Review-On the Krishna Trail

Few years back, I visited the southern part of India and visited many places like Munnar, Allyppey, Kovalam, Wellington, Tiruvanantpuram and Rameshwaram. It was while visiting Rameshwaram and the Rameshwaram temple when we heard all the tales and legends from locals, and saw all the murals and paintings around the city and the temple itself, and of course, a live demo of the rocks that float on water when inscribed with the name of Lord Rama, there was this deep desire within me to complete the trail of the journey of Rama. Visit places where he was born, places which were special to him, Sita temples in Nepal and so on.. But it was an extensive journey and despite harboring this desire for long, I never could partake it.

On the Krishna Trail is a unique book. The author Lalitha Balasubramanian decided to visit one of the places related to Krishna when her husband suggested to complete the trail by visiting every place related to Krishna and that is the very basis of this book. Its a memoir of this trail with details of all places, every temple, every tale, every legend and local encountered, along with helpful details like how to reach the place, what to visit, in what capacity, etc. The details are so colorful you feel you are actually visiting the place and seeing/feeling what the author was actually going through.

The book is also marked by photographs taken by the author during the journey and the author has decided to pursue pics of not only the more famous places, but also of the lesser famous ones and even certain important points and places. The temples and places she visits in the book range from old earlier constructed Vedic temples to the more recent ones. 

As mentioned earlier, what makes her narration interesting is her coverage of all legends and tales related to each of the place and temple and then enhancing the reader experience with photographs of this place. Another major achievement of Lalitha has been that she has written this book from the viewpoint of a devotee and not that of a tourist. In my opinion, that makes all the difference that there is between what could have been a regular travel memoir and a heartfelt coverage of the life of Krishna.

I dont have any complaint with the book. The writer has been successful in keeping the narration interesting and you are always hooked to the chapters which is mostly what you wont expect with books covering personal travel details of the author. The author deserves full marks for achieving exactly what she had set out for initially.

I would give this book a perfect 5/5

The book is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B097LBPRVW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Review- The Good Wizard

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 Growing up one of my most favorite show on TV was Alif Laila. That and I have always been in awe of The Tales of Arabian Knights. While Aladdin has catapulted itself into another level of stardom, the rest of them also have fan favorites. Prasun Roy's The Good Wizard reminded me of those childhood memories. 

Despite Prasun wanting to keep it very real, this clearly falls into the fantasy genre, and many would claim this one is for kids. Well, we all were kids at one point of time, so why would it not appeal to anyone and everyone? This is one book where I can easily claim, its for everyone. And if like me you enjoyed the fantasy genre shows or games or movies like Ajooba, well you are in for a treat.

The best part about the book is that the story drops in the middle of nowhere, which in my opinion is very important for a book belonging to the fantasy genre. In the very first opening scene, there is a wizard who is the best at what he does and that chapter itself stamps the theme, the tone, the protagonists and the antagonists of the book. There is a larger than life magician who does larger than life tricks and then there is a larger than life villain akin to Jafar or Mogambo...well you get the idea.

The great magician is losing his art to his failing health and mind and he has to bestow the knowledge upon someone. Enter the young kid Titli who has all what it takes, except that she needs some discipline and guidance to achieve all great things that life has planned out for her. Their relationship and journey together is what forms the crux of this book. The ending is kind of expected, the magic is in the narration.

The book is interesting, and as I said, perfect for kids and adults alike who like fantasy genre. There is never a dull moment and the pacing and narration has been consistent and not once you feel bored or want to take a break. Despite knowing whats going to happen in the end, it still keeps you on your toes. Thats the magic of this genre.

I dont have any major complaints with the book, a few  minor hiccups(like villagers claiming their secular credentials again and again and again. Once should be enough). Also there....well lets not spoil the party with more complains.

This is the perfect book I would want my son to read and one I could gift to any kid that I know of. In fact if you are an adult and you tell me you have loved movies and shows like Ajooba or Toofan or Aladdin or Chandrakanta, well I would gift it to you as well.

All in all, I would give this book a perfect 5/5

You can purchase the book from Amazon

https://www.amazon.in/Good-Wizard-Prasun-Roy/dp/9390441072

Review- Kaikeyi: The Warrior Queen of Koshala

 I will be honest. I dont believe in regionalism. I think literature and arts and entertainment transcend beyond regions and boundaries.

