Book Review : Jaya

Title : Jaya - An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Author : Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher : Penguin India

ISBN : 978-0-143-10425-4

A friend of mine gave 'Jaya' to me to read and going by the first instinct, I read the back cover of the book and what I read greatly intrigued me, fascinated me, captivated me and enthralled me, despite the fact that I have heard the story many times atleast in bits and pieces from different sources, watched almost every episode of the BR Chopra's serial by the same name on television, read it as a part of our school curriculum in one of the middle classes and later read some other interpretations of the story - as told by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in 'Palace of Illusions' and the brilliant parallelism to the current scenario that Gurcharan Das drew in his 'Difficulty of Being Good'.

Without much ado, I think I should just copy the gist of this great epic as is shown on the back cover:

The Mahabharata is an ancient Hindu epic where:

A son renounces sex so that his old father can remarry

A daughter is a prize in an archery contest

A teacher demands half a kingdom as his tuition fee

A student is turned away because of his caste

A mother asks her sons to share a wife

A father curses his son-in-law to be old and impotent

A husband lets another man make his wife pregnant

A wife blindfolds herself to share her husband's blindness

A forest is destroyed for a new city

A family is divided over inheritance

A king gambles away his kingdom

A queen is forced to serve as a maid

A man is stripped of his manhood for a year

A woman is publicly disrobed

A war is fought where all rules are broken

A shift in sexuality secures victory

The vanquished go to paradise

The victors lose their children

The earth is bathed in blood

God is cursed

Until wisdom prevails

I do not feel the need to give even a small glimpse of the story here. The one of its kind epic, unmatched, unparalleled, abundant with all possible forms of emotions and feelings, very rightly lives up to the fame of 'what is here can be elsewhere, what isn't here cannot be anywhere else'. Such is the vastness of this epic. It has been a great research topic for many religious gurus, research community, warriors, businesspeople, sociologists and even after thousands of years since its inception, there is a lot that we all can learn from it. One of the significant parts of the epic, the discourse between Nara and Narayana - Arjun and God at the beginning of the battle - the Bhagvad Gita (presented as 'Song of the God' here), teaches the doctrine of life, the ultimate knowledge of being in the transient world.

Devdutt's book covers a wide range of plots and subplots in a very detailed manner while at the same time keeping it brief so that the main story line is not forgotten in the details of the subplots. Some of these short stories are very self contained and can be a good source of stories to read to children. Since Mahabharata has been written, translated and interpreted by many and in many different languages, there are many variations in the main story as well as the tertiary streams of stories that join the main saga. At the end of each chapter, the author has summarized some of these variations, cultural influences on the narrative and elaborated upon some specific portions even further.

Jaya is an extremely well written story presented systematically in 18 sections and 108 chapters maintaining just the right balance between detail and brevity. The readers will find many of their doubts getting answered as they go along, even the reason why this book is titled 'Jaya' and which victory is actually the one that is being referred to here. Weaving the tales from classical Sanskrit and regional and folk variations make it an enriching and enlightening reading experience. How can I forget mentioning the line illustrations by the author himself beautifully capturing the essence of the chapters - they work as the icing on the cake.

Some of the excerpts from the book which I really want to share here:

• Vyasa classified the hymns and created four collections - Rig, Yadur, Sama and Atharva. On completing this monumental task, Vyasa has this inexplicable urge to write a story, one that would convey the most abstract of Vedic truths to the simplest men in the farthest corners of the world in the most concrete of forms. The gods liked the idea and sent the elephant-headed Ganesha to serve as his scribe.

Ganesha said, "You must narrate without a pause." This would ensure that what Vyasa dictated was not adulterated by human prejudice.

"I will", said Vyasa, 'provided you write nothing unless it makes sense to you. This ensured that all that was written appealed to the divine.

