
Profile Image for Zenon Dsouza.
6 reviews
January 1, 2014
Remember the river, He never stops, He never gets lost. He has to flow and he should flow. If they are mountains in the way, he goes around them. He jumps and leaps and makes waterfalls. God help those who help themselves. Do whatever you want but never give up on life, Do anything, but never die, for life is better than death. WOW.
The writer take you to a roller-coaster ride beautifully written, taking the past, the present into the future. The story keeps boomeranging on you time and again. Seldom you come across an Indian author who has written on the history of Indian culture 4000 Years BC pertaining to the Rig Veda, The origin of the Aryans and the Indo-European urheimat. Brilliantly narrated. Every decade and generation a genius comes into the limelight and sudipto das is one of them. “A STAR IS BORN”
Profile Image for Shrey Goyal.
70 reviews54 followers
January 19, 2020
Written by débutante author Sudipto Das, the Ekkos Clan is essentially a mystery novel exploring the lives of multiple generations of a family as they realise a pattern of mysterious deaths and unknown benefactors around them. It’s not the average whodunnit though, and is grounded in a substantial base of research and exploration into our past and the origins of our civilisation. This journey wasn’t made with the aid of tangible historical remains and proofs, which diminish once you try to step further after going back a few millennia, but instead, a more living, breathing form of residue from our ancient past is combed through: language.



Another point of interest is how the work has been neatly sprinkled with an array of pop-culture references, from a character’s altruistic choice to work at a rural bank run by a professor in Jobra, to a starry sight of the ‘Brocaded Sky’ that could very well inspire Gulzar (Zariwaale Aasmaan, if you will). I spotted a couple of subtle references to Kharagpur as well (Sudipto being an alumnus of IIT-Kgp), but they're not likely to be noticed by anyone else aside from those connected with the institution.

With regards to the accuracy of the contents of the book, it should be noted that… (Full review here)
Profile Image for Pratibha Pandey.
Author 3 books50 followers
June 24, 2014
The Ekkos clan is a story of Kubha , an extraordinary lady who entertains and teaches her kids a lot of stories from her home town. Each story is then passed over years by her kids to their kids and grandchildren. what no one realizes is that the tales are deep rooted in history of civilization and hold the key to some very important facts about the origin of the oldest culture.

The writing of the book is very engaging and detailed in all aspects. There is no lose threads in this tapestry of life of Kubha's lineage - both in terms of her tales and the people of her family.

This book gave me enough ideas and facts to understand a few things about language and its transitions over centuries and geographies, while thanks to the references mentioned , I hope that some day I will be able to know and understand a lot more about India's rich cultural heritage and factors which shaped us this way.

A must read for its thriller quotient and the way it adds to your knowledge. Win Win for me.
Profile Image for Lakshmi Chandrasekharan.
18 reviews2 followers
December 9, 2013
The beginning is extremely promising - uplifting despite the circumstances in Bangladesh where its based - and gets you hooked on. The rest of the story is more about the mystery around Kubha and her stories. I am not sure if the level of complexity was required to make the story more believeable - but it was quite unputdownable. I loved Sudipto's imagination and I simply enjoyed reading it. If this is his debut and he has more stories crawling in his head, waiting to be written - he should just quit what he's doing and take to writing.
Profile Image for Meghant Parmar.
Author 3 books52 followers
December 16, 2013
It's history in the making with the help of history, present and some unexplained events in the past and the present.

There's a lot of action in the book and there are a lot of things which will go above the head too. The n number of characters in the book is one such thing. The regional dialect makes it all the more difficult. The first half is very slow.

Second half is more exciting. The end is too plain and simple. The story thrills in parts but not all the time.

Over all it's a good historical fiction with a freshness and a new perspective.
Profile Image for Rishi Vasudev.
7 reviews
January 6, 2014
Well researched and well written. I found the first part really gripping and the rest of it quite interesting. Well done Sudipto.
Profile Image for Monica Bassi.
10 reviews1 follower
June 21, 2019
I would like to divide the book in two parts- journey of kubha’s family and big secret hidden by them which modern generation needs to solve through linguists Fossils.
Loved the first part completely- horrors of partition made be cringe and sad at same time, struggles of the family through generations, banter between cousins etc etc totally engaging! I also loved the idea of modern generation solving historical mystery... however, the way this mystery is unfolded by solving linguistic puzzles is something which was not for me.. for bored and lost with all details... lost track of timeline, theories being discussed etc etc. I am actually still at loss about the big secret!!! Also, feeling of unfinished business since I am not clear about Kubha’s intentions/ game plan and secret she was hiding... maybe I didn’t understand the whole thing as I got lost with details.