But, when I learnt author Jai Shukla, whose book Kaikeyi: The Warrior Queen of Koshala is available on Kindle and that he is a fellow Kanpuriya, well, I was delighted. 

As the author mentions clearly in the foreword, not much is available in any text about Kaikeyi. The fact that she triggered such a mammoth change in the Indian landscape, the ripples and chants of whose are vibrant even today, still she is not covered or discussed or written about much, is indeed a mystery. Kudos to Jai Shukla for picking up such a topic.

Jai has put up a lot of his worldly experience and maturity in the book which is evident right from the start. There is an immense amount of study, research and exploration done to write this book and it is pretty evident in its pages. Jai has carefully crafted the characters of Kaikeyi and Manthra and these two are the backbones of the book. As the entire book is about the early years of Kaikeyi and her marriage to Dashrath, the focus is solely on her childhood and her youth and few years into her marriage. There is a lot of worldly knowledge also put up in the pages mixed with lot of references from source text which keep the flavor of the book interesting. How the entire situation eventually leads our two main characters to be what they later became is capture beautifully.

On the flip side one problem with the book is that for some reason Jai has decided not to capture her later years, specially her sending Rama to exile or when Rama returned, or when Bharat decided not to be king. Jai himself has accepted that there is very less source material about Kaikeyi and when you dont cover a good 70-80% of her story, you are left with even lesser source material to refer to. This is not necessarily a big problem but from reader's perspective they wanted to know how such a firebrand young girl would have reacted to these situations in details.

However, if we just consider this book as a a coming of age book for Kaikeyi then Jai has exceled in what he set out for. Jai paints a very lively picture of the kingdom and how things are in the kingdom and the royalty themselves. The challenges, the triumphs, the shackles of the royals of Koshala are captured very realistically. The cover of the book is really intriguing and I would give full marks for making the cover captivating

All in all I would go with a 4.5/5 rating for the book

You can purchase it from here

https://www.amazon.in/Kaikeyi-Warrior-Koshala-Jai-Shukla/dp/9385440918/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626315674&sr=1-1

Review- The House of Awadh

There is already a huge backlog which I have to clear up out of my books and while last few weeks provided with ample opportunities to clear it up, work and other family duties have stuck again and I am going slow with reading and reviewing again. Weather is flip-flopping between extreme hot to cold and we are confused between keeping the windows opened or closed at night lol.

This week I had the chance to read The House of Awadh by Nitin Kushalappa MP

I started reading this one without reading the blurb or context. With under a 100 pages, this seemed like a quick read, so I decided to pick it up as I didnt want to jump into longer books at this point of time. 

The cover seems decent. You can figure out a marriage ceremony being done. 

The first thing that hits you when you start reading the first ten pages is the speed of the book. It seems like the author is rushing to introduce all characters, and there are so many of them, and their life choices, their destiny in a very short span of time. The story just rushes from one character to another and it becomes a very demanding read. The setting is modern day India and you are confused as to why the author is rushing so much.

By the time you reach the 11th or 12th page, you realize that this is modern day retelling of Ramayana, with all characters and situations modified to suit modern times. Once you grasp this, it becomes an easy read, because now you know these characters and you know the situations which are going to happen, or happening currently. Now the characters are known so its not that demanding anymore.

Nitin has a huge daunting task in front of him. Previously, there have been attempts  made to retell Ramayana in another context. Mani Ratnam's Raavan or Manoj Kumar's Kalyug ki Ramayan were both such attempts and despite the brilliance of Mani Ratnam, both attempts tanked hugely. So, its not an easy task to retell Ramayana in modern context. With that task in hand, Nitin has done a good job by retelling the story where Rama is a software expert along with Lakshmana while Ravana is a mafia don and Hanuman is a lawyer and so on...

Nitin has done a huge amount of research going much beyond and above of what is mentioned in Ramayana. He has tried to gather as much details and incorporate as much characters as possible and tried to weave a modern day story around it. While turning the pages, there always is a curiosity of how he has interpreted the forthcoming event as mentioned in Ramayana. How he has mentioned the Sita Swayamvar, how he interprets Agni Pariksha, how he interprets Shurpnakha incident and so on. He has done a thorough research and applied a huge deal of imagination of which event would be interpreted as how. Most of the times, he has been successful and when those events occur you want to applaud the author for his imagination and open mindedness.

