Sitayana by Amit Majumdar - My Review

Think of India and its ancient epics/stories for a few seconds. If your brain did not pick up Ramayana and Mahabharata in those few seconds, please stop reading right here and feel free to go back to what you were doing. Both these epics are inseparable from India. And, any kid that grew up in 1980 or earlier would not have slept in the night at least a day without hearing stories from these great epics (today's life is different, parents are busy and the kids have their own preference for stories). How many retellings for these epics. Did the story ever change? No. But, what makes every retelling unique. There could be multiple reasons, but the one that comes on top of my mind is the author's imagination. Come, let us go further and see how yet another retelling of the great epic Ramayana by Amit Majmudar looks and feels like.

Firstly, who is playing the leading role in Ramayana? Rama obviously. Isn't it? Amit has taken a diversion here to name his book as Sitayana (though this is not the only book out there under this name - K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar named his book as Sitayana). I have listened to discourses on Ramayana and there are many of them suggesting that Valmiki gave many names to this epic including Sitayana, Sita Charitam etc., but finally settled down with Ramayana. In fact, this whole epic is centered and weaved around Sita, and so Sitayana is very much correct and acceptable. We must appreciate the author for choosing this name.

Next, Ramayana is usually a sequential story (Mahabharata is little different where there is a story inside a story inside a story... and so on). Every time you hear that from elders, or you take a book and read, the story is not going to change, but can bring different perspectives. That's exactly where the author has scored points. Many appreciations are due to the other for conceiving the retelling like this. It is the same epic, but as you read, you hear it directly from the ones that are part of the epic itself.

Have we ever known from our earlier hearings on how naughty Sita was? Or, have we ever read about what she was fed, what she was taught and was capable of and so on? Possibly no. When you hear directly from Sita when the book starts with her, you are more than interested and inspired to read it. There is enough humour in each and every chapter - the secret whisperings between Sita and Urmila during the swayamwara is just a hint of what is waiting for you throughout your read. The dialogue between Mandodari and Sita gives many deeper perspectives of both the positive and negative aspects, which we never have come across before. The belief that Mandodari has on her husband comes out very strong in the author's words.

Usually, the interactions that we know between Hanuman and Sita are pretty rudimentary. But, when you read those chapters where they interact it is much more - what's in their heart - a lucid conversation. You will have to make sure that you are secluded and in a separate room when you are reading the happenings in Ravana's court when Hanuman was caught and enquired there. Such a great wit with which this was written that you will laugh like anything. Vibishan, usually known to be a silent, smart and polite character and Indrajit, Ravana's son known to be strong, gets their due in this great book. Nowhere else will you see the in-depth depictions of these two, sidelined but powerful characters. The writings on these two are filled with lot of inner meanings rather than a usual just-for-a-novel like bare sentences.

Shurpanakha, Jambavan and Kumbhakarna all get their chance to talk in this great book. Ravana's own words establish what this great epic is meant for - everyone is born with both human and rakshasa character, and it is the great mix that does the magic. Indra and Valmiki also become part of this retelling which adds great value to the book itself. If the author has dedicated a chapter for what a squirrel and the mount Sanjeevini that play small role in this great epic, then the author needs no further praise (read this in a positive way)! And, there is a bit of ice age too when the squirrel takes the stone and thinks that it is a walnut :-)

The language that is used is elegant - not very simple, but definitely not very complicated; but, apt enough to carry the deeper and inner meanings of the conversations between different characters and what's in their mind in a unique way. The anecdotes and the analogies used throughout the writing exemplifies the efforts that the author has put. The exquisite nature of the characters and the environment comes out brilliantly in the same way. This one is not just a simple retelling. It is much more than that. Kudos to Amit Majmudar for having such an exceptional imagination to depict the always-known-and-heard-several-times Ramayana!

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal - Review

At a time the whole world is talking incessantly about inclusion and diversity that includes equal employment for women, equal pay for women, Ruby Lal has come up with this great biography of Mihr-un-Nisa. Ah, my fault! We won't recognize her unless I use the name 'Nur Jahan' here. Never would most of us have thought that it requires a whole book to describe "The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan". Yes, I am using the same phrase that Ruby has used, because that is the most apt term and I or most of us will not be able to think anything better (I certainly could not think of anything better than this).

It would have become little difficult for the readers if the author directly went on to explain the unparalleled rule of Nur Jahan; the author being experienced in history realized this completely, and so has crafted the those introduction chapters beautifully well, so the readers will have the complete picture of her birth and her rise to the throne. For many readers, it might be overwhelming when the authors go in depth into who ruled Persia, who ruled India, the route that Nur’s parents took to reach India or who led that caravan. But, these are all the major things – the attention to minute details like this that separates a book and this book from everything else.

