indian literature

Before I say anything else, I want to tell you that Suzanne Sangi is just 17 years old and she has managed to not just write but publish a fantastic story. Now that’s something!

She completely won me over with her easy style of writing and the engaging story. I couldn’t put the book down once I began. I laughed as I recognized myself with the main character’s teenage tantrums, crushes and Facebook obsession.

Sonali Machado is a teenage girl who has just finished off her tenth board exams and is set to enjoy her holidays. And enjoying, obviously, means waking up in afternoons, sleeping late, hanging out with friends and basically doing whatever she wants. Her world turns upside down when she meets Omi Daan, a stranger who she befriends on facebook. He comes in her life, unannounced, calm as it is before a storm before he shows his true colors. Omi Daan is not just any other ordinary boy. Well to begin with, he has killer looks, curly bronze hair, intense mystifying grey eyes and the reluctant smile that hint at the pain in his heart. Something stranger is that his FB profile doesn’t turn up on anyone’s computer but Li, as Sonali’s friends call her. Neel and Jo are her two best friends. The three are inseparable but as Omi wounds himself deeper into her life, she finds herself getting more and more distant from those she once loved the most. At first, Omi is just the new crush of her life, too cute not to acknowledge but soon he turns to be some kind of an obsession. She can think, dream and talk about nothing other than him. It’s almost non-human. As she tries to find more about this strange character that is threatening to destroy her life, she and her friends find themselves in a situation that is way beyond reality. Will she be able to save hers and her friend’s life? Is Omi Daan really who he claims to be?

As fantasy entwines with reality, you will be hooked to the book until you finish.

Book info:

Publisher: Duckbill

232 Pages

Paperback edition: April 2013

ISBN 9788192594842

Ingredients:

• One lonely princess
• Three school friends
• One little brother
• One villainous raja
• One even more villainous son
• One top-secret Recipe Master book

Method:

Blend the lonely princess thoroughly with the friends, brother, raja and son. Mix it with the Master book. Stir in lots of exotic food. Cook it all to perfection with a fast paced plot. Garnish with action, adventure, car-chases and elephant rides. This wacky, racy adventure will have you burping with satisfaction.

Aah! Imagine the spicy Indian chaats, the tangy Italian pastas and the finest Danish chocolate, to top it all, served in one plate. Mouth watering, no?  Well, at first glance the book seems to be, too.

There’s the Kamargarh raja and the whole dynasty who are obsessed with extravagant food. The recipes to which are a secret that people are ready to pay any price for, even shed some blood! Then there is princess Zafira, a feisty young gal, who apart from being filthy rich, has the knowledge of about almost everything. She can cook some of the most delectable dishes, drive a Rolls Royce, ride an elephant, make spears out of bamboos to fish and etc etc. Oh and did I mention she is school going kid? I am so jealous!

Well anyways, she makes a few friends, Lana who can dream, think and talk of nothing other than food, Ragini, Yogita and her little brother Yogesh(who is sadly named Barfi, poor him!). They all go together on a camping trip and the poor kids get trapped in a royal feud over the Master book. Rest of the story is about how they manage to save the family secret, the Kamargarh honor and most of all, their lives!

The book is quite amusing, funny here and there but I would rank it just as average. Nevertheless, it’s a good way to pass time for young readers (I would say, up to 11 years).

Book info:

Publisher: Duckbill

254 Pages .

Paperback edition: Dec 2012

ISBN 978-93-81626-94-8

Price Rs.250

Jobless, Clueless, Reckless – These are the very three words that seem like the answer to why the author wrote the book. And in all honesty, I am glad she did. There are no twisty plots, complicated characters or beyond reality situations. It’s just simple and easy. It’s the life of a teenage girl, Kavya laid bare in our hands. I know I am not making it sound all exciting but it is.

To those who are way past their teen years, remember the rash decisions, the infinite crushes, the big bad boy who seemed to be every girl’s dream boyfriend, mom’s totally un-cool lectures and dad’s protective nature that always seemed to be going a bit over board? That’s what teenage is all about and so is the book. I love how Revathi Suresh has compiled it up in 173 pages.

