Book: Atisa And His Time Machine: Adventures With Hieun TsangAnu KumarPuffin110 pagesRs175

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It takes a while to find your bearings while reading Atisa And His Time Machine: Adventures With Hieun Tsang. Atisa’s hot air balloon with all its gadgets is clearly a modern machine, but there is no clear indication in the narrative of when he slips into the past and when he comes back to the now.

The story starts in the present as Atisa readies his balloon in China to go visit his mom in Central Asia. That’s when, through his telescope, he spots an intruder breaking into a monastery. By the time Atisa reaches the monastery to investigate, the reader is transported into the past.

In the monastery, Atisa finds Danyi, a messenger from the court of China’s emperor. The weary messenger has fallen asleep in the study after having travelled for 14 days non-stop. Atisa goes through some of the papers he was trying to steal, including a map of the route that Buddhist monk Hieun Tsang is taking to India. He wants to copy Buddhist texts from India and bring them to China.

Convinced that Danyi is trying to sabotage Hieun Tsang’s mission, Atisa sets off at once to the monk’s aid. The journey takes them to Bamiyan, Taxila, Kannauj, Nalanda, Badami and back. With them are three helpers: the dependable Mitri, the scared Bojax and the mysterious Dos Tum.

The story is a bit like Tinkle’s ‘Tantri the Mantri’: a series of attempts to kill Hieun Tsang are foiled partly by pure luck, but mostly due to Atisa’s gadgets and keen eye. The narrative is aided by interesting illustrations made by Priya Kurian.

However, the plot is simplistic. While the situations are ripe with expectancy, you wonder if Anu Kumar has curbed her imagination. For example, Hieun Tsang reaches the island of rope makers and here too someone tries to kill him by letting a snake into his room.

You hope the fact that they are on an island of rope makers will play a role. But it doesn’t. The snake is simply dispensed off and the story moves on to the next crisis.

The thing that keeps you gripped to the book is the identity of the assassin. And that the characters are likeable, from the jolly Hieun Tsang to the obsessive painter Alexka. Moreover, the book is a good way to introduce readers to the journey of Hieun Tsang that played a pivotal role in the spread of Buddhism in China.