Ruby has quoted extensively from various sources to give a complete picture of Nur Jahan’s life. Whether it is the political shrewdness, her hunting skills, or her conquering various battles. No one should miss the chapter ‘Ascent’ and that one, probably by a cognizant decision occupies the middle pages and strengthens the book by connecting the earlier and the following chapters. The political alliances, how she helped various people and how ‘Light of the palace’ became ‘Light of the world’ are elucidated well in these pages. The chapter ‘The Rescue’ gives a detailed account of Nur’s abilities to plan meticulously to rescue Jahangir from the opponents.

As you proceed and read towards the end of the book, you feel the inevitable – a strong respect for the great empress that India had seen during the Mughal reign and possibly the only great empress the world has seen as well (I have heard about Cleopatra, but have not read about her in detail yet).

Few salient points about the book itself: The first thing that captures your mind in this book are the carefully selected magnificent images from various sources.  As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, the success of the book can be easily measured by how far the author succeeds in bring the images and visuals live in the eyes of the reader when he/she reads the book. Not every author succeeds in that. It is very evident to see Ruby’s hard work, research and the time she spent for bring out this marvel, because you can sit and see those events in front of your eyes when you are reading the book. The language used is very rich yet simple enough for everyone to understand and enjoy the exhaustive account of Nur Jahan’s life. The only thing that you must be aware is that this is a biography of the women who influenced and ruled the empire alongside her husband, which means that there are multiple other actors and happenings expounded to a great extent and some people might find it overwhelming. I will give more than a five stars for this marvel.

Job Be Damned by Rishi Piparaiya

It is part of most of our lives. It is something most of us hate every minute, but cannot accept that openly except when gossiping among the friends circle. And, when we are at it, it is 50% of the effort to achieve the 100% in 200% time. Yeah, most of us go through it daily, and wait for the weekend, even before the week dawns.

Written entirely as a satirical piece, Rishi's "Job Be Damned" tells truth and nothing but the truth of the typical IT industry. Rishi brilliantly brings out the unfortunate culture that we seem to have created ourselves over the last few decades. In just about 200 pages, Rishi beautifully covers the entire job life cycle.  Starting with the different types of the companies, writing your resume, the interview process, the management - and everything beyond it in a very hilarious manner. And, what is special is all these things are covered with the own words that corporates used - in other words, no glorification. Just explains the guts that Rishi has.

If you are in the corporate, you must read it. Why leave the fun when someone has taken the pain to narrate the story of our day to day life? :-) The flow is so simple that you don't have to think a lot. Just keep reading, and you realize, the average employee's happening and then you realize "OMG! It looks like my own story!" Every chapter or section here brings out a laughter - that is guaranteed! And, you will find all the jargons that you come across daily over emails, conversations, post-lunch-leisurely walks etc., How the industry's employees handle the meetings, make the bosses happy, cook the sales figures. And, what exactly is management and more importantly middle management, the never ending powerpoint factory etc.,

I actually wanted to quote few things from the book as part of this review, but, I am extremely sorry. I picked up one thing, then I read it for the eleventh time, doing a ROFL. Then let me read some other page. And, back to ROFL stage. Sorry, I give up! I won't be able to quote anything from this book as part of review because every single para is a gem that eases your stress and makes you the happiest person when you read that. But, I can tell you which parts win when bringing out those laughter. It is the imaginary conversation/dialogues/emails between the boss and the employees.

A completely entertaining-rollicking-exuberant-boisterous-jocular-uproarious read presented by Rishi Piparaiya! Go for it! For sure, you will not be disappointed!

The Shrine of Death by Divya Kumar

A debut novel. An interesting plot. Came out very well, Divya! First, hats off for your efforts. Before I start the review, I wanted to tell you something. I had the opportunity of visiting few Chozhaa (Chola) build temples in and around Kumbakonam, at the same time I was reading this book. A lucky coincidence that made the reading interesting, and the visits to these temples even more interesting. So, what a coincidence!

As like my previous reviews on any thriller related novels, I won't go into the story as even a bit can spoil the reading for whoever picks the book in their hand. So, I won't do that mistake. The book has everything a typical thriller will have and more - friendship, deceit, suspicion etc., The one that makes this one stand tall is the idol theft which has become very common these days, especially in Tamilnadu where people are finding the idols belonging to the temples of Tamilnadu in remote parts of the world like Europe, Australia and America. The choice of characters and their profession goes really well with the plot. Today, greed is the reason for most of the crimes and that has been covered here as well. There are few places where the story looks dragging, but that does not stop you from your reading.

