I was born in an aristocratic Christian family - Sankarapuri Theckedath- one of the original 32 families that St. Thomas baptized and converted to Christianity about 52 AD. I grew up in a deep Hindu culture appreciating the magnanimity of the ancient culture. At the age of 13, I became an alter server and started assisting for Holy Masses. I had a bitter experience form a pedophile priest who molested me. I stopped being an alter server and since then kept a distance from priests and church. I consoled myself talking to me, 'some men are created pigs, and some pigs are robed priests' However, many of Jesus' words made a mark in my young mind, in particular, Jesus admonishing the priests: “You hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs…” and, “it is better that a millstone be tied around your neck…” I wanted to study more about Jesus, but Academics and job occupied my mind for the next three decades.
Academic Qualifications
Literary works:
A turbulent adolescence
In my schools and Colleges, I used to fetch the first prices in Speech, Declamations, Acting, Singing and Mono-acts. I was particularly noted for my invigorating public speeches.
Then, in 1958 a political event of seismic proportions happened in Kerala (my state in India). A Communist Government was voted to power for the first time in human history. Immediately upon assuming power the Communists wanted to nationalize all Catholic schools and colleges and put a ceiling on private land ownership to 2 hectares of land for one family. I did not know anything much about communism in those days, but I did not approve of the plan by the communists. In 1959 revolt started in Kerala to oust the government. (The liberation Revolution) I was at the fore front of the revolution. I used to travel from one town to the other giving fiery public speeches. We used to picket (lying down on the public road in front of the transport buses and Government offices to freeze the public transport and the working of the government offices.) I was arrested by police twice, put in jail for 4 days the first time. I was injured on my head from the brutal police baton charges. My mother was crying every day begging me not to go to the streets. The revolution continued vigorously. The police opened fire in several locations and eleven rioters died. Finally on July 31, 1959, the central Government of India headed by Pundit Nehru dismissed the communist government citing breakdown in law and order in the state and the revolution ended.
What made me wright and how I wrote the Odyssey.
Let me fast forward to Jesus. Some of the seeds of Jesus' teachings were embedded in my mind from my 'alter server' days. From a young age I had desire to see the places in Palestine particularly to climb the mountain of Golgotha. I determined in my mind that someday I will buy a nice Nike sneaker and climb the hill tracing the footprints of Jesus. But when I realized my dream many years later, I reckoned that there was no mountain at all; it was just a slope. At my age 40, I completed all my training and became an Interventional Cardiologist and started earning a salary. I started reading religion, history, literature, and philosophy. I started touring countries one after the other. I combined my reading with my travels. For example, my tour of Israel, Jordon and Babylon (present day Iraq) was after reading the Old Testament and Gilgamesh. My tour of Japan was coinciding with my reading of the 'Diary of a Geisha'. My tour of China coincided with my reading of 'The Good Earth,' Confucius, and the Chinese revolution of Mao Zedong. When I toured Russia, I was reading Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. In essence I learned that good literary work from a nation will reveal a much better picture of that nation's life, sights and sounds. history, geography, weather, war, peace and culture in general regarding that time period. For the next 15 years I read and travelled many nations including Israel. Egypt, Rome, Greece, Constantinople, Europe, Russia the Mediterranean countries, Iraq, Pakistan, Tibet, India and China. With special attention I read The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Bhagwat Gita, Ramayana, Maha Bharatha, Gilgamesh, Akhenaton, Cicero, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hammurabi, Budha, Vyasa, Confucius, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
When I took a serious study of the Old Testament, I found the book offensive. Then I took up the study of the New Testament and the life of Jesus. I found many of the writings and words of the ancient philosophers coming through as Jesus' tongue. There was a DNA match for Jesus' words to many of the writings of the ancient world. Eg:
Confucius 550 BC: “A man is without honor in his village”
Jesus 30-33 AD: A prophet is without honor in his own village.
Confucius 550 BC: “You remove the gross evil from you before you blame trivial evil in others”
Jesus 30-33 AD: “You remove the beam from your eyes before you look for a mot in others.