Kavya has no idea why her life turned out to be this way. Her mom has forgotten that she actually has children, her brother…well he’s just a confused eleven year old and her friends…umm she’s not sure she has that many. Her life is far from normal and to add to it is Kiran. No, not a girl but the handsome blue eyed guy who everyone has a crush on. As hard as she tries to live with it all, there’s something or the other that always gets in the way. She is living without television, laptop, mobiles and Facebook! And imagine we are in the 21st century! She never got a chance to go to school and was home-schooled at a farm. Her friends find her nothing but weird and eventually she starts to feel the same way. She is caught up in a web of friendships that she’s not even sure are true, cheating boyfriend, dumb girls, and not-so-decent guy who she can’t help but like.

Adolescence is like that one crazy night after having too much drink. Wild, careless, jumbled but above all, FUN! And so is this book. (Yeah, I am fifteen and no, I don’t drink. So obviously I wouldn’t know. I saw it in the movies. Okaaayyy!) I loved it and I am pretty sure you will too.

Chetan Bhagat – the name inspires the readers (I thought so until this one). Many followed their writing dreams after reading him and he opened the Indian literary world to the masses. He was a revolution himself when he wrote Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of My Life and 2 States!

The Revolution went haywire somehow midway with the Revolution 2020!

The story is set in one of the pious cities of India – Varanasi or Banaras. It is a story about 3 friends – Gopal, Raghav and Aarti.

It begins with Gopal crashing down after some pegs of drink and our writer friend is left with no other option but to take him hospital, because he won’t get up on his own (!!)  and thus begins the story as a flashback.

Gopal – he is the director of the Ganga Tech College, too young to be a director and only a graduate!!

Raghav – Gopal’s school friend

Aarti – Gopal’s school friend and love interest of both Gopal & Raghav

First chapter gives an impression the book would be a sweet story of 3 buddies. The first scene is set in the school when Gopal & Raghav are stealing lunch boxes during the assembly time and the first victim is our lady “Aarti” and thus begins the everlasting friendship of these 3. The book has been divided into various sections.

Gopal comes from a middle class family whose father is a teacher and the family doesn’t have much income as such. His mother had passed away when he was 4 years old. His father wants him to be an engineer. After all, engineers earn decent money. Whether Gopal manages to become engineer or not is another story altogether?

All 3 grow up together with their own dreams and share of problems.

Both Raghav and Gopal appear together for AIEEE & JEE for engineering and Raghav clears his exams whereas Gopal could not make to any of the engineering colleges. After mulling over all options, he decides to appear again for the exams and goes all the way to Kota for coaching classes leaving his ailing father alone and his love interest.

As it is suppose to happen, Gopal being away for a long time, these gives an opportunity to Raghav and Aarti being together and seal their relationship. When Gopal gets to know, he is devastated and again as it generally happens, his grades fall (well, typical Bollywood style) and then again he starts all over again from scratch. Coaching over, he is back in town; results fail him again. His father also passes away one fine day leaving him in debt from top to bottom. Lonely and devastated, he decides to attend a local college on the advice of one of the friends from coaching classes, and here he meets Sunil. This is the turning point of the story. Sunil takes him to local MLA – Shukla. Thus, begins the story of Gopal as the Director of Ganga Tech College in Varanasi. This portion if full of political drama, agricultural land being converted into college, bribery at all level and we name it, we have it. Along with this, we have Raghav, who is not interested in joining a MNC after completing his engineering but wants to be a journalist and wants to bring the revolution in India. He wants to change the scenario of the country. Then, there is Aarti who wants to be an air hostess but becomes a front desk officer at one of the reputed hotels in Varanasi.

Amidst all this, Raghav doesn’t have time for Aarti and fate again brings Gopal and Aarti together.  What happens next? Whom does Aarti finally marry? What happens to Raghav? Does he become a hot shot journalist? What happens to Gopal as a Director? What happens to his college? All these questions and many more; to find out the answers one needs to read the book.

