15 October, 2019

#SpecialFeature :: #GuestPost - The Treasure Syndicate Experiences by Jatin Kuberkar


*** Special Feature - October 2019 ***


About the Book:
It happened at the dawn of Kaliyug when demon Kali resolved to enter Aryavarta and encountered the last Pandav king. A curse, followed by a blissful enlightenment gave the world its first ‘Nidhi-Palak’ or The Guardian of Treasure Troves in the form of Lord Kuber’s mortal son, Suta. In time, the Guardian blood line is scattered all over the world.
The Treasure Syndicate is always a team of five;
Acharya Neelkanth Agnihotri is a committed Guardian. In the garb of an astrologer, he searches for hidden treasures. Dr. Mahesh secretly finances missions for Acharya, Kumar is favored by unfathomable luck, Jabbar is a legendary digger, and Srikanth is just a common man.
Bound by the elaborate framework of coincidence, destiny and fate, the Mission of the Syndicate is not a cake walk. The dangers are real, and the conditions are never favorable.
A haunting past awaits, as the mission turns upside down, mysteriously.


Book available on Pre Order NOW!


The Treasure Syndicate Experiences

Actually, I planned to write something else for this guest post but then, these incidents happened so many times in the past week, that I decided to compile them here. When I introduced the story of Treasure Syndicate to people, I had to hear a return story that they had for me; in a way, they were trying to ‘convince’ me that my story is very much close to something that they had witnessed, experienced or heard of. Here are the top 3 stories I’ve heard recently.

I had visited an old uncle a few days ago and told him about my book, The Treasure Syndicate. I narrated him the overall plot. We chatted about the syndicate’s guiding principles and a little about treasure hunting in general. After a patient listening (only for a while) he started in a typical I-know-more-than-you fervor in his voice…

“Ye to Kuch bhi nai hai!” – meaning, he too had an interesting story to tell. I was all ears. He started like revealing a secret.

“In our ancestral house, there was a spot in the pooja room. My father never allowed us to go near it. It was a small area on the floor, which was always covered by yellow satin cloth. Every morning, my father performed pooja and cleaned the place too. One day, my elder brother could not control the suspense anymore. He dared to venture into the pooja room and tried to check out the spot. He undid the satin cloth, to find a large granite lid that covered a small ditch. All our curious eyes were hungry to take a peep into the ditch. At last, he moved the granite and we saw it. It had an indolium box that could easily be mistaken to be a lunch box! That’s all…

My father entered the scene and the day ended in punishment and tears.

But, our curiosity paid back. We came to know that the box contained the Gupt Dhan of our family. It had the most revered, ‘Barkat Ka Paisa’ meaning, the ‘ever-yielding money’. The treasure in it was found by our ancestors when they started constructing the house. It is said that two snakes guarded the treasure and left the place only when my grandfather promised to never spend the money but worship it forever. Hence, it is very auspicious and revered to be the Lakshmi of our house.”

Uncle’s story about family treasure enchanted me along with everyone who was listening.

Then, one of my friends had a very chilling account about a rare kind of Chintamani that could turn anything into gold. His story is nothing less than a horror tale.

“My father was a forest officer. When he was posted in eastern ghats range, close to Odisha-Andhra border, he came across a legend about the Chintamani. Chintamani is a gem…very close to the philosopher’s stone. It is said that this one-of-a-kind stone is hidden in an eternal banyan tree. Only the Konda tribe knows its whereabouts but are bound to keep it a secret until a specific time during the Kali-Yug, when god Kalki would manifest and reclaim the mani. During the late 18th century, a british researcher planted a mole in the tribe to gather its whereabouts. He found out that the Chintamani was hidden in the complex cluster of the banyan prop-roots. It was supposedly a single banyan that formed a grove that was miles deep. When he went looking for the gem, he suddenly vanished. Days later he was found dead amidst the roots of the banyan. His body shrunk like a dried nut; as if the tree has sucked the life out of him.

Now, being a person of modern thought, my father did not believe in the legend. One day, he ventured out in search of the hallowed banyan tree. At a point in his trail, he felt like the roots were converging on him. They were trying to trap him and pull him in… scared to death with this experience, he ran for life. But even then, it took him days to come back to a safe point. That too he was saved by the Konda tribe, as only they know the way out of the complex prop-root maze.”
I am sure, you guys want the story to continue…is it not?

The last one is equally thrilling and chilling. It is about a treasure that destroyed a family. As I narrated the premise of the Treasure Syndicate to my son’s friend’s father, he got completely connected to it and started with an account that had happened to his friend.

“My friend believed in a prediction that he would one day find a treasure trove. His family staunchly believed the prediction. One fine day, he brought a piece of land in partnership with another relative. In a few days, our guy supposedly had a strange dream about the land ‘calling him’ to excavate the treasure.

The very next day, they started with the excavation and found nothing. BUT… the partner thought that the treasure was already excavated without his knowledge. It went on to be a gory affair that ultimately lead to the murder of the person and utter destruction of both the families. The twist in the tale is… the disputed land was sold to a third person, who supposedly found the trove.
It was unyielding … to my friend!”

The most common thing I found in these tales is their connection to the story I am telling in my book The Treasure Syndicate. Every time I hear to a treasure story, I find a link to the conversation I had with the driver.

Yes… while you are reading this, there might be active syndicates operating under your nose, finding their ways to riches…or to their own doom!!??  who knows? 😊

Do you know any such stories? Have you heard of any such mission? Feel free to share them.


About the Author:



Jatin Kuberkar is a software Architect and a hard-core Hyderabadi. When not tangled in software codes, Jatin lives his dream as an author, a musician, a toy maker, a philosopher and the list goes on. “The Treasure Syndicate” is Jatin’s latest book. It is an intriguing tale of a real-time treasure hunt.
He has authored two other books. “While I Was Waiting”, a collection of short stories, and “Cabbing all the Way”, a novel based on his real-life experience of travelling to work in a shared cab.
Jatin lives in Hyderabad with his mother, wife and son.





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