Book Review - Ramayana : The Game of Life : Shattered Dreams (Book 2)

Title: Ramayana: The Game of Life: Shattered Dreams (Book 2)
Author: Shubha Vilas
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
ISBN: 978-81-8495-531-6
Number of Pages: 387
Price: 350 [INR]
Genre: Mythology


To Start with, when you see a book with a title something like this, first thought which will come into your mind is it can be another rendition of a mythological tale, but then the the phrase "game of life" which is very nicely fitted into the cover page, hints of something unusual of that usual tale we listened throughout our life. And yes it is, its like a pundit giving life lessons referencing to various events of that epic, Ramayana. 

The book is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, and the story starts with the riveting drama of Rama's exile, subsequent to the twelve years since wedding of Rama and Sita which was covered in the first part.

Before letting you to taste the dish, i would like to you to first smell the aroma. The Book is not about a mythological story, but its a motivational lesson for one towards the hardships of life. With the events which happened with the Rama's life, the author tries to teach us some life lessons, of how to tackle those reversals, of how to proceed with positivity, of how to handle the various temptations, of how to think out of our zone.

The Ramayana story majorly inspired by Valmiki Ramayana, it involves work from Kamba Ramayana and Ramacharitmanas. Along with this it involves the philosophical anecdotes from the Loka Pramana tales , all threaded together to depict the relevance of this ancient epic into modern life.

The Book is divided into nine chapters, all having a lesson to handle the reversals positively. 

It all starts with the event when Dasarath asks Rama to leave home, because of the the schemes of Manthara and Kaikayee, the two characters who halted the Dasarath's plans of making Rama, the king, and let the helpless father see his sons leaving home. And yes, no matter how many times you would have listened to these stories, the beautiful description of all the characters and events will surely stick you with the  book. The obliged son, Rama who accepted this as an order by his father; the sorrow of the people of Ayodhya; True devotee of his elder brother, Bharatha getting angry over the things, his sincerity; as well as Laxman's undying love to his brother which let Urmila sacrifice; these all events; the writer has done complete justice to the all these scenes and very beautifully described their relevance in the current life scenario on the first hand. These are in the form of footnotes, which include the lessons which we can take from these events. With so many great ideas and lessons with the story, time spent reading these with the events will completely leave you spellbound.

“…she then wove an imaginary garland around Rama’s neck by moving her beautiful eyes and smiled again”.

The Romance of Rama and Sita has been portrayed beautifully with some very poetic lines as given above.

And there is lot more to read which will completely mesmerize you while you turn every new page.

What a fantastic description is given for every character and event which we would have never listened to, no matter how many times we heard this story, you will surely get some interesting new knowledge about the story. Another good thing is that even if you hadn't read the first part, it would hardly affect your reading. Also if you dislike books that teach life lessons, you can have a try to read a completely new narration of the story with some great detailing at various places. 

The language and narration of the book is fantastic and will surely make it interesting till you turn the last page. I will surely recommend this book to all type of readers. 

My Rating : 3.5/5

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Book Review : Shoes of the Dead by Neelima Kota

Title : SHOES of the DEAD
Author : Kota Neelima
Publisher : Rupa Publishing

ISBN :978-81-291-2396-1

Genre : Political Fiction
Pages : 274
Language : English
Edition : Hardcover
Price : Rs. 495
Website : www.kotaneelima.com

Book Source : BlogAdda

About the Author :
Kota Neelima is a political editor with The Sunday Guardian and a Research Fellow for South Asia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. Her previously published work includes the novels Riverstones and Death of a Moneylender.

My Review :
A Political Fiction... This book will show you the true path of Rural India,part of our country  untouched by the "governing gods" and there is an inside story behind the manipulation of facts for the sake of political agenda. There is nothing mystery, no thriller, its a straight forward story, rather a serious one, which will tell you the story behind the curtains of so-called "Democratically elected representatives" and their "Hard-Work" for the upliftment of the society. Starting with the Cover, you will see the contrasting pictures of a dry arid farm land, and the mecca of democracy, it is on its own a sarcastic picture of our country.

The story is about the rising number of deaths, particularly the suicides by the farmers, because of their huge amounts of debts to the banks and the money lenders, the humiliation caused to them, for the loan recovery is also one of the important reason for their suicides. Obviously, this number of farmer suicides can be vary disturbing for a nation building up its image as a leading country of the world, and when it comes to the farmers death, it affect the local authorities as well, pressurize them to do something, and the one who is at the centre of this, is the local representative. And the main reason for the pressure is the increasing opposition by the locals, by the families of the farmers, and by the political opponents. The story moves with the plot and revolves around the every powerful conspiring corner, telling the readers, each and every tactics by the powerful to shut the mouth of the weaker, to change the story within nights, and to glorify self-image as the helper rather than making an image of an inoperative representative.