However, this is not one of the best works of Chetan Bhagat. Period.  As a reader, I felt the story is boring, it is a typical stuff which each one of knows and I believe has seen many a times in our Bollywood movies or even T.V Serials. I guess that we have so much of overdose of corruption and bribery in our country that reading it in a novel does not excite anyone.  The story actually drags. There are no twists and turns, it is just so very predictable. After “2 States”, the expectation was more but some where the book fails to meet that expectation. I have read all the books of Chetan Bhagat, and I must admit for an otherwise quick reader, this one took me so much time to finish it and it was a sheer disappointment. I am still confused, as to why it is named as Revolution 2020? May be the newspaper columns he writes these days have influenced the writer in CB and he ended up loosing his original flavor.

I suggest, please read the book without any expectation, you may actually like it then.

My verdict – As a reader I expected a lot more! And as a writer, Mr.Bhagat could have done a better job or at least tried doing so.

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Author:  Deepak Karamungikar

Format: papaerback 

Language: English

Pages: 136

Price: 100/-

Publishers: A S Arts

Deepak considers “”love at first sight & other stories” as a memorable selection of his very own choicest blog posts that have been a apart of his “Stochastic Chronology”. The blog that claimed the attention of several online blog readers ran from February 2009 and ended in July 2010. With applause streaming in from all corners, the man behind the show had to preserve some of the eye catches in the form of a book. It is a great initiative- to write a book for the sake of keeping art alive, so as to say.

Penning down poems is easy, for if you have the thought running inside you, if you have the power to assemble the prodigal words, scribbling in out becomes a piece of cake with a cherry as a topping- with assorted pouring out?- voila! That’s like a creamy punch! The same unfortunately cannot be said for novels, shorter- novellas- shorter- short stories (keeping aside 55 flash fiction –the newest Twenty-twenty member of the fiction world. Looking for mystery, illusion, intrigue, fun and conceit- Deepak assembles all of it in each of his masterpieces. You have characters turning into ghostly apparitions, gamble hub frequenters avenging each other. Elite socialites living starry existence and as readers, you can just marvel at it with awe.  Having said this, at one point of time, they end up revealing their murky façade. Foolery and champagne follow in abundance, until you reach the remote nooks of civilization, where New Yorkers end up throwing their life at stakes of belle apparitions, and serial killers throttle beauties in confusion.

“Love at first sight”- comprises of unique selections like “Love at first sight”, “The Gambler”, “The Prince of Vijaypur”, “The Third Life”, “Summer of 1999”, “The Painter”, “The Fling”, “The Disorder”, “The Rebel” and“Alighted Doves”.

I would say, it is a good pick, the cover will make you think, but the stories will keep you rooted off your mind. Please don’t expect vampires and mermaids peeping from the pages, it is simply about real folks living among us, it is not a growing up series of shorts- if you are trying to learn how to sum up a story line in a couple of pages- BookMark “Love at first Sight”- for your book shelves.

About The Author:

(This was taken directly from the author’s website, on the request of the author.)

“I’m Deepak Karamungikar. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India where I now live with my parents, wife Bhavana and daughter Akshata. I like Pink Floyd, The Doors and Led Zeppelin in that order. I’m an MBA by accident and a writer by choice. I like narrating stories and hope to capture the reader’s imagination with every sentence I write. Other passions include Al Pacino, Ram Gopal Varma, food, beverages, gossiping and humor.”

Further Details:

Website: www.karamungikar.com

Fb profile: Deepak Karamungikar-Ledfloyddoors

Email id: Deepak.harsha@gmail.com

Twitter: @deepak_narrates

Link to book: eBay- Love-First-Sight-OtherStories-Deepak-Karamungikar

my ratings: 3.75/5

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If you liked “If God was a Banker” and “Devil in Pinstripes”, here is another fiction based on banking world. But can Puneet Gupta,  author of The Suicide Banker, bring a final balance sheet that adeptly handles various characters, their personal life and the banking environment? I am going to give the bank book audit for book lovers.

The protagonist, Sumit Sharma, makes a career shift from the safety net of public bank to the world of private bank, a working culture that can be quiet rewarding but in  pressure cooker environment. The book narrates  the upheavals both in his personal and professional life during this period.  So typically we have here a young working parent struggling to balance work and family, the protagonist’s banking principles and outlook clashing directly with his bank’s wisdom of  “turning conventional wisdom upside down” , a young assistant thrown into the picture, ambitious colleagues who considers him too old-fashioned and rigid and a banking market that can turn hot potato anytime. So the stage is set for a filmy masala story.

