Siddhartha: The Boy Who Became the Buddha

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Long before he became the enlightened leader, he was a boy oblivious of the world. As the young prince navigates politics and relationships, he slowly begins to question his oppressively perfect life. Meanwhile his family struggles to maintain their deception - from banishing the old and sick to hiding their own advancing age- in the hope that they can mould him into a dutiful king.

In Advait Kottary's intricately woven narrative, raw human emotion and conflict is tempered with the boundless compassion of the Buddha. Exciting and insightful in equal measure, Siddhartha is at once a riveting story and a profound meditation on our shared quest for truth.

Advait Kottary is a writer and actor residing in London. Passionate about cars and engineering, he worked as an engine designer before quitting his job to pursue his love of writing and the performing arts. He went on to lead the world's biggest Bollywood musical Jaan-E-Jigar, and act in international productions such as Beecham House. Advait has also co-conceptualized the award-winning television show Molkki and voiced several audiobooks with Swedish platform Storytel. Siddhartha is his first novel, which stemmed from his own quest to understand the Self and his encounter with the Buddha's teachings.

Good books have a way of finding you at just the right time, and they resonate with you so much more because of that As you reflect on the text you are reading, you realize that not only do the words connect to what you are going through but that your lived experience informs the way you respond to the book.

So it was with Advait Kottary's Siddhartha. I had just undergone a complicated eye surgery for retinal detachment and multiple tears. I was under complete bedrest for almost a fortnight. That was when I received a message from Advait, informing me about his maiden work of fiction.

I remember being overwhelmed after I had read the prologue and first chapter. The impatience and despair I was feeling after my surgery faded when I imagined what the Buddha must have experienced to get to what he was seeking.

Reading Advait's take on the Buddha took me through a whole range of emotions and insights. I particularly enjoyed the form Advait uses, starting with the enlightenment and his attempt at understanding the process that transformed Prince Siddhartha to the Buddha. Advait makes wonderful use of the cinematic device of parallel cutting to go back and forth between looking at the enlightened soul in the present, and the enlightened one looking at the journey that led him to this state.Iood books have a way of finding you at just the right time, Gand they resonate with you so much more because of that As you reflect on the text you are reading, you realize that not only do the words connect to what you are going through but that your lived experience informs the way you respond to the book.

So it was with Advait Kottary's Siddhartha. I had just undergone a complicated eye surgery for retinal detachment and multiple tears. I was under complete bedrest for almost a fortnight. That was when I received a message from Advait, informing me about his maiden work of fiction.

I remember being overwhelmed after I had read the prologue and first chapter. The impatience and despair I was feeling after my surgery faded when I imagined what the Buddha must have experienced to get to what he was seeking.

Reading Advait's take on the Buddha took me through a whole range of emotions and insights. I particularly enjoyed the form Advait uses, starting with the enlightenment and his attempt at understanding the process that transformed Prince Siddhartha to the Buddha. Advait makes wonderful use of the cinematic device of parallel cutting to go back and forth between looking at the enlightened soul in the present, and the enlightened one looking at the journey that led him to this state.