Raavan : Enemy of Aryavarta

I just finished the much awaited book by Amish Tripathi. Halfway through the book, I knew who Sita was going to be and why Raavan would kidnap her. However, Amish Tripathi never fails to surprise you. 

Raavan or Ravanan to me is the most interesting of the three books of the Ramayana series. Tripathi justifies the kidnapping of Sita which took me by surprise. Raavan is the protective brother who becomes a thief. The thief who becomes a pirate. The pirate who becomes a warrior. The warrior who becomes king. The king who is shaped by enmity between two men to become the ultimate villain which he is definitely not. One tends to be able to read this book and sympathize with the ultimate villain. Maybe because heartache and heartbreak is something universal that all people can relate to?

It is a book that doesn't follow the epic and the villain bashing that is practiced during Dusshera. Zipping through his childhood, the boy spurned by his father, his chance encounter with a little girl who he is unable to forget and whose memory always makes want to be a better person, the young man who loves books, music, painting and becomes an accomplished artist, the scholar who becomes a trader, the trader who becomes a warrior, the warrior who finally becomes Lanka's emperor but would do anything for his younger brother and son. The story zips through 60 years of Raavan's life before he kidnaps Sita whom he has never seen!

It is an amazing story along with the birth of his brother Kumbhakarna from whose birth on, their mother and the sons are on the run for their lives. Kumbhakarna is equally interesting as this book as much as about Raavan as it is about Kumbhakarna, the brother Raavan saves from being murdered on the instructions of his father.The rest come much later. It is interesting balance to the usual Ram-Laxman duo who are praised while the other brother duo is usually forgotten Raavan-Kumbhakarna which Tripathi highlights.

The twist in Vaali's tale was so surprising that I couldn't help but wonder. Same for Vishwamitra and Vashishta.

I can't wait for the next book even though we all know how it will end. 

If you are interested in reading the book, you can buy it here

Can Unconditional Love Go Wrong?

Truly till the end of Time
By Abhishek Sanwal
BlueRose Publishers, 2019
Genre: Fiction

                               

Luv (named after the eldest son of Sita) gets a mysterious text from his college buddy Adi years after they graduated and settled down. It reads, “The biggest achievement in life –tears in someone’s eye for you. The biggest failure in life – tears in someone’s eyes because of you.” Worried, he rushes over to meet Adi. Adi’s wife and parents are completely unaware of the state Adi is in. He finds Adi in a darkened room alive and just when he is relieved Adi is okay, Adi gives him something to read – his diary from four years ago when they were still students. 

Set in Chennai, this is not just the story of four college buddies Adi, Jhilmil, Luv and Chabbi but also of Neel and Ria. It uncovers the life of north Indians in South India and the author shuts out the southern atmosphere, people, language, culture,  using blah, blah which is amusing and irritating  at the same time. The characters speak English, Hindi or Hinglish. Just when you think it might get boring or you know what is going to happen next, there are surprise twists and turns that keeps you reading taking you along paths which shock you. The ending is a big surprise.

While reading the book I realized how men are allowed to retain their friendships by Indian society while women slowly drop out of contact because they are forced to move after marriage – an unfair deal or the ending might have been different.  The story carries with it some insights into how Indian society works, especially for a north Indian person in South India and their terms of acceptance of South Indian culture.

The writing is slow in the beginning and picks up pace as the story moves forward. The prose style leaves a lot to be desired but the author will go places if he gets a good editor. Otherwise a nice summer read.

If  you wish to buy the book,click  here

A Matter of Latitude

A Matter of Latitude
by Isobel Blackthorn
Genre : Mystery/Suspense Thriller


What would you do if your artist-activist husband disappears on your daughter's birthday - a birthday your husband would never miss? Would you turn into a sleuth or would you just register a police complaint and hope for the best? Do we really care about the exotic places we travel to ? While complaining about environment degradation, don't we also seek out the tourist comforts and are willing to pay heavily in these exotic holiday destinations ? Is development and corruption intertwined ? Are we as tourists actually encouraging corruption and destruction of the environment? What exactly is development ? These are questions that Isobel Blackthorn asks and answers in her wonderful book, "A Matter of Latitude".

Set in Lanzarote,one of the Canary Islands administered by Spain, Blackthorn hooks you from the first page. The author has an unusual style of narration, using two POVs, that of the artist-activist Celestino Diaz and the other one of the British Paula Diaz who is Celestino's wife searching for him. The story keeps gathering pace with mysteries galore and the reader hoping Celestino doesn't die. Blackthorn not only reveals just enough to wet one's appetite for more about Celestino Diaz but also throws enough puzzles the reader's way via her other lead character Paula to keep you trying to solve just when there are more twists and turns thrown in.

The writing style is unusually crisp and effective despite the two POVs which are made clear to the reader in her first two chapters. The pace is steady as you try to figure out if Celestino Diaz will live or die.

