BRAToSPHERE

Tag: Amish

  • The Scion of Ikshvaku – Book Review

    After the hugely engaging and popular Shiva trilogy, I have been waiting for Amish’s next and was probably one of the first ones to pre-order the book on amazon. And Boy! He does not disappoint a bit. The simple language and familiar but still different story keeps you engaged right from the beginning.

    This book is the first in the Rama Chandra series, and narrates the most famous story of this part of the world – The Ramayana. Blending and telling the story like it was happening right in front of your eyes is a talent Amish has perfected. I still remember a colleague ecstatically mentioning Amish’s first Shiva book back in 2010 – “Have you heard of this new Shiva book? Shiva dances, smokes up and fights goons in it. You should read it.. “.

    This one is no different in that promise. Lord Rama, and the other characters of the pic are depicted as normal characters conversing in today’s language and talking normal basic world stuff. Amish does well to take the modern reader back to the original philosophical conundrums, especially when he explicitly puts these debates in a modern context.

    The integration of the infamous Delhi rape did look as a populist move but makes the reader think – How would a perfect society handle the situation?

    The first book details the epic through Ram’s childhood and education, along with the politics surrounding his ascension to the throne, and ultimately his 14 year exile, accompanied by wife Sita and brother Lakshman.

    The ending of the book is quite dramatized in a typical Bollywood movie style, where Ravan has kidnapped Sita and Ram looks up to see the Pushpak Viman flying away and is filled with rage.

    Looking at the pace of the series, my guess is that the second book would detail out the battle between Ram and Ravan, and the remaining three books, of the five part series, would dwell on the perfect society concept – Ram Rajya.

    Can’t wait for the next book!

  • The Secret of the Nagas – Book Review

    It has been after a long hiatus that I am back to blogging. I have now shifted to Mumbai, from Bangalore, and shifting is one pain in the ass and time consuming.

     The last week was an extended long weekend of holidays, with Wednesday, Thursday being a holiday and again Saturday and Sunday. The smarter ones planned trips for the whole week, and vanished. The dumber ones like me preferred to sit at home and read.

    I spent the entire Wednesday and part of Thursday in completing Amish Tripathi’s new book – The secret of the Nagas. (Of course, I did manage to catch up with bodyguard too on Wednesday).

    After reading The immortals of meluha, and even suggesting it one of my executives sometime last year, I was quite enthusiastically waiting for this sequel.

    If Chetan Bhagat paved the way for indian writing for the masses, Amish has taken it forward and paved the way for imaginative writing among the new crop of Indian writers. He has very cleverly combined mythology and modern day emotions to tell a story of which not much has been spoken or known.

    The legend.. picks up from where the Immortals left. While the events in book-1 took place in Meluha, detailing the war and the way of life of the suryavanshis and the chandravanshis, and ended in Swadweep, events in book-2 unfold in Swadweep, details the the different perspectives of life, and ends in Dandak Forest – the Naga territory.

    I particularly like the way Amish manages to convince that there are no good or evil ways of life – there are just different ways of life. In the first book, the chandravanshis were tarnished, and the suryavanshi way of living was convinced as THE way of living, having lord Ram’s approval.

    In the second book, Amish did manage to convince us that Chandravanshis are not evil, but have a different way of living – mixing pleasure. I would not like to give out more details fearing that I may ed up ruining the reading experience.

    The primary forte of Amish seems to be in detailing the fight sequences, and the war scenes in words, that the reader is completely shifted to a parallel world.

    The book opens quite well, and raises quite high expectations but does not manage to live up to it completely. A wonderful thought process, it somewhere fails in execution. There is so much scope for adventure and comparison of different philosophies of life but it does not deliver completely.

    The climax of the book, and the detailed description of the dandak forest (where the nagas live) does get irritating, and the end does look abrupt with one yearning for more. The way in which the book has developed I fear the third book does not fall into predictable lines and spoil the fun.

    All said and done, The secret.. is not a bad book, and the plot holds your attention completely and the urge to keep reading it is alive throughout.

    As a final verdict, no doubt book – 1 was better than book – 2, but without any qualms, I can clearly declare that Amish has shown a way for a different kind of writing, catering to a wide audience in indian writing.