The Meluhan Tablet - Tapa blanda

Professor Ramesh Chhibber, a historian and archaeologist on the verge of deciphering the Harappan script, has been murdered. And his colleague Professor Modhak has simply disappeared. Was he Killed? Was he kidnapped? Is the rumour that the professors had deciphered the Meluhan Tablet, now lost, the provocation for the crimes? Delhi's most famous Dynamic Detectives takes charge of the investigations; their two ace sleuths - Roshan and Shobha - are also aminent archaeologists. Soon the sleuths stumble on a gigantic secret: the existence of an ancient secret society, the oldest in the world, with a hidden agenda. There are many layers to Mathew Panamkat's Meluhan Tablet, just like Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. At one level it is an unpretentious whodunit laced with nail-biting suspense. At another, it is a travel experience that takes the reader to exotic locations in India, exotic because they are places of natural beauty steeped in history. The reader travels through physical spaces and through time in the pages of the novel - through the rocks and jungles of Idukki present and precolonial, to Bhimbetka near Bhopal and from there to the times when people documented their life with drawings on its cave walls; these are just two examples, the book has so many more. At a yet another level, the book is a journey into the Harappan times and its advanced civilisation; Meluha was what the people called their land. As Roshan and Shobha chase the mystery and take us on that exotic journey, we discover there is also a sweet love story tucked into it. The Meluhan Tablet therefore is a heady mix and an experience.

Mathew Panamkat holds a master's degree in English and in Linguistics from universities in India and the United Kingdom. He has taught English at St Stephen's College Delhi and the University of Aden. He writes for children (has published more than 15 novels and plays) and has twice won the Children's Book Trust award for the best book in children's science-fiction. He now works as an Education Consultant and loves to write for children and adults. He lives in Delhi with his wife Alphonsa and their two sons. He can be contacted at mpanamkat@hotmail.com