Puja Guha on Roopa’s 6 Questions for Authors: The Story Behind The Ahriman Legacy
Author Puja Guha joined Roopa Unnikrishnan for Roopa’s 6 Questions for Authors, a conversation about her books, writing process, international experiences, and the ideas that have shaped her fiction. During the discussion, Roopa asked Puja about “The Origin Spark,” the first idea that made her feel she had to turn a thought into a story.
For Puja, that spark led back to Kuwait, where she grew up and where a significant part of Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction is set. She reflected on the political dynamics she observed there and how the tension between different centers of power stayed in her imagination. Those observations eventually led her to ask what might happen if that tension were pushed much further.
That question became the foundation for a thriller involving political conflict, an assassin, and a dangerous attempt to alter the balance of power. What began as curiosity about a real place and its political environment developed into Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction and ultimately the wider world of The Ahriman Legacy. The conversation offers readers a revealing look at how real experiences can evolve into fictional suspense.
Event Highlights
- The Origin Spark: Puja shared the initial idea that led her to begin writing Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction and eventually develop The Ahriman Legacy.
- Growing Up in Kuwait: Puja discussed her personal connection to Kuwait and why it became an important setting and source of inspiration for the first Ahriman novel.
- From Observation to Story: The conversation explored how Puja took a political dynamic she had observed and transformed it into the central “what if?” behind a work of international thriller fiction.
- Creating Political Tension: Puja explained how competing political interests helped inspire a fictional scenario involving an assassin and a dangerous struggle over power.
- The Beginning of The Ahriman Legacy: What began as a single story idea ultimately became the foundation for the characters, conflicts, and international world of Puja’s thriller series.
Watch the Conversation
Watch highlights from Puja Guha’s conversation with Roopa Unnikrishnan as she discusses the real-world experiences and political observations that inspired Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction and helped launch The Ahriman Legacy.