• The war between Kauravas and Pandavas was about Dharma and not for justice. And dharma is not about justice, it is about empathy and wisdom. Dharma is not about defeating others, it is about conquering ourselves. Everybody wins in dharma. When the war at Kurukhsetra concluded even the Kauravas went to paradise.

• Neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas learnt the lessons of - futility of rage and the value of forgiveness - something that ultimately cost the Kuru clan dearly.

• Story of Ram, Ramayana speaks of a model king and his model reign. The Mahabharata by contrast, is more about imperfect kings and their imperfect reigns. In the Ramayana, Vishnu upholds rules as Ram while in the Mahabharata, Vishnu changes rules as Krishna. In the Ramayana, God is king while in the Mahabharata, God is kingmaker.

• Krishna offers Arjuna two things : what he is and what he has. Arjun chooses what Krishna is. Duryodhana is happy with what Krishna has. This divide between him and his, me and mine, what one is and what one has, is the difference between seeking the soul and being satisfied with matter.

Book Review : A Walk To Remember

Title : A Walk to Remember

Author : Nicholas Spark

ISBN : 978-0-7515-3894-6

If you are looking for a sweet, simple, emotional and touching love story which can be read in one or two sittings, you have picked up the right book. I was exactly looking for one such book and thankfully had one right on my bookshelf in the 'to be read' category.

The story begins with fifty-seven years old Landon Carter reminiscing about his days forty years back when he was 17 years old and how that year completely changed his life for good. He introduces us to a small town Beaufort in North Carolina where he was in high school with Jamie Sullivan - the daughter of a widower minister of the local church. Being in a small town like Beaufort, they knew each other right from their preschool days but Landon never felt the need of acknowledging Jamie's presence as he never considered her to be 'his type'. Jamie was a 'good girl' who loved her father dearly, liked to carry Bible in her hands all the time, read the Bible during lunch time, went to orphanage to help the kids and abstained from socializing in the way other young adults of her age did.

As the fate would have it, they both find themselves together on more than one occasions, initially by the turn of events later by their own volition. They share their dreams, aspirations and passions with each other and strangely Jamie nurtured a very simple dream to get married in the Church full of people where she could walk the aisle and her father could give her away to her groom. Landon could not comprehend how a girl as brilliant as Jamie could have such simple aspirations in her life. Gradually their acquaintance bloomed into friendship and later to love. Everything felt just picture perfect but Jamie had one secret and she wanted to shield Landon from that. But does she succeed in doing the same and does she get to live her dream in reality?

Nicholas Sparks brilliantly captures the emotions of human heart which will tug the readers hearts but strangely falls short on the passion that this kind of story desperately deserves. As it is, the author is adept in the art of writing flawlessly and enthralling the readers till the last page but I felt something missing as I turned the last page over. I was reminded of one of my all time favourites 'Love Story' by Eric Segal but 'Love Story' had everything to make it to the list of classics which unfortunately 'A Walk to Remember' lacked.

Book Review : A Beautiful Lie

Title : A Beautiful Lie

Author : Irfan Master

Publisher : Bloomsbury

ISBN : 978-1-4088-0575-6

When I read the review of this book on SaffronTree, I knew I have to read this book very soon. Being born in a family where the bedtime stories ranged from mythology, highlighting the glorious past of India, the freedom struggle, to the first hand experience of the turmoil of partition, it was inevitable to harbour a deep desire to know more about that time and the incidents which led to the unfortunate time of division of a great nation. And to satisfy that craving, what better way than books. So whenever I got a chance, I read many books (fiction or non fiction) on freedom struggle and partition of India written by stalwarts of literature like Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Gulzar, Gurchanran Das and likes of these. This summer, while having some relaxed time in my native place, I overheard my mother narrating her personal experience of the partition to my children on their request. It was hard for them to comprehend the country as a colony of Britain, the hardships that freedom fighters underwent but most of all how one day some people were told to leave their homes all of a sudden by just drawing a line on the land where there was none.