Sumit’s bank, Ind-Credit Bank, is on a phenomenonl growth thanks to the mega successful Agri-business venture, an out of box biz model, scripted by it’s executive director, Mohit Sharma. When the going is stupendous and with markets on a high, Sumit joins the bank as Head-credit monitoring.  Soon, he picks up holes that annoys most of his colleagues who are intoxicated by ambitions and success. Shalini, his wife, finally picks up her career again after being a house wife for couple of years and joins as a journalist in a local media channel.  With both deep neck at work, quality of family life suffers. Enter  Annie, young simple girl who lost her father recently, as assistant to Sumit. Pretty soon,  things change both in personal life and professional life and slow tremors build up only to be released with a force.

For a first time author, Puneet has digged well into his banking background to base the story. But then like Puneet mentions in the novel,  the impact of statistics can always be interpreted differently so is the impact of the story on the readers.  Average readers might find the banking industry dynamics in the novel bit dragging.  The protagonist is not your dynamic, charged up hero.  He is like many of us in real life – A middle class man with certain rigidness,  few principles that he would cling to inspite of few other weakness that might threaten his fundamentals.  The character could be a plus and minus point of the script  and it all depends how you look at the story from your perspective.  Like the characters of the story, even the author struggles to find a balance between the personal and professional side of the protagonist. After some spicy build up,  Sumit – Annie’s relation  is conveniently forgotten, so is Alec Steward, ex-bf of Annie who also works in Sumit’s team. Excusing few corny lines and a slight uneasiness while shifting between professional and personal stories,  the language and narrative style of Puneet is fluid.

GingerChai Verdict: The Banker is definitely not a God but nevertheless an affable banker with normal human strengths and weakness that you can identify with.Read it, if you are a fan of  fiction based on banking backdrop.

Are you a writer? Publisher? Want to get your books reviewed here? Just write to us to get reviewed. Write to sip[at]gingerchai[dot]com or contact us here

The dearth of Indian crime fiction has been partially saved by the novel ‘Six Suspects‘ written by Vikas Swarup, better known for his novel, ‘Q and A’ that was adapted into the Oscar winning film, ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ While ‘Q and A’ was a rather amateurish, not at all researched book with bits of faulty writing, ‘Six Suspects‘ is a tad bit better. While it has its own flaws, it is nonetheless a pretty good detective/thriller story that exposes the corrupt India and has a story that will be lavished by detective fiction lovers/fans.

The plot revolves around Vicky Rai’s (the son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh) murder that took place while he was partying at his farmhouse in Delhi to celebrate his acquittal in a Jessica Lall style murder case(only in the book, the girl who was shot dead by Vicky was named Ruby Gill). There are essentially six suspects that are detained by the police as they were found carrying guns. Then, aptly, Swarup goes on and gives elaborate descriptions about all the six suspects and their motives to kill Vicky Rai. The six suspects are a motley crowd-including a sexy actress, an American,a mobile thief, Vicky’s own father, a tribal from Andaman and a former chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh. These stories are cleverly interconnected and intelligently converge at Vicky Rai’s farmhouse. In the end, an investigative journalist, Arun Advani, solves this murder mystery and the end is, I might say, quite unanticipated! The murderer is an unexpected one.

The story is well structured, with quite a few twists and turns that are definitely surprising.

Along with giving massive details about the life stories of all the six suspects, which by the way takes up a large chunk of the novel, Vikas Swarup also highlights the corruption rampant in India’s politics, displays the divide between the rich and poor and the different classes, the world of powerful contacts and influences and several more such instances that reveal the sleazy side of India.