And, like in many Tollywood and Kollywood movies, love sparkles between two people coming together for a purpose, even when the plot is a thriller and that's here in this novel also. And, as you are progressing, it is not very difficult to guess the culprit. In my humble opinion, a thriller novel can make the reader guess the culprit, but it should introduce enough confusions throughout to change those guesses throughout the novel. The character names could have been chosen better to align with their descriptions/background. The language could have been polished a little bit to make it more professional. I hope things like these will be taken care of next time.

The twists and turns, the surprises, the India-based plot all are very impressive. Especially, I really appreciate choosing the IT professional character involving in such a thriller - something not everyone can think of. All in all, a very good debut novel from Prabha, sorry, Divya. Prabha resides in your mind even after you finish the novel and I am always confusing the author with Prabha. :-). Buy it and read. The novel won't disappoint you!

You Can Achieve More by Shiv Khera

Shiv Khera - the name that easily reminds us of the famous title "You Can Win!" Though there are few more titles that he wrote, "You Can Win!" goes synonymous with his name. Now, that is all set to change, with his new book "You Can Achieve More: Live by Design; Not by Default!". Whoever is in a professional job, especially, the engineering professionals would know how difficult it is to move ahead in the career. Mainly, it is the lack of clarity on what he or she can do to move ahead. And, if you share the same concern, then this book is for you. With a 23 well-crafted chapters, each well-organized and richly filled with examples and anecdotes, Shiv inspires us to take the next step.

The book starts with talking about the very attitude that we all have, saying attitude is the most important thing that decides who we are, and whether we can win. Most of the times, we all feel that we are limited by circumstances, or the people around us, but we never think beyond that. There, Shiv gives the beautiful idea to bring a win-win situation for everyone and everything involved: Change your attitude and things will be pleasant. The next couple of chapters go into the aspect of ‘Life’. The core theme of the book “Live by design and not by default” begins here. The whole point of these chapters is to see those opportunities and grab them. We all come into this life with whatever was given to us, and it is up to us to see what we can make out of those resources. And, this depends on the choices that we make – the design!

I am quite surprised by the chapter that talks about “Spirituality”. You often don’t see a lecture on spirituality in a book on personality development. The author insists on spirituality as the way of life. The next chapter talks about the mind, and the importance of brining in positivity and remove all those negative things that the mind accumulates or has accumulated. And, unless the latter happens, we are limiting ourselves on whatever we are doing or aspiring to do. The chapter on “Making the winner” lists the qualities that everyone must possess to be the winner. The author, in another chapter, also lists the mistakes that one should avoid that prevent us from reaching our goal. The book also emphasizes the values that should be part of our life. Especially, the chapter title itself explains what it is going to explain: “Valuations change, but values don’t”. The character that we need to possess, and the unethical stuff that we need to eliminate forms most important part of achieving more. Unless, we emulate the goodness in the lives like being trustworthy, ethical, with integrity etc., we always hold ourselves. And, beautifully here, integrity finds a whole chapter dedicated to it. The organizational head that I work for stands as an epitome of the principles that are listed here and for him integrity is the foremost.

Many a times, we are on our right path to achieve more, but we forget the most important thing as we go along that path – the balance. We don’t usually feel the importance of balance, but just for a moment if we think, this balance can help us achieve more because we get all the strength and energy from the people that surrounds us and inspires us to do more. It also acts to help us on our mental (st)ability. My first boss used to say, activity is not accomplishment. We are all busy doesn’t mean we are achieving. Over a time, we should stop take a look back and see how far we have come and if our efforts are rewarding. And, if they are, we should take a moment to be proud. And, in our path to achieve more, we should see if we are happy. The author, as he mentions in the introduction (that happiness is defined by three factors: Good Health, Good Wealth and Good Relationships) has dedicated a chapter for wealth. We need to be extremely prosperity consciousness and that is explained by a load of theories on the mistakes that we make and how to overcome them.

If you have been part of the corporate team meetings, you would have heard the word “proactive” a lot. That is of utmost importance as per the author, along with time control. The cost of procrastination is too much: it takes a hit on health, wealth, relationships, work everything. Above all, making good decisions at right time leads you to your goal and helps you leave a legacy for your next generation and followers. The author has beautifully presented. He has in fact mentioned it very clearly that this is a not a book that you should rush to finish. You should take your time to go through each page (several times if necessary), digest it and put the learnings in to action.

Well done, Sir! I am sure you have achieved more than “You Can Win!” with this book!

Pinto Has an Idea

Before I can really get into the review, let me tell you - "This book has a potential to become a movie very soon". So, before it becomes a movie and gets compressed losing all the greatness it has in the paper form, read the book. Also, let me state it: I really do not want to get into the story or part of the story to reveal bits and pieces of it. So, my review is mostly from the aspects of the book and why you should read it.