This is a definitive must read as it not only tantalizes but also makes you ponder about the larger issues at hand - corruption, environment and development. I will say this much, your vacations and your view of developing and under developing countries  and corruption will never be the same again.

If you are looking for a good mystery book, this is the one to get. You can buy it here.

Keepers of the Kalachakra - book review

Keepers of the Kalachakra
by Ashwin Sanghi
420 pages, Westland
Genre: Thriller

Leaders and people holding important positions in governments die  across the world in a mysteriously similar manner. No one understands how this is happening. Simultaneously sinkholes are appearing world wide killing ordinary people. One secret organization appears to be responsible for it as they believe in eliminating liberals and promoting right wingers while  working in tandem with an a Islamic fundamentalist who is the fountainhead of  spreading radical Islam worldwide. Both believe the clash of civilizations is inevitable and has to be hastened Can they be stopped ? Ashwin Sanghi asks and answers these questions in his novel, Keepers of the Kalachakra.

Zigzagging from the lawns of the Whitehouse US to mysterious labs in India, from  Russian secret service  to facilities in China, Sanghi begins well. Once inside the secret lab facility and in trying to explain the Tibetan Book of the Dead, he loses pace. He picks it up again with action sequences but frankly it is a bit disappointing when he tries to explain Hindu and Buddhist philosophy as well as Christian, Jewish and Islamic history as it stretches the reader's patience as so much info is dropped in, especially in the middle of an action sequence.

All said and done, the ending will leave you stunned if you read the book completely. I will say a brisk beginning, intriguing center that slowly drops into a winding read and a fast and stunning end that will leave people wondering if this is what is really happening as it is too close to actual political events.

Don't include all your research Mr. Sanghi in your books. Fascinating as it is, it slows down the thriller.

If you wish to buy the book, go here  Click to buy it from Amazon

Before Baahubali - The Rise of Sivagami

The Rise of Sivagami
by Anand Neelakantan
492 pages, Westland, 2017
Genre : Fiction
Language : English and mutliple Indian languages.


With people going mad about Baahubali2 - the conclusion, and social media pointing out the box office record - 1000 crores in nine days already, I am sure the director must be a happy man. However, I would suggest, people like me who have not seen the movie yet, read the book first to get a sense of people,  place and its history. This was missing in Baahubali 1.

How did a casteless society descend into slavery and child murder? Why are the corrupt allowed to live while the innocent murdered without question ? How did Mahishmathi descend to such a level and to protect what secret? Why is skin color which was unimportant before now so important? Neelakantan asks and answers these questions and more in his book, The Rise of Sivagami.

Sivagami is an orphan whose father, Devarayya is killed and branded a traitor. Her only aim in life is to demolish the royal family and seek revenge for her father's death. Neelakantan tells the story of orphan Sivagami and her rise to the level of Bhoomipathi - a title her father once held.  By telling the story of Sivagami and her  friend Kamakshi, we are also taken through the stories of young slaves obedient Kattappa and his rebellious brother Shivappa who longs for freedom, the young princes Bijjala and Mahadeva, siblings who are complete opposites in character, the original tribes who had been driven out of their land and are forced to take refuge in the forest by betrayal and not by war, the pirates who raid villages, rape women and kidnap children so they can be sold in the kingdom while the royal family and the bureaucrats of the kingdom turn a blind eye. It is a place where loyal people are killed while the corrupt are rewarded. What is damning secret in the document that Sivagami finds in the ancient language which she cannot read?

The pace is fast. The prose is poetic at many points but predictable at times if you had already seen Baahubali 1 in which some of the scenes slowly makes sense now. Since this is a story of three generations and a horrible secret hidden from the people of the kindgom, I look forward to reading the sequel as the book ends abruptly with a teaser - Sivagami now has to kill her father's best friend or be killed. And how does she go from being the destroyer of the royal family to becoming its Raja Matha?

Go here to buy the book

Reluctant Rebellions by Shauna Singh Baldwin

Reluctant Rebellions: New and Selected Non-fiction

By Shauna Singh Baldwin

151 pages, Center for Indo-Canadian Studies, 2016

Genre: Non-fiction

“You cannot resist and confront patriarchy, the longest-running empire the world has ever known, face anxiety, uncertainty, peril, long-term suffering or separation, without a very strong personal motive.

You will feel that personal motive when something you or your child need is unjustly denied—such as food, shelter, pay, op­portunity, love, respect, child custody, or inheritance. Then you will either subdue anger and swallow your pride, or reluctantly rebel.” - Page 122, Reluctant Rebellions.
 

