Brahma Rakshas

Book excerpt: Sarja is a 11years old, sad, and angry boy. At 11, he looks big and strong for his age. His kind mother, Geeta is a rural Indian archetype: the overworked, stressed-out, barely-keeping-it-together single mother. His father is in prison for multiple robbery cases. The villagers are cold and overbearing, and his schooldays are made hellish by bullies. If this wasn’t enough, he has nightmares and uncanny callings from an age-old monstrous peepal tree that stands ominously on his way to school. The legend is that a monster called Brahma Rakshas, living under this tree, for years unknown to people, lures kids with the black devil fruits and then makes them wrestle until one dies. And, one stormy night, the legend comes true when Sarja meets the Brahma Rakshas. Set in a fictional village of Deogiri, a small haven of human civilization, away from the din of city life, thiss story is a coming-of-age story of a young boy who goes on an adventure ride filled with riddles and monster wrestling.