'A Beautiful Lie' is a story set against the backdrop of extremely volatile situation of the months leading to the eventful midnight when India attained freedom which came with an exorbitant price of partition. The readers are introduced to deep friendship of five boys in their teens - Bilal, the protagonist, Manjeet, Chota and Saleem, all of them in their most cherubic selves enjoying their carefree school days.

What impressed me most about the story is that this is one of the few ones which bring out the special loving bond between a father and his son. Bilal's world completely revolves around his dying father and he is determined to go to any lengths in order to shield/isolate him from the stark reality of that time if it could buy just a few more days for his father or reduce his father's distress of seeing the country bleeding. To live this lie, Bilal finds himself in many sticky situations but his courage and grit to make even the impossible possible sees him through, even if it means involving many other people in the lie or publishing a customized newspaper for a certain pair of eyes, he does all.

The way Bilal's character is etched, anyone will fall in love with him, a character sure to stay with readers for a long time. The parts where Bilal's tryst with truth/lie are brought to the fore are admirable and will surely encourage the readers to introspect a little. As the story progresses, there are many strong characters along the way, who win the admiration of the readers - Bilal's wise father - a voracious reader, the teacher Mr. Mukherjee, the Doctorji and all of Bilal's friends.

The story is very well narrated till almost the three quarters of it but fails to carry it to the same scale till the end. The crispness that the tension of the final hour deserved is mired by the confusion created by many small incidents towards the end. But for me, the best part was a letter in the Epilogue of the story.

Book Review : Miss New India

Title : Miss New India

Author : Bharati Mukherjee

ISBN : 978-0-618-64653-1

Anjali Bose or 'Angie' is introduced as a 19-year old, born in an orthodox middle class family in Gauripur - a small town in Bihar, India. This does not conclude her description, she also happens to be attractive - not the traditional Indian beauty though, very smart, ambitious, extremely fluent in English and with some streaks of rebelliousness. Her expatriate English teacher, Peter Champion identifies these characteristics of hers and encourages her to dream big beyond the almost predestined arranged marriage on the cards for her. From time to time he boosts her self-esteem and stimulates the desire in her to write her own destiny rather than watching her destiny being written silently without her consent. But finally it takes one disastrous experience in the marriage market which was enough to push her to take the extreme step of leaving the confines of her home to set off to Bangalore . Bangalore - one of the fastest growing cities in India, the new IT hub, the land of realizing the dreams.

Anjali sets her feet on the new promising land with Peter Champion's money and his introductions to a couple of contacts of powerful people who could help her in forming small footholds initially. She finds herself in a huge crowd of aspirants to be call-center service agents who are given American names, taught to speak like Americans, familiarized with America's geography - in short, trained to comfortably put up the garb of a regular American for specified working hours. Her Bangalore tryst turns out to be a huge roller coaster ride where - she is seduced into the freedom and modernity that the city has to offer to its inhabitants, the trickery of one of the co-residents pushes her into troubled waters and the gloomy side of independent life does not remain alien to her.

Some of the characters in the story just add more clutter and confusion without going anywhere and give an impression of half thought-out and half-baked effort. The character portrayal and the description of relationships that the protagonist has with her family, her teacher and her friends lack believability and depth.

Despite aiming to be a story reflecting the predicaments of many wannabes from small towns struggling to make it big in life, the narrative falters miserably. On many occasions it takes drastically melodramatic turns leaving the whole story line far removed from reality. The story spanning 300 odd pages bringing out the journey of Anjali Bose should have been able to establish some connection of the readers with the protagonist, on the contrary, the readers are left with no feelings whatsoever for a puzzled and lost Anjali.

Book Review : Elephant In The Tree

Title : The Elephant in the Tree

Author and Illustrator : Mallika Nagarajan

Publisher : Katha

ISBN : 978-81-89934-66-8

Story of a little girl Mahi who enjoys eating her favourite fruit - mangoes (who doesn't?) and while relishing the luscious fruit once, she wonders how it would be if there were no mango trees? And the same night, she could not believe her eyes when she spotted a seven-trunked elephant in the tree and soon enough the same elephant was standing in front of her with a unique request. The Tree of Life which makes all life possible everywhere, is sick and needs help and the elephant thinks Mahi can join him in saving the tree.