Hi you, in the aftermath of Uri attacks, I found chest beating not out of sorrow for the dead but “we will get you” while the Indian defense establishment stayed silent thankfully. The surgical strikes which are never publicized led to more chest thumping like gorillas. It was a narrative that reminded me of partition! Many Indians who I would term sane took to shouting on television and social media about how we should “nuke Pakistan.” Really? How are we supposed to live with ourselves after killing so many innocent beings and also why do these idiots not consider the aftermath of a radiation filled neighborhood?  Radiation knows no boundaries and can cross the LoC and kill more innocents. As a nation, we were zooming into hate, a phenomenon that I couldn’t digest and left many Indians extremely uneasy. Then there were Clinton-Trump debates where both exhibited “strength” that made me sick. These weren’t debates but narratives of who will “beat the crap of anyone different from us” better.  That is when I began to read “Reluctant Rebellions” by Shauna Singh Baldwin, a Canadian author of Indian origin whose ancestors were refugees from Pakistan and lives in the US.  It is a series of essays and speeches that gave me hope people will overcome the temporary madness we descend into if one begins to not let dominant narrative define who we are.

Do we define our identity or should we accept how others define us? Aren’t we really defined by multiple identities like gender, race, religion, region, language, profession, etc.? Since none of us choose to be born into any of these identities, how can we let one category define us or commit the sin of generalizing an entire community based on one category be it language, gender, race, religion, region, profession, ideology, appearance or country? These are the questions that Baldwin asks and answers in her brilliantly compassionate book, Reluctant Rebellions –New and Selected Nonfiction, a collection of speeches and essays written over the last 20 years that covers over 200 years of world history.

Interesting insights

During partition, the feminine values in all those of Baldwin’s grandparents’ generation died. The Indian subcontinent holocaust happened while the world including the UN looked on and the British haven’t apologized to date. Eventually, people came to accept it like a tsunami except in this case it was not natural. Also, instead of helping people, who were affected, people killed and displaced each other. At that time, people of the Indian subcontinent were a minority whose lives didn’t matter. So what if over 17 million people were affected? We weren’t considered human enough to dedicate a UN assembly session towards right of return like they did for Palestinians or the Holocaust in the aftermath of Partition like the Israelis.

Even before that, during the Second World War, Indians died in millions including Noor Inayat Khan who was killed by the Nazis as she spied for the Allies that helped in the successful landings at Normandy. In the Western narrative of the Second World War, the contribution of millions of Indians is not considered worth being told. Baldwin reminds South Asian writers who write in English have “The responsibility to twist, push and puncture the sanctity of English so it translates the experience of the non-Christians”.  

Over the decades since independence, 160 million girl babies have disappeared or killed in the name of gender selection in India. Again, silence has taken over as no one wants to talk about it. In an era of terrorism worldwide, there is definition only in the name of country or religion or both. She also says to writers worldwide, “Believing in freedom of speech is not enough—we need to fight for it, fight for the rights of writers and other artists who are not free. That may mean fighting for the free speech rights of people with whom we don’t agree.” Women are sidelined again. Crimes against women are on the rise worldwide. So Baldwin urges women to reluctantly rebel while maintaining our cultural hybrid identities with our primary identity being human.

But what exactly is “Reluctant Rebellion”? Baldwin answers this towards the end of her book, “Reluctant rebellion is a mode of thinking that questions boundaries and pushes back, kindly and firmly. It says, I respect you, and I also respect myself.”                                                    

The style of the writing is crisp and at times reflective. Some passages are so beautiful and moving that if begin to quote, I might end up quoting entire essays. There are several “Oh! I didn’t know that” moments like the fact undivided India had to pay money for its freedom! My favourite essay is “Meeting the Bogeyman” as it is probably the most relevant to the world today especially to the largest and oldest democracies which seem to be losing it.

This is an important book to read to remind ourselves who we are, what we need to do and what kind of world we wish to leave the future generations. So shall we begin?

 Buy the print  book  here or Kindle version here

©  2016  by Deepa Kandaswamy

The Sari woven in prison by Nehru for Indira Gandhi's wedding

The Red Sari
by Javier Moro
Genre: Non-fiction
Available in different formats and languages.

In India, Sonia Gandhi is a mystery, especially for the generations born after 1960 in India. While some may remember Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and their horrible assassinations which wounded their psyche as children and chose to forget it as it is too painful that made the rise of the Hindu Right in the late 80s possible, this novel makes it hard to forget and gives a glimpse into the life of Sonia Gandhi.

The Red Sari is almost a biographical account of Sonia Gandhi and addresses most of the accusation filled rhetoric of the media and  politicians of different parties in India against Sonia Gandhi who they describe as "a person with power but no responsibility." Her Italian origins are mocked at and some go to the extent of claiming that she is a foreign spy. This book answers their accusations.

The style is crisp. It lifts the curtain behind the mystery that is Sonia Gandhi and introduces the reader to her family, her love story, the story of Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv ever since she became the elder daughter-in-law, her children and grandchildren, the 1971 war, the emergency, Operation Blue Star, the Bofors scandal, the security scares and the reason she agreed to become Congress President finally even though she was offered it on a platter again and again since Rajiv's murder. It is like reading the history of India from 1968 with all its triumphs and tragedies and the challenges faced by the leaders.

This is a must read for all Indians born after 1960 and for those interested in Indian politics. Amazing this book has been ignored by the media.

You can buy the book here  or here in India