On the flip side, perhaps the biggest enemy of Nitin's book is its size. Ramayana is a huge subject, and even when modernizing it, it still is a huge subject. I dont know what compulsion Nitin had to finish it up within a 100 pages. There are a lot many events which just come out of nowhere because Nitin had to interpret it to be a part of his book but there is not enough back story and not enough reasoning provided. At many times the book feels rushed and honestly its a disservice to Nitin himself because there is such a diverse and vibrant world he had painted and so much effort went into research and interpretation but the number of pages restrict him.

Still, this book is a huge effort and mostly it succeeds in binding you. Barring minor inconveniences, its a brilliant read and the interpretations of a thousand year old text in modern context comes very natural and modern. The best part for me was that despite modernizing the epic tale, he stayed true to the source text. This for me was an attempt worth applauding.

I would go ahead with a rating of 4.5/5. I again appreciate the task that Nitin set out to achieve and does shine brilliantly.

You can buy the book at

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B083JMV55B/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

Review- Humorously Yours

 Sometimes all it takes is an anecdote.

Sometime you dont need a story. A beginning, an end, a message in between. Sometimes, an anecdote is all you need.

While reading through Amitabh Sarwate's "Humorously Yours", I was often reminded of Malgudi Days by R K Narayan, published in 1943. And thats an actual compliment for the author. Short tales from the grounds of Deccan Gymkhana from Pune, the chapters involve few members of the gymkhana talking to each other, with a character named Barkhurdar always as pivotal point of these talks, and the one who drives each chapter, some times by being an active participant of the tale being told, some times a passive participant.

Despite the name, the book is more of tales and anecdotes which range from subtelety including hope, ambition, faith, and then in some cases, crazy situations.  The cover of the book was OK. There is a good art work in the book which makes it interesting, but cover could have been more engrossing. Its my personal opinion, the back cover would have made a better front cover for the book.

There are certain good things about the book. The chapters are all interesting anecdotes. None of them appear boring. You can pick up the book any time when a chapter ends and a new tale awaits you. As this is not a book of stories but rather of anecdotes, author has focussed just on one character and rest are just few names and milestones on the road. Every chapter is interesting, every tale is fresh, and you can recommend on his writing style that he builds up interest as soon as the tale starts. Amitabh has explored a number of topics ranging across the horizon to compile his list of tales. He has chosen well. He has also been successful in making the character of Barkhurdar memorable and interesting.

I dont really have any major complaints from the book(Except occassional missing quotations for spoken dialogues, which doesnt cost anything because you understand who is speaking and to whom).

 As I mentioned previously, not all chapters are funny but some of them are very subtle and dormant in their ambition. However, because of the same, a couple of chapters end up going nowhere. Also, a few chapters really go into details which is often not needed to drive the chapter. The tale and the anecdote is itself good and there is not really a need to drive the "how" when the "what" is interesting itself. These details sometimes break the continuity of the chapter. 

Its also my personal opinion that characters like Barkhurdar should remain ambiguous for the life of the book. Revealing his back story, kind of rubs a bit of charm off him towards the end.

But, these are just minor complaints. Amitabh delivers each chapter like a master story teller where each chapter most of the time ends up taking a path which reader wont often expect. Amitabh tries hard to build up a setting of Deccan Gymkhana the way, I assume,  he would have seemed through his own eyes. This book certainly has the mileage and the potential to drive a home run.

I would go with a rating of 4.5/5 for the book

You can purchase the book from here

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B089NS4D7H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Review - The color of Heavens

 I was naturally inclined towards reading this book after reading the blurb because I wanted to get an in-depth understanding of what went through the lanes and bylanes of smaller and major towns of Kerela when the Sabrimala judgment was passed. Previously I have read arguments from both sides of the spectrum, but only as a third person. This gave me an opportunity to witness it through characters

The book I am talking about is To Colour the Heavens

A very simple cover marked by two colors. Author could have gone for a more vivid cover as this kind of gives feeling of an old school book or some older novels, so I wont judge the book by its cover. To me the cover was simple enough and attractive yet not really pulling. So, I would stay neutral.

The book is a story of seven individuals from different walks of life, different ages, different educational backgrounds, different fields who come together to visit the Sabrimala temple after the judgment was passed that women could, in fact, visit the inner sanctum. Few of these are pure devotees, some just want to be a part of this journey while some just want to be part of this group. The story is told from the perspective of each of these seven individuals, their relationship with each other and how this journey changes their lives.

