I am an interventional cardiologist who has been running a very busy practice for the last 40 years. Many a times I have been asked the question what made me to write the book, Joshua: The Odyssey of an Ordinary Man.

I must start this from the very beginning. I was born in an aristocratic Catholic family on the southern cape of India, and I grew up in a Hindu culture. My parents wanted me to become a Catholic priest. So, earlier on in my life I became an alter server. In my interactions with the church, I reckoned that a very large number of the priests were righteous, aesthetic and almost saintly but there were a few hyenas in lamb's wool. I also found a disconnect between what the priests were saying from the pulpit and what I read in the bible. I saw Joshua of Nazareth somewhat differently, more like a very bold man, a prophet of significance. I decided not to go to priesthood and I continued my studies.

When I was about 11 years old, an incident happened. One of my neighbors, a Brahman family, had a 13-year-old girl. She was about 2 years older than me. I knew her well. As children, we used to play under the shade of mango trees. A bit after her 13 th birthday, she was married to a man who was approximately 40 years old. Two years into the marriage, the man died of a snake bite. On the day when he died and when the funeral pyre was being built, the elders of the family assembled around her, shaved off her hair, clad her in white clothes, adorned her forehead with ashes and she was dumped into the back alley of the house where she was supposed to spend the rest of her life without getting out of the house, let alone coming to the front porch. Later on I learned that this girl committed suicide. It was at this time that I happened to learn a little more about the practice of sati. Sati is an honor killing, practiced in India from time immemorial until about some 180 years ago when the practice of Sathi was made illegal. In Sathi, the wife will jump into the funeral pyre of her husband. She would jump into the pyre willingly or the family will make sure that she does so by coercion. The practice of sati started from a very ancient sage by the name of Manu. Manu is akin to Moses in Judaism. Manu said, “A woman does not deserve freedom. She is only the shadow of a man. What good is a shadow when the object is gone?” Therefore, it is much better that she ended her life by jumping into the funeral pyre.

After completion of medical school, I took up a job to be lecturer in Medicine in the University of Zambia. Then I left for U K and completed the exams and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Glasgow and Edenborough (MRCP). Then I left for US, completed the residencies and Fellowships and elected Fellow of American College of physicians, American college of cardiology and the Fellow of American College of Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. (FACP, FACC. FSCAI).

I had the unusual privilege of practicing in four continents of the world: Africa, India, Europe, and America. When I was practicing in Africa at the University Teaching Hospital, one day a girl was brought to the emergency room. She belonged to a migrant family from Somalia. She was almost dead from bleeding, dehydration and a gross infection. When we examined her, it revealed one of the most grotesque findings in my whole life. Her external labia and clitoris were cut. She had suffered great bleeding and presently a fulminent infection was in the process. However, the girl did survive. Later in my cardiologist practice, I have seen women who are discriminated against in many ways in receiving medical care, not only in India or Africa, but also in England and the United States.

The trigger that kindled my interest in Jesus.

In my town we had a steep hill of about one mile in length with rough and rutted road and the top of the hill we had a small church meant for low Class and untouchables. On this hill we had the 14 stations of the 'way of the cross' with 14 shrines, each shrine with a painting as what happened at that station, for example-the first time he fell, when Simon helped him with the cross etc. When I was a young boy, I used to decorate these 14 stations of 'The way of the cross' with flowers and lit candlesticks with a few of my friends. At the top of the hill there was a church meant for the low religious classes and the untouchables. Each time I was climbing the hill in my town, I hoped someday I would get new pair of Nike sneakers and will climb the real Golgotha. But when I really went to Israel and visited Golgotha and the Church of Sepulcher, it was clear to me that there was no steep hill, instead it was a small rise.

When I seriously started my research, it was clear to me that I must read all the literary, religious and philosophical books written until the time of Jesus. I started with the epic of Gilgamesh when I visited Iraq. I read Iliad and Odyssey and almost all the works of Plato, Aristotle along with the legendary Greek plays when I visited Greece. I read the religious treaties of the Egyptians, the writings about Akhenaten when I visited Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Then I had a chance to go to Alexandria. There is a new Library of Alexandria taking shape- all the ancient works are converted to digital format available for members to read and study. My journey continued to Rome. I read 'The Roman Caesars', 'Jewish Antiquities', and The Jewish War by Josephus and all the writings of Cicero along with extensive writings about ancient Roman history. Further I read about the Vedas, The Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagwat Gita and extensively about Confucius and Buddha.

Side by side with my readings, I also travelled to all the plausible places where Jesus might have travelled, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, India and China. I had to go back to many of those places exploring all the details I could muster.

By the time Jesus of Nazareth came into effect, the world had seen some very prominent philosophers up till that time, such as Akhenaton from Egypt, Cicero from Rome, Pythagorus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle from Greece, Buddha from India, and Confucius from China. All of them have had very great contributions to mankind. However, Joshua of Nazareth stood distinctly different. His emphasis was also distinctly different. For example, at a certain point he witnessed a stoning scene of a harlot. He found a group of men in a ring with stones in their hands and the helpless woman, a harlot, in the middle. Joshua was emboldened enough to get into the ring, hold the harlot by her wrists, hoist it to the sky and challenged the crowd, “Who amongst you without sin may cast the first stone.” Among all these philosophers, Joshua is the first man to have the courage to stand for up for a helpless woman and her rights. Then when you read the bible carefully, the very many things he has spoken about: the pedophiles, the Pharisees, the relationship of a man to his neighbor, workers and their wages, treatment to 'lower' classes and about violence, are of paramount importance.

My travels lasted for about 15 years. Then I started writing, which was easy. It appeared that my information and imagination took the pen from my hands and wrote it for me. Joshua: The Odyssey of an Ordinary Man, is the result of that research of the most prominent philosopher the world has ever seen.