This request melts Mahi's heart and she embarks on the journey with the elephant to the most amazing world that she has ever seen. But everything everywhere in that world was pale, brown and sad.

They both quickly get to work and their relentless efforts start bearing fruits and soon the world which had become lacklustered because of dearth of water starts breathing life, the Tree of Life was colourful and bright again with leaves, fruits and flowers.

The magic had worked and they had accomplished their mission.

Through this exercise Mahi realizes the importance of trees in our lives and she resolves to use the same Tree Magic to make rain and save our world too. During her holidays she plants the seeds of each mango that she eats and later is joined by many of her other friends in this endeavour. She even finds a secret friend who visits her often.

Yes, we all can be miracle workers and join the mission of saving our world by planting more magic Trees.

Katha books always offer beautiful illustrations with riots of colours which are sure way to have dedicated young readers spending hours and hours savouring the details of each picture.

Book Review : Flute In The Forest

Title : Flute in the Forest

Author : Leela Gour Broome

Publisher : Puffin

Age Group : 12+

There are some rare books which stir some chords deep inside the heart and after reading such books, I just sigh and wish I could also write something so beautiful, something so pristine and something so soul stirring. Oh well, atleast I am writing about one here.

'Flute in the Forest' is one of the most sensitively written stories of a thirteen-year-old girl - Atiya Sardare, the only child of her estranged parents. Her mother, a famous dancer succumbed to the lure of exciting stage, left the family behind when her hopes of seeing Atiya as a world renowned dancer got shattered following the polio attack that left Atiya physically handicapped. Now Atiya lives with her father - the forest officer in a jungle in Southern region of India.

But her handicap or her loneliness does not hamper her adventurous spirit in any way rather this spirit of hers often encourages her to explore the paths inside the sanctuary many times even without the knowledge of her father. She feels most comfortable in the natural surroundings amidst lush green silent trees and the world of big and small animals. She is well conversant with the ways of jungle and its innumerable creatures.

While on one such secret trips, she gets to hear the most mellifluous music of a flute being played in a distance which enthralls her so much that she resolves to learn to play flute herself. But she knows her father detests any kind of music in the house in the fear of losing another loved one to the temptation of the stage.

Atiya soon finds out that the player of that sweet melodious flute was none other than a very bad tempered mean old man whom she likes to call as 'Ogre Uncle'. As the fate would have it, she starts learning to play flute from the same Ogre Uncle and surprisingly these teaching sessions lend a blissfully calming influence on the dreaded rogue elephant - Rangappa and Ogre Uncle himself - the physicallt dissimilar yet very similar duo. Atiya finds a loving patient friend in Ogre Uncle's daughter - Mishora. Atiya's flute-playing adroitness brings an unprecedented inner peace to herself and manages to transform the opinion of her father too. It feels as if the magic of the musical notes originating from Atiya's flute weaves a blanket of calm, peace and love everywhere and everyone seems to find the answers to many personal unanswered queries.

Despite having dealt with a few sensitive subjects in the narrative such as - a physically handicapped girl as the protagonist, the mention of her mother leaving the family to follow her passion to dance, a terminally ill Ogre Uncle and finally a death - the book is very positive. The story is the true celebration of 'The Happy Spirit'. I was reading the last chapter on my way back from a very satisfying trip to Rishikesh and I still can feel

the same goose bumpy feeling that I experienced then while reading it. This is what a perfectly well-written moving stories do to the readers.

I am sure this charming story will touch the same inner chords of young readers as it did mine.