The book has a complex subject to deal with. It has to show the side which was in favor of the judgment and the author has picked up his seven characters well. Some are devotees so want to visit since childhood, some are just wanting to be part of the historical judgment. They face challenges and fury of those who are against the judgment. Each character has its own arc and their relationship with each one of the other is portrayed well. The book is written in a non-linear fashion where there are time jumps and also character jumps(what one character says in the end of one chapter is picked up by another.) Author has tried to keep the narrative going forward through how each character tells their story and is definitely a fresh take. 

On the flip side, a few hiccups here and there do exist. There are two kind of books- character driven and plot driven. This one is character driven. In a character driven book, cohesion between pages is very important.  In a character driven book the author cannot assume the reader knows his characters already. He has to introduce them to readers and build them up gradually so that reader knows them properly. There is a good amount of backstory and history for each character but author has started them right off the bat without letting reader learn about them. Another major hiccup is lack of and improper quotations, punctuations and paragraph breaks. These hiccups dont take anything away from the book itself but make it a very demanding read where you have to pay more attention that what it should take.

Though I wont say these hiccups impact the book and narrative highly negative. This was a complex book and the first book by the author. These are somethings he can work on in future. The history of each character described is very thoughtful and well researched. These are people who actually can exist in your office, your college, your neighborhood and yet each have a story worth telling.

This was a good read as it introduced me to a new perspective. I would give this book a 4/5

You can buy the book on Amazon

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B096YGYXF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Review - Happimess

 Two things which you have to keep in mind while reading or watching any book or a movie or show based on humor, 1)Comedy is subjective. 2)Making people laugh is the most difficult thing to do.

Being a part of the literary circle, I have always had one major complain with my fellow Indian authors. They dont take risks. Most just want to take the road often traveled, and hold themselves back in delving into subjects beyond romance or at most drama. 

That is the reason anytime I find a book with a difference, specially by an Indian author, I give a half point extra for the thought and the effort that was put in. Love story with a major twist, any good mystery novel, a drama with a peculiar undercurrent are all examples of such. Good humorous books by Indian authors are rarity. You may still find satirical books available or on shelves, but crazy whacky comedy is hard to find. So, I give Biswajit half points extra even before I begin.

Happimess by Biswajit is a collection of small anecdotes, which begin practically but then Biswajit's imagination takes over and go way beyond normal.

For once, I was not very impressed with the cover. I mean its still good, but not something which would immediately attract me. Must be because I never saw the physical copy and I read it on Kindle, so totally possible physical copy would be more attractive than digital.

There is not one character in the book, except maybe the protagonist who is the story teller himself. Crazy whacky characters enter one anecdote, play their part, and leave. The book is divided into chapters where each is based on a theme. And then the chapter keeps on taking turn after turn based on that theme.

The book is an easy read. You can pick it up any time of the day and still enjoy the content. Happimess is a book that grows on you. Initially the satire and the humor seemed totally out of the loop to me, but by the time I hit 3rd or 4th chapter, I could understand Biswajit's humor and then I re-read the first two chapters again and this time I liked the jokes in there. Biswajit has tried hard to create wacky situations out of regular day to day activities, which seem weird at first of how quickly things escalate but once you accept it as the theme of the book, you start to enjoy.

On the flip side, its my personal opinion that books based on crazy whacky comedy or satire should be written in simpler english, throw in some vernacular lingo and that makes it more laughable. Using complex lingo takes away some sheen from the comic element. Also,  at times Biswajit stretches his self indulgence into his humor way above and beyond when the chapter could have ended two paragraphs earlier.

But, overall its a very nice read. Many years back I read a comedy book by Cyrus Broachs and I didnt enjoy it once. But I definitely did enjoy Biswjit's book and that should speak volumes for his efforts. I enjoyed his satires more than his "on your face" jokes, but as I mentioned in the beginning, comedy is subjective and I am sure someone would have enjoyed those jokes more than satire. 

I would have gone with a rating of 4/5, but as mentioned previously, I give one extra half point for the effort and taking risks which not many people take.

So, 4.5/5 is the verdict from me.

You can buy the book on Amazon

https://www.amazon.in/HAPPIMESS-BISWAJIT-BANERJI/dp/8194382041/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1623206552&sr=1-1