The Silicon Mind

The Silicon Mind is a racy sci-fi thriller involving a very sophisticated neural chip implant by a robot on a human brain. It revolves around the intertwined lives of Ray, a leading neurosurgeon, sharp and flamboyant proprietor and driving force of Chetna, India’s foremost coma clinic and Dr Aman Kapoor, reputed physician and accident victim who falls into a coma.

Aman becomes Ray’s unsuspecting guinea pig Ray and his American collaborators successfully implant a silicon chip inside Aman’s brain true to the book’s sci-fi genre, a robot does the operation! Aman wakes up rejuvenated and changed forever. As Ray and his team expected, his brain has been enhanced to superlative degrees but his body suffers strange illnesses, a result of the conflict between the material chip and the corporeal brain.

The story is about how Aman manages to trace his bizarre bodily symptoms and sudden miraculous healing powers to his brain operation at Chetna with help from Manasi, his psychiatrist, and her journalist friend, Ishan. Ray finally buckles to emotional pressure from Manasi and his own daughter, the irrepressible Sakshi and has to undo the wrong he had done by trying to play God.

The author knows her subject well through extensive research and has written with lucidity and candour. The machinations which happen within the medical profession at various levels, the business of scientific research and discovery, Aman’s highly individualistic personality, his queer experiences with patients after the implant, the growing relationship between him and Manasi all make interesting reading.