Despite ‘Six Suspects’ being a good detective read, it still has certain weak spots. Firstly, Vikas Swarup tries to put in a lot of information about India in the novel and most of it is sadly lifted from ‘breaking news’ sessions of the Indian tv channels that can get monotonous. This aspect makes it look like ‘Six Suspects was written for foreign audiences and Swarup was aiming for this book to be made into a film as well.  It seems there is a lack of originality. Secondly, certain ideas are rather stereotyped like the American’s view of India when he comes for the first time, the bit about Islamic fundamentalists is also very cliched(all Muslims are terrorists and all that crap). Although the story has an unpredictable end, there are times when the stories of the six suspects get predictable-for example, the tribal from Andaman has to be foolish and get duped by several people in India. Why can’t the tribals be intelligent for once?And there are several such examples.

There are certain creative bits as well like the English Literature professor ,which the former Chief Secretary met in jail, who expresses himself by uttering book titles only.

So the final verdict would be that ‘Six Suspects’ is definitely worth a read, a good crime novel that unfortunately shows only a newspaper version of India and does not delve deeper into India’s chaotic soul. From the writing it becomes apparent that the India of ‘Six Suspects’ though very real still has a touch of being seen from a distant lens. The lack of research shows through. So if one knows nothing about India, one can probably grab this book to know about its underbelly and get some background on all the wrong things that happened in the country in the past decade or so.

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“Today I am Bharatiya. Within me there is no conflict between communities, whether Hindu, Muslim or Krishtan. Today all the castes of Bharat are my caste…” is the ultimate realization that strikes Gora, the central character of Tagore’s novel by the same name. Sadly, even after a century past this novel, how far-fetching such an understanding within us seems!

Gora is the largest and the most complex of the 12 novels written by Rabindranath Tagore. Undoubtedly a classic, this epic debates a number of issues and concerns that seem contemporary even today and easily applicable to the current scenario of our country. This book is a reflection and analysis of the multifarious social life in colonial India. It is about variations in one’s own beliefs as a result of changing times, society and its manifold influences on the people, their thinking, ideologies and philosophies, and in the process, an overall transformation seen and sensed within an individual and the society in general.

Gora is a story set in the disruptive times when the Bengali society in Kolikata (Calcutta) was starkly divided into the traditional orthodox Hindus and the modernized liberal thinking Brahmos – indoctrinated by the Brahma Samaj. The Hindus unfailingly followed and took pride in their renascent practices and ceremonials while the Brahmos were in constant clashes with orthodoxy and vehemently opposed all idol-worship, caste system etc. Yet both communities were not devoid of their own hypocrisies, contradictions and flaws. These were also the times when the English education had become more acceptable across the society and the intellectual awareness amongst the the youth was at rise.

Pitted against such a social background are numerous characters each of which is unique and strongly individualistic. In fact, it’s through these various characters and their stories that Tagore looms upon almost every single concern of the society mainly the religious narrow-mindedness. Hence the novel is woven with several sub-plots, intermediary stories and events which, though sometime seem to meander away from the main theme, add on to the beauty of the story.

Gora, the protagonist, is a strong advocate of Hinduism and practices his religion with high regards, thorough conviction and strict austerity. He is a natural leader with exemplary oratory skills, fair and tall stature and a resonating voice. However, his forthrightness and impelling attitude make him seem an arrogant, self-asserting, violent person who thrusts his opinions unto others. But Gora at heart is an eternal optimist dreaming about his ideal Bharatvarsha, a prosperous and happy India, which according to him is achieved by uniting all classes under the large umbrella of Hinduism. As a person he is highly patriotic and sympathetic – cannot stand injustice and high-society atrocities over poor and the downtrodden.

His denial of his newly developed feelings for Sucharita and then the slow dawning of role of women in his dream country Bharatvarsha, his hurt when he learns about Binoy’s inclination towards Brahmos, his shock upon knowing the facts relating to his birth, then his aversion to religion/ caste system and his final repentance for forsaking his mother’s feelings in his pursuit have all been beautifully brought forth. This particular character has been etched so very well that you love and hate him both at the same time or constantly keep oscillating between the feelings of repugnance and appreciation.