The whole plot is set around a newly elected MP, who is also a son of a powerful leader of the governing party, this MP, named Keyur Kashinath, is facing problems with the increasing number of farmers' suicide in his constituency, and the increasing number of media stories about it, and was therefore, searching for the ways, to change his inert image, and show the media that he is doing something. Previously, he was getting help by a local money lender, and a maha-sarpanch of that district, both are the members of the district level committee along with money lenders, bank mangers, district collector, agriculture officer etc., and which was set up to examine each suicide case, and declaring whether it is because of infertile land or loan-debts, and thereby giving the compensation for the respective widows and their families, these two as instructed by Keyur were constantly disqualifying the suicide cases as a case because of loan-debts and therefore making down the farmer suicide toll. One such disqualified case, was of Sudhakar Bhadra who commits suicide because of the loan debts. To get the justice, his brother Gangiri, a teacher in city, comes to village, and fights with the system, with his limited resources. Somehow, Gangiri manage to become a part of this committee, and then after his arrival, he influence, other votes and thereby most of the cases are now qualifying as the debt related suicides, and the number of farmers suicides rise again in the area, worrying the MP, Keyur, for which he start conspiring against Gangiri. But, somehow, with the help of a reporter Nazar Prabhakar, and a researcher and wife of the local industrialist, Videhi, Gangiri learn out the whole plot against him, and get necessary measures for his safety. Failing in his conspiracy, Keyur, make mistakes one-by-one leading to a situation where he comes to the spotlight in the media, and get his image spoiling because of his mistakes. The Story, then leads to a very uneasy end, never expected, but what a brave, a rebel, against our system, leads to, the sacrifices, its very sad, though it is much realistic, in our system.

The Characterization is beautiful, and the story never get weak in any part. However, you will find a slow pace of the story in the beginning, but it turns out to be an important part to understand the whole plot, and characters. There are some very good moments, where you will never put the book down. There were some very good descriptive parts, for things like ending evenings, or lonely homes. The fact is, inspite of raising too many questions to the system, Neelima made it still an enjoyable read. Overall, this is a good read and I do recommend it.
 
My Rating : 3.5/5


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Book Review : ""The Bankster"" by Ravi Subramaniam

Title : The Bankster
Author : Ravi Subramanian
Publisher : Rupa Publications
ISBN : 978-81-291-2048-9

Genre : Thriller (Fiction)
Pages : 358
Edition Language : English
Format : PaperBack
Price : Rs. 250

Website : www.ravisubramanian.in

About the Author :

Ravi Subramanian an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, has spent two decades working his way up the ladder of power in the amazingly exciting and adrenaline-pumping world of global banks in India. It is but natural that his stories are set against the backdrop of the financial services industry. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Dharini and daughter Anusha. In 2008, he won the Golden Quill Readers Choice award for his debut novel, If God was a Banker.

My Review for the Book :

Huhh...... A great suspense.... a thriller with all corporate crimes, money launderers, blood diamonds and a big conspiracy..... I came to know that this book just rated as #1 bestseller by crossword stores. and feel proud I have a copy of that book with the author's autograph!!! Thanks to blogadda!!. So the story starts with a foreign Bank The Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) and its operations in India, particularly at Mumbai, with all the official, unofficial corporate tricks and tactics, the author tries to make us comfortable with the corporate environment. Meanwhile the story of a Gandhian revolutionary of Kerala who was fighting against the unlawful medium by which the government is trying to set-up a Nuclear-Plant without caring for the locals in his area. Also the story of a covert CIA Agent runs on parallel lines with the other two. Later, comes the mystery of the murders of employees of GB2 which at first-sight looks like merely accidents. But later found as a part of a much greater conspiracy. This conspiracy is going to stun the world. What can be the connection between the three totally different places and characters??? What is the mystery behind the murders of GB2 employees??? What is the role, that Gandhian activist of Kerala has in the story??? Well for that you have to read this book.

Ravi Subramanian, Author (The Bankster)

Meanwhile the story revolves in almost all parts of the world, from Mumbai to Kerala, Angola and Vienna, or America, Germany or parts of Europe. After all there is Global Conspiracy involved in it. This conspiracy was later revealed when a Press Reporter and an Ex-Banker, who was allowed to investigate the murder mystery, by the bank's CEO, digs deep into the whole story.
The characters are described very clearly and beautifully which almost creates a live scene in the mind while reading the story. Also the characters in the corporate life were very carefully described with all the liars, cunning and greedy bosses and their subordinates, and the bank environment of competitions, sales, flirting, cunning bosses, audits, referrals etc, which you can expect by an author with banking background. The other story of a Gandhian activist trying to persuade government for taking care of lives around the newly built nuclear plant, his protests, and the protests getting out of his hands, the need of funds and support and how can it go wrong, or to wrong people, its all given here.

And then the investigations, facts, logic they all come in the later part and I bet you will never wanna someone disturb you, while you are through this part of the book. The Author tried to keep it simple to understand but yet powerful enough to create and protect the suspense throughout the story till end.
 
With the financial frauds,blood diamonds and arms procurement, NGO's and their funding, and the secret missions being running parallely,  the author mixed the ingredients of lies, deceit and treachery, I Bet once you take it in your hand it would be difficult to you to put it down in between. If you are going for a corporate thriller, you are with the best one!!!. 

My Rating : 4/5

Review by Adarsh Kothia.

 ~~~~Watch the Official Trailer of the Book~~~~
~~Get introduced with the Characters of the Book~~

 

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