MAYA: Seed Takes Root

“A book of extraordinary riches…provocative philosophical nuggets wrapped in a narrative both sweeping and immersive.” – Anil Seth, Neuroscientist and author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness“The kind of story where myth collides with science, magic mixes with engineering, and poetry sits right alongside politics. You can feel a whole new genre taking shape.” – @Asvinireads“A narrative superstructure…a story that rewires the way we tell stories in the first place.” – Esquire“Uncomfortably close to our current relationship with technology and social media algorithms—and that’s entirely the point.” – Variety“The antagonist lays out his reasoning step by step, and you can’t argue with it. It’s ironclad. It’s terrifying.” – @JoshReadsBooks“An ambitious, eye-popping sci-fi fantasy universe…an allegory of our hyperconnected world.” – The Hollywood Reporter“Every aspect of it—the politics, the culture, ecology, and technology—feels like a simulation that’s been allowed to run for hundreds of years.” – @TheBookishAlchemist“Science-fiction, fantasy, spiritual mysticism, or technological futurism? MAYA is all of these!” – Matt Loze, former Head of Scripted, BBC Worldwide“A sweeping story of chaos and control, the powerful and the expendable.” – Screen Rant“Worldbuilding with intent. Not just immersive, but precise. The technology works. The politics are coherent. The biology is bizarre but believable.” – Raymond McCaulay, Chair of Digital Biology, Singularity University

Anand Gandhi is a polymath filmmaker and public intellectual credited with ushering India’s new wave of cinema. He has created culture-shaping projects across media.

His debut feature Ship of Theseus won India’s National Award for Best Film and was hailed by the UK Critics’ Circle as “life-changing.” It collected major prizes at festivals including Transilvania, Tokyo, and BFI London. His mythological horror epic Tumbbad, now regarded as a contemporary classic, opened Venice Critics’ Week and won Filmfare and Sitges awards.

Zain Memon is a visionary game designer and transmedia creator who pioneered South Asia’s modern tabletop renaissance.

His political strategy board game SHASN is India’s most played modern tabletop game. It has won IndieCade’s Social Impact Award and reached players in over 70 countries. Its sequel SHASN: AZADI, hailed as the “blueprint for semi-cooperative game design,” became the first tabletop game honored by Games for Change. Memon has established games as transformative learning systems through his approach to play as pedagogy.

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