Binoy, the best friend of Gora, is on the other hand a soft spoken, easily convincible and compassionate gentleman who initially comes across as a mere shadow of Gora but, in subsequent development, emerges as more genuine and self-analyzing. A golden-hearted person with high conscience, who cannot intentionally hurt anyone or refuse anything, is in constant dilemma about rights and wrongs. This is the character with which most of us can identify ourselves. He symbolizes the uncertainty that we undergo in our lives at various stages. He is also the reflection of the contradictions and ceaseless conflicts within us, between the heart and the brain, selfishness and humanity, good and the bad.

The story takes shape when these 2 Hindu boys come in contact with Poresh Babu, a mature and high thinking gentleman, and his family who represent the other facet of society, the Brahmos. They have adopted a more open-minded life style where even the ladies of the house have equal prominence. Sucharita and Lolita are the heroines who are educated and with their own point of view in life. The latter character is much ahead of her times and during the course of the story undergoes transition from a confused, guilt-ridden meek girl to a brave realistic person who has no hesitation about accepting her feelings for Binoy. Sucharita on the other hand maintains her demeanor throughout even while undergoing an agitation within herself for being attracted to an opposite mindset personality, Gora.

Tagore here voices a strong protest against alienating women from the main stream by lending them devotional status of goddess or mother. His heroines are full-blooded normal human beings having their emotions, feelings and responsibility towards society. The ladies are characterized as strong individuals with independent thinking and self-confidence.

There are many other interesting characters like Anandmoyi - has no religious affinities, believes in one God and is symbolic of Mother India; Baradasundari and Haran Babu – relentless Brahmos; Krishnadayal and Harimohini – fanatic Hindus; Mohim and Abinash – the hypocritical part of the society. Each of these characters in its own way contributes and justifies the status of society.

At times the book leaves you confused, unsure and drained yet no questions raised seem inappropriate or irrelevant. The story line is not preachy or advocating any principle instead full of debates, arguments, contemplation and musings that may be interpreted in various ways. There is no definite conclusion thrust upon the reader, rather it keeps you thinking about virtues of your ownself, your religion and the rectitude with which you follow what you perceive is right. Even the end is not definitive but only a new beginning of the concept of secularism.

So you are in the final year of college and awaiting campus interview? And then the day comes and you got recruited after a teaser of an interview. Your days have arrived. You proudly join the company and then you realize reality could be quiet different. Nevertheless, the journey of reality could enrich you with valuable experiences to build the foundation for the future.  Corporate Atyaachaar is one such journey of a twenty four year old financial advisor, freshly recruited from campus interview and posted in a new city where his new journey begins.

The protagonist, the young freshly minted financial advisor, lands up in Bangalore to join his first company, Wealth Capital Advisors with full of dreams and energy only to learn the non-financial sides of his Boss , The Human Ball Scratcher the very first day. Yes, that is how the author has chosen to nick-name him for some obvious reasons and the other colleague is nick named Sweet Lady.  This three along with an office assistant and driver comprises the Bangalore team nested in a pigeon hole sized office.  The story takes you to their journey in one eventful year that saw the stock market euphoria of 2007 and the subsequent market crash of 2008 and the High Net worth Individual clients the young financial advisor meets in his first year of work – an old business man, an inflated ego man, tough speaking ex-wall street banker, a CFO and a truly happy family man.

To be honest, the book is just a gist of one year of the protagonist first year at job. A quick summary told in a comical way of his one year at work and the clients he met. Stay clear, if you are allergic to finance and stock markets even if laced with comedy. Also I am not sure to call it a plus or minus point, there is no romance angle in the story, except for the love of stock bulls and bears. In that sense, the author deserves a mild pat for not getting tempted to introduce a love story into an otherwise a treaded path.

GingerChai Verdict: Of late, the racks of the book houses are filled with a genre of novels that is typically low priced (read under 100 bucks) and light on subject. The authors and the publishers make no pretence of selling a highly literary content but a very casual, time pass read while munching snacks or on a go. It is like our Indian masala flicks. Some movies are super hits, some average and some flops but new movies continue to hit theatre. Some make it big like Chetan while some goes unheard. Corporate Attyaachaar belongs to this school of Indian masala novel.  It is average, don’t boast an arty treatment, has a mild comedy elements thrown in.  Some may like it for one time; some may not but for Rs.100 (you get it for a further discounted price in some online shops) it won’t hurt your pocket much for a casual read.