Recently, my kid had a story telling competition at school and the way I had written the first line for her to tell is "Knowledge and presence of mind are power supreme." 'Pinto has an idea' closely matches this line. It narrates the story of an inquisitive Rajat whose nick name is Pinto and his always unquenched thirst for knowledge, to come up with something new, aims to reach people, and the struggles that he had to undergo at many places including his love life. Not sure why they call it usually love chemistry, but this book is a real chemistry mixing science, love and many other stuff.

In India, many of us (or most of us) really excel in theory, and that is because of the fact that our education system gives importance to how much you can memorize and not how much you can practically apply what you learnt. Pinto is different. He always has an idea, excels in studies from school to IIT to MIT, and then throws away everything to invent practical solutions to everyday problems that the society faces. His love Lavanya truly acts as a catalyst to Pinto to do this and more - solve the common problems that are faced by common people (the word 'common' present twice in this one sentence is not oversight). The author has brought out a beautiful point - for anyone having intellect and motivation, nothing is impossible. I am not sure if part of this book represents his own story, but Rajeev Saxena seems to have powerful imagination to bring out so many scientific stuff in a book like this that any non-science person can also easily catch and understand. The choice of characters are very good.

Simplicity is the foremost plus point of this book. Especially, when you are narrating a story of a person that has its roots from a village environment, it ought to be simpler, if not simplest. Secondly, in my opinion, as a reader reads through a book, it must make the reader forget where he is present and change his imagination and the associated environment the same as the one that he is reading. Rajeev has done a great job on both. The language is classic and that increases your pace. And, he brings Pinto right on your eyes as your read, as well the environment that he is in at various points of time whether it is village or city, the Mumbai floods, everything. That gives this novel the liveliness that any novel must have. And, if these reasons are not enough, let me tell you this secret. This book will mostly bring back your own memories as your read the first half.

The book does get little dragging in the middle and towards the end, but the interest to complete the book never goes down. I am reproducing these lines from the book because these lines will tell anyone the essence of this book and Pinto, and not surprisingly, these are the everyday questions in our mind about our own country: "Why were a country's people left so ignorant of their real needs? Why were people so poor? And, why were their cunning leaders allowed to benefit from those so-called shortcomings? And why were people so timid that they didn't put up a fight against those leaders who had been fooling them for three-quarters of a century?" I don't think anything else is needed to invite you to read this gem from Rajeev.

Go, buy and read it. Sure, you will enjoy this one!

Flipkart: https://www.flipkart.com/pinto-has-idea/p/itmexjbkqz5qgq7n?pid=9789386826930

A House For Mr Misra - Review

Each of us have different goals in our life – both personal and professional. When it comes to personal, mostly our goal is to buy a house. Maybe 10-20 years ago, many had building a house; today, not many can afford it. And, imagine having a dream or goal of building a house on the seashore where the sea wakes you up with its own music, talks to you throughout the day and daily sings you a lullaby when you go to sleep! Too much imagination, right? Jaishree Misra is taking us exactly through this dream of hers (or theirs!).

In a land where every application needs to go through twenty departments, and any thing has a law that says “thou shall not do that!” making people resort to loopholes is beautifully narrated in this book. One of the qualities of a book is how best you can see what you are reading, while you are reading. I must say that throughout the book, Jaishree has done a great job. The book starts with bringing a lively London in front of our eyes – the Borough market, Soho, the West End and the Covent Garden; and not to mention the organic juice and the joyful morning walks.

A sudden gear shift occurs when they come to India to build their dream sea-side house – a true sea-side house and not the usual lake-view apartments that we hear all the time in Bangalore where it really means that you can watch all the filth from your own apartment fills the lake. In a 200 page book, it is really impossible to narrate the entire episode of building a house, but for Jaishree, this was doable. The entire cycle of selecting the land, getting approvals, approaching the builder, architect and the staysuits that followed it is beautifully narrated. Sprinkled with subtle humour throughout, and with excellent choice of words, you enthusiastically read without worrying about food, water, rain etc., Be it the maid, the Trivandrum corporation, or the snake-bite night, it makes you laugh and enjoy, and more importantly you forget the zillion problems that you would be thinking about, otherwise.

I loved every bit of this book. I had to go to a place as a guardian to my family (without any business there actually). I started the book at 9 a.m. and I got it done by 2 p.m. I am usually a slow reader, but, for this book, I wasn’t. All credit goes to the author for such a wonderful book, and to Mr.Misra without whom this book wouldn’t have been in the first place as well as the humour that he added to this book.