Book Review : Journals of the Big Mouth Bass

Title : Journals of the Big Mouth Bass

Author : Debbie Sue Bass Williamson

Publisher : Souper Publishing

ISBN : 978-0-9801234-1-8

Debbie receives a journal from her mother as birthday present and this particular present catches her fancy more than anything else. She is a girl who is well aware of her incapability of keeping secrets to herself and this nature of hers has already earned her the title 'Big Mouth Bass'. So the journal functions as the perfect rescuer for her - a perfect place to pour out her heart's secrets, her experiences, feelings and thoughts, without holding anything back. She decides to address her journal entries to God with the confidence that God won't let her secrets out. She confides everything here - her (mis) adventures as part of the Sunny Side Gang, her failed attempts to behave in a more girly manner, her struggle to be accepted in certain groups, her misery of being last to be picked up for the games of dodge ball and her first crush - are just a few of the issues that she has to deal with.

So the whole book is in the voice of a nine-year old who thinks herself as a - 'sort of dorky with buck teeth, red hair and lots of freckles'.

Debbie Bass is a suburban girl growing up in 1960s and through her journal entries she gives a glimpse of the journey of a girl trying to make sense of the age old traditions, values and family restrictions while keeping her eyes on the wider promising unfathomed world.

There are some portions which are straight from the heart of a girl who is going through the difficult phase of growing up. However, after reading the whole journal, I am contemplating whether it is the kind of book I would give to my nine-year old son to read or not. There are a couple of chapters I have objection with - one depicting the magic and visualization and another is towards the end when the death of a certain character can jolt the young readers. So I would urge the parents to read this book first and then take the decision. The last chapters brought back the memories of 'Bridge to Terabithia'

Overall an engaging and entertaining book. The short abrupt sentences completely reflect the distracted mind of a nine-year old. Girls will be able to relate more to it simply because the protagonist is a girl and has described the experiences of transitioning from a little girl to the pre-teen phase of life.

Book Review : Tasting The Universe

Title : Tasting the Universe

Author : Maureen Seaberg

Publisher : New Page Books

ISBN : 978-1-60163-159-6

I must confess that I did not know what Synesthesia mean before I received this book to be reviewed. And the first thing I did after having picked up this book to read is to look up the meaning of Synesthesia. One of the simpler explanations about this term that I found online is - 'This is a peculiar condition in which the senses get cross-wired. For example, a person with synesthesia may see colours when he/she hears a sound or can actually taste words; stimulation of one sense, it seems, causes an inappropriate stimulation of another. The most common form of synesthesia is when people see or hear words in colour. The condition affects about 1 in 25,000 people and is found more commonly in women than in men. There appears to be more left handed individuals among synesthetics than in the general population although the significance of this is unclear. Often synsethetics have exceptional memories, have a tendency to unusual 'psychic' experience, but may have problems at maths and navigation. '

The author Maureen Seaberg, a Synesthetic herself, very early on realized that her aberrant perceptions of letters and numbers sound rather strange to people around her, so she preferred keeping the same to herself. But later inspired by 'the present day climate of inquiry into and wonder about this nearly forgotten gift', she took upon herself to explore this amazing alternate world. In this book, she watches, questions, interviews and tries to experience the experiences of Synesthetic rock stars, violinists, neuroscientists and quantum physicists in her endeavor to understand the amazing patterns made by the mind in collaboration with the senses. As observed by the owners of these rare gifts, often this unique intermingling of senses indeed empowers the person to open a whole new vista of creativity, sensitivity, divinity and an unmatched, unparalleled vision and eventually to establish connection between all these diverse faculties.

People who are familiar with this form of perception and understanding of things will be able to relate to this book and to the experiences of others mentioned in it, and for other readers who are completely alien to this unknown world, this book opens a small window for them to peep through the colourful, magical, mystical and fancier world. I specifically liked the part where Seaberg has listed the criteria to test whether a person is indeed a synesthetic or not. This criteria is propounded by Dr. Richard E. Cytowiz who is accredited with the success of bringing synesthesia back as one of the topics of deep research and discussion.