Budha 580 BC, “Answer hatred with love. Practice total ahimsa”
Jesus 30-33 AD, “…Show the other cheek.”
Jesus had mastered Aristotle's logic.
Eg: “Show me a coin. Whose image is there. Give what is due to Caesar and give what is due to God:
an extreme example of Aristotelian Logic.
Jainism and Buddhism: 600 BC. Jesus learned and borrowed heavily from the ancient philosophies of Jainism and Buddhism and the practice of absolute nonviolence- ahimsa.
Jesus was a pragmatist like Vyasa. At times he has resorted to angry admonitions, cursing, violence and even advocated capital punishments in exceptional cases. Eg: Jesus thrust into the temple of Jerusalem and turned the table of the money changers and released the animals meant for sacrifices. In his mind Vyasa was prompting: “Jesus do your Karma”
Jesus advocated capital punishments. About pedophiles he said. “It is better that a millstone be tied around your neck…”.
To the scribe and pharisees he said, “Cursed art thou. You are nothing but whitewashed tombs…”
Jesus has adopted a few of the prayers and practices from the ancient word. His famous prayer starting “Our father who art in heaven…” is a word for word copy of an ancient Babylonian prayer discovered from the temple of Easaglia which we can read now in the Babylonian book of wisdom.
Of all the orators in human history, Cicero was the one who most effectively invented a rhetoric style with Ciceronian Rhythm incorporating parables characterized by eloquence, clarity, logic and placing resonating and reverberating words juxtapositioned one opposite the other. Jesus mastered that inimitable style. His sermon on the mount particularly the beatitudes is an extreme example of the Ciceronian style of rhetoric. John F Kennedy effectively tried that Ciceronian style in his famous acceptance speech starting, “Ask not what you can do for…” Martin Luther king brilliantly used the Ciceronian rhetoric in his famous “I have a dream…” speech at the Washington Mall in August 1963.
In essence I found that the words and deeds of Jesus came about from his extensive travels and learning from the philosopher of the East and the West. I have visited all the places multiple times that I have narrated in my book.
The preparatory trips, reading and research took fifteen years; the writing of the book took three years. My travels and preparations equipped me to position me one footstep behind Jesus in his elaborate odyssey that lasted for seventeen years. I was able to see what he would have seen and feel what he would have felt. At this stage writing was easy. My imagination and my experience took the pen from my hands and wrote the greatest story ever told with ease and conviction.
As much as Historic Jesus is concerned my work should stand as a landmark work that nobody would even attempt this venture anymore. I have left no stones unturned.
My experience in theater and how it helped my writing.
From very early days I had interest in theater. I used to act in plays. As I grew into adolescence, I used to write direct and act in my plays in schools and colleges. In my twenties I got chance to study theater. I have written ten short plays and two full length plays. Then I got a chance to act in a movie, but I had to leave it due to objection from my family. Side by side with my medical school education, I participated in a little theater group where we used to bring internationally acclaimed movies, watched them, sometimes more than once, critiqued and studied them. Movies like Rashomon directed by Akira Kurasova, Pather Panchali directed by Satyajit Rey, The Last Temptation of Christ directed by Martin Scorsese, The Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppola and 39 Steps directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Thus, watching, analyzing and studying many scores of movies I got a very good idea about good screen plays, acting and direction. This experience has heavily influenced my writing. My narrations are like watching a well-directed movie, atleast that is what I intended for.
Present projects
I practiced Cardiology for 45 years. I have performed 29000.00 coronary angiographies and interventions to my credit. I am shocked by the ignorance of people about the mysteries of heart attacks and their negligence to seek medical attention in time. So, for the last four years I have undertaken a community awareness program to educate the public about the mysteries of heart attacks.
Also, I am revisiting my writings and re-editing some of them. I have started my final project of writing a memoir.
Cinematographic style of writing
JOSHUA the Odyssey of an Ordinary Man is written in a novel cinematographic style (expanded screenplay). Upon reading, the reader must feel that he or she is watching a well-directed movie by Cicil B. DeMille and Martin Scorcesi.