Are you a writer? Publisher? Want to get your books reviewed here? Just write to us to get reviewed. Write to sip[at]gingerchai[dot]com or contact us here

We have so many Indian mythological characters that have a lot of powers but still we have very less contemporary Indian superheroes like Spiderman, Batman, Superman etc.

And similarly I have always wondered why we don’t have more fantasy fiction when we have Things like Ramayana and Mahabharata for inspiration. But this book- Immortals of melhua is one attempt towards contributing to Indian fantasy fictions.

Immortals of Meluha is the first book in the series of Shiva Triogy by Amish. When I first heard of Immortals of Meluha, I thought it’d be something like “The Da Vinci Code”. But I was wrong- this book is different.

Shiva at the start of story is no lord- he is a tribal man from a tribe residing by the side of Mansarovar Lake at the foot of mount Kailash in Tibet. An extremely skilled warrior, he is the chief of his clan and Bhadra is his deputy and childhood friend. Though the best, most courageous and intelligent warrior in many tribes combined, he is fed up of the barbaric ways of the tribal life.

Plot in brief:

The Indus valley civilization of today is the Meluha of 1990 BC. Meluha is an amazingly organized and scientific civilization for its time. The Infrastructure of the Meluhan cities is so good that it can put the modern day cities to a shame. The people of Meluha are not only happy- they are Immortal.

But this crazy-and-freakishly-perfect society has its own set of problem. And like their grand style of living, their problems are also grand. The river saraswati, whose water is main component of their elixir of life- Somras, is drying. They face constant terrorist attacks from the rival nation- the Chandravanshi who have joined forces with the ferocious martial art warriors- the Nagas.

Then there is the legend of Neelkanth which says: “When the evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears your enemies have triumphed- a hero will emerge.” Enter Shiva in Meluha and the story kicks off…

Other than the Plot the book has two most important aspects:

1.       The character of shiva-  the character shiva has been put in an interesting manner.

The introductory description of shiva’s physique in first chapter says it all. He is atheletic and he is warrior- an extremely good one at that. He smokes chillum. He has a sense of humor – a really good one. He is a natural dancer- a perfectionist dancer. Despite belonging to a barbaric clan, he is humane. He is an inspiring and extremely respected leader.   He has lazy, elegant and effortless charm about him. Ladies can’t help admiring him.

Sounds like James Bond? What seperates him from being bond is the fact that he is profoundly humble and he can love. He is in deep love with Meluhan king Daksha’s Daughter- Sati, who is, let us say a little reluctant to go in  a relationship with shiva though she likes him a lot. Interesting uh? It is…

This character shiva- the elegant, powerful and effortlessly brilliant, alone makes the book a worthy read.

2.       The language used- The language used in the book is, to say the least- contemporary.

That is where the main objection of critics lies- when godly people go about saying stuff like “For god’s sake man, if you are happy with her, then I am happy for you”  it becomes a little difficult to digest. It could have been better of the language was a little more dignified when you are setting the plot in 1990 BC.

But for me, such language totally worked- it helped me connect to the story better and added to the humorJ.

But there was one place in the book where even I had an objection with the language- the chief scientist- Brahaspati explaining Shiva about food, oxidation of food by oxygen present in respiration and other truck load of science including ageing. I mean man, cm’on- you have set your plot in 1990 BC, did you forget? At least use some creative words for the scientific terms to prevent it from being weird- like you could use “pran vayu” for oxygen.

Amish has a very captivating style of storytelling- the story is fast paced and gripping. The book has everything- Drama, Action, Romance, emotions- everything. Romance has been portrayed particularly well. Once you start the book, it is an absolute un putdownable. Amish has this ability of putting romance and action simultaneously in same scene. He is also very, very good at sketching the characters because of which you can relate to the characters better.

A must read if you enjoy fantasy fiction- the book leaves you waiting, anxiously for the sequels!!

PS: I personally liked the character ‘Anandmayi’ –towards the end of the book, a lot. Read the book and you’ll understand the obvious reasons behind this