Finished the book to learn more about story of Sen family but confusing climax with too much technical stuff spoiled it for me ...
Profile Image for Reemaayana.
106 reviews4 followers
April 17, 2019
What an adventure I had through this book. How an old saga chooses its heir to sought out the layers of mystery with the help of history that has been collecting piles of dust for a century. A must read.
Profile Image for Debraj Moulick.
28 reviews2 followers
November 10, 2024
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A Book Review of The Ekkos Clan
The Ekkos Clan is one of the supreme novel of the year, a complete masterpiece of the Postcolonial genre. It traces the indigenous culture of the colonised population, celebrates the richness of the glorious past and in the process it reveals a well guarded secret that could change the entire history of the world.
The book bears the pangs of partition, the richness of folklores, the intrigues of a traged and lastly the mysticism of a thriller saga. So you come across the pathos filled areas where the characters are torn apart due to Gadar(read partition)..while we have Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar and Khuswant’s Singh’s Mano Majra(Train to Pakistan) dealing with division in North western frontier,we have The Ekkos Clan dealing with the Eastern province..the first part is emotionally as well as brutally charged up. However gradually the narrative becomes cerebral.Yes,Das provides a rich fertile bed of intellectual and witty storytelling. The narration spreads across the continents. He handles the narration with code switching and code mixing,which could have been boring at times, but Das entertains the readers.
The readers will be amazed to experience the encyclopaedic knowledge of the author because it contains so much of cross references ranging from Ghalib to Tagore,from lectures on automobile engineering to some of the earliest tracts of human history.
Das is holistic in his background research, dramatic in creating thrills and bluntly smart in his approach. So we have a blend of Dan Brown(read Da Vinci Code) and Ashwin Sanghi (read Rozabel Line and Krishna Key) in Sudipto Das,yet he is dashingly so innovative in his own way.
It is not at all an easy job to sketch characters belonging to dissimilar cultural backgrounds and variable social temperament and Das does justice to each of them. Watch out how three people embark on a larger than life journey for the search of an ancient legacy and the journey to discover the roots of their existence.Don’t miss out the mystery of grand Kubha.This book bears the testimony of those mothers who gave up everything for the sake of their children during the partition.The Ekkos Clan is a magnum opus in its canvas, lavishly coloured with legends and folklores in its texture, twisted and cruel in its treatment but so simple in execution.This book is a stuff for serious readers, research scholars and yes to all readers….rise up above all the commercial literature,have some class..you have to read this one. Its delights you as well as teaches you a lot. I have just finished the review a modern day classic…grab the copy..you cannot ignore The Ekkos Clan.
Ratings: 9.5 out of 10
I wanted to give 10,but the cover design which is otherwise very appropriate lacks the richness of this novel..could have been more attractive.
Profile Image for Inderpreet Uppal.
Author 3 books77 followers
November 22, 2014
‘The Sun loves all of us,’ Kubha said. ‘He spreads his love through his light. Still he has to go to another house every night so that he can love the other people there.’





These lines sent the tone of the book, such beautiful, introspective and selfless. Simple words but with such deep meaning, easy and such a stunning simile. Read the book to know why these words are spoken.

The book is not your regular light reading, but it is sure to keep you hooked for hours on end as you try to unravel the mysteries of Kubha and the challenges she faces.

Ekkos Clan is a gripping and intriguing tale of love, murder, hatred and the citadel of life. This book makes a very convincing tale filled with suspense, intrigue and has a solid history to back up all the claims made.

According to me the book is a historical suspense and a very good one. The research and detailing is very accurate as is the premise of the book. It has sufficient “what if’s” to keep the reader engrossed.
The one place where I feel the book got to me was the repetitive descriptions of the historical places and the typical traditional names making it a bit difficult to follow the thread of where this new discovery was taking me. Also many of the characters had pet names and that was confusing but the author did have a detailed genealogy page at the end of the book. It should have been at the beginning, I think. I did manage to find my way as the story line is quite clear and keeps a steady pace.

The characters are all so realistic and endearing. I found Afsar so appealing, engaging and intelligent, the perfect foil to Kratu. Tista, the little sister was sweet, naughty yet the understanding ‘side kick’ for Kratu.

Kratu may be a regular dude but he manages to attract everyone to himself due to his knowledge and calm personality. I think half of his problems were solved because he has amazing women in his life.

The Ekkos Clan is not a light read but a refreshing read, let’s not think of all the things that are impossible but believe that everything is possible. The Ekkos Clan brings these impossible worlds, ideals and lives together leaving the reader enriched and yearning for more.

Who would not wish for his own clan, a dynasty or a tribe; with The Ekkos Clan it almost seems possible.
Profile Image for Denim Datta.
371 reviews23 followers
July 3, 2015
A novel from Indian IT professional apart from Romantic blabbering theme is a rare thing. Sudipto Das's Ekkos Clan "is the story of Kratu’s search for the killers of his family, his own roots and the mystery behind his grandmother’s stories".

The story starts very nicely. The first part, Bangladesh, was awesome. The description of the lives during partition was superb.
Afterward, though the inner material was great, I felt there was a bit drag here and there. Storyline keeps losing and gaining pace.
The usage of Bengali words in between was nice, and wasn't overdone.

Overall, as a debut novel, a really good one.
Profile Image for Ranganayakulu konduri.
1 review1 follower
February 20, 2015
It is an awesome and fabulous work. Lot of thought and research gone into this. For an engineer like Sudipto to come up with this script is really amazing. He explained quite a few events during Indo-pak partition very nicely. Even though he is electronics engineer he explained some of the automobile engineering related aspects very fabulously. Only one drawback I see is lot of characters and their nick names were introduced at the start itself which made me little bit confused while reading first chapter. Overall It is fantastic
30 reviews3 followers
December 21, 2014
This is an incredible story of Protagonist Khuba who is a great lady and has made innumerable sacrifices for her family & village. Her grandson Kratu sets on a journey, digging into the past to solve mysteries of murders, Rig Veda and family history. The story is a page turner that compels you to think about Historical & Geographical facts of your own roots! It is mesmerizing, intriguing and thrilling with the climax leaving you spellbound.

An awesome must read book.
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