Overall a fascinating read.

Book Review : Dear Max

Title : Dear Max

Author : Sally Grindley

Publisher : Aladin Paperbacks

ISBN : 978-1-4169-3443-1

'Pen is the tongue of mind' - I cannot agree more. I am one of the many strong admirers of letter writing. Its charm and charisma can never be replaced by the whole array of modern means of faster and quicker communication. Letter writing is truly an art. It is the most personal gift that we give to our loved ones.

'Dear Max' is a story narrated through a series of letters, postcards and cards that are exchanged between a nine-year old boy Max and his favourite author - D.J.Lucas. After having read one of his books, Max decides to place the first stone of the foundation of a friendly relationship between an author and a young reader.

"Dear D.J.Lucas,

My uncle bought me one of your books for Christmas. Its called Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Boys? Have you written any other books? I want to be a writer when I grow up.

Love from Max,

Age 9"

D.J. lovingly replies back to her new pen-pal and thus commences the wonderful journey of their sharing their lives with each other through the letters. Max writes about his challenges in life, the bullies he has to face in school, his life after his father left them, his struggle in forming a story and his medical issues. D.J. shares the events and happenings from her life, her progress in story writing and about her other engagements.

Max makes sure to add his creative drawings in all his letters and this is one of the reasons he likes writing letters than any other ways of communicating with his favourite author. For the readers, these drawings simply raise the fun factor of the book.

Dear Max showcases a beautiful relationship in which it feels so easy and right to share many inner feelings and emotions with ones who do not judge, who have similar vulnerabilities, despite them being complete strangers initially. While reading this book, I could actually peep inside the mind of Max and feel his jubilation on having another confidant in his life besides his mother, another person who he happily includes in his inner circle. I like the way Max tries to incorporate the ideas or suggestions given by the author for his writing, behaviour and life in general. Throughout all the author's letters to Max, she does not sermonize or preach anything to Max, she just offers another perspective and different angle of viewing things which works wonders for Max and I am sure it will appeal to all young readers.

Book Review : Still Alice

Title : Still Alice

Author : Lisa Genova

Publisher : Simon and Schuster

ISBN : 978-1-84739-624-2

What happens when somebody loses his/her complete identity while still very much alive?

'Still Alice' is the story of Alice Howland - a successful academician, an accomplished Harvard Professor, who is diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's Disease soon after she celebrated her 50th birthday . The doctor's verdict comes as a rude shock in her otherwise extremely active life, which she loves dearly and which is part of her real identity - full of travel, giving lectures, mentoring students besides being a loving wife and a mother of three.

It does not take long for her condition to deteriorate. The story is the third person account of how her disease progresses and the preventive measures she takes in order to extend the period of her being aware of who she actually is. Some of the parts are really touching and very sensitively handled - her being lost inside her own home looking for the bathroom, her forgetting everything about her actress daughter, her loneliness amidst her own family, her interactions with her youngest daughter and her heart-wrenching speech as an Alzheimer patient. These are the portions in which the author excels brilliantly, successfully invoking the right feelings in the readers.

But there is much that is left unripe, unbaked and amateurish.

The author keeps dwelling on the fact that Alice is a smart Harvard Professor umpteen number of times. The early onset of Alzheimer is a tragic development for any person engaged in any occupation. In the beginning while introducing the protagonist, the mention of all her details are expected but too much of the same piece of information is definitely unpalatable.

Interaction among the family members on many occasions fall in the category of being artificial and superficial. While reading this kind of story I was expecting the handling of the close relationships in much more sensitive fashion. Characters should have been etched with a little more detail and warmth. The elder two children and even Alice's husband John come across as dry and shallow individuals.

This story had all the ingredients of being a great read but the lack of proper handling makes it fall short on many fronts. Despite all this, it is still an engaging book as it offers a close to accurate account of how it feels to be the patient of such brutal unforgiving disease.