Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I completed "Palace of Illusions" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni today. Its a narration of one of the greatest epic of Indian Mythology "Mahabharat" but from the point of view of its most famous female protagonist , who was somewhat responsible (read destined) for causing the greatest war that the Indian subcontinent ever had changing its landscape forever, Draupadi or Paanchali.

Although Sita , who was part of the other Indian epic Ramayana  is more revered and enjoy a stature of Goddess , I find more fascination in the character of Draupadi , more so because she is more humane. I have a little more inclination towards characters who have more human traits than to people who are God (except of course Sachin Tendulkar). Also I do have a inclination towards reading stuffs which are more of a  first hand account rather than some third person narration.

So ever since my friend told me that there are books which narrate the epic from a characters point of view and that too from that of Draupadi , I quickly jump to search for the same. Although I picked up this book reading its review and popularity on Goodreads , I somehow still hope that there is a even better book than this on this subject.

So as you can sense I am not that much impressed by this book and hope to come across a more well written and put forth one.

Draupadi was the daughter of King Drupad who was the ruler of Panchala . Drupad was humiliated by his dear friend and tutor of Pandavas Drona, after he refused to acknowledge a promise he made to Drona. So in order to avenge that humiliation Drupad organised a Yagya to have a male child who will kill Drona. From that yagya ,apart from the male child also came a female child, Draupadi, who was prophesied to change the history of the continent and thus will be instrumental for the epic war "Mahabharat"

Palace of Illusions is a book which captures all the events that happened in that epic and narrates it from the point of view of Draupadi. So right from the Yagya til she died , the book narrates what all part she played in it and most importantly what was her state of mind during all these times.

Since it is a woman we are talking about here, the level of emotions depicted are vast ranging from desires, love, lust, jealousy, happiness, agony ,humiliation, sadness, despair , affection and so forth and so many.

A war from a Man's point may contain more valor, courage and avenge but when you put it from a woman's perspective you add certain more humane emotions of sympathy and jealousy.

Whats good in this book ?

Well, since its written by a woman , of a woman and from a woman, it does provide you a more humane and emotionally rich perspective of the epic stories or legends that we Indians have so grown up with. The way the relationships are woven between Draupadi and her brother, with her Dai Maa, with her husbands, with her Mother in law Kunti, her elders like Bheeshma and more so ever with Krishna are quite commendable and believable.

One thing that makes me admire the humane quality of her is the fact is that I never found her suppressing the emotions or the desires that she experiences . In our Indian culture, woman are brought up to behave in a certain manner , with a certain second class citizen nature where they are taught that the male in their lives are their supreme commander so naturally the women feel oppressed and portray a fake character of as if they are contented with whatever their fate is but in truth all of them have many hidden desires. So in conventional terms you may call Draupadi rebellious but I find her "Real".

This book portrays her that trait beautifully , whether it is questioning the elders or harshly speaking her mind despite the norms saying that a woman should keep it to herself, working for to get what she wants , manipulating people and even playing the true MIL-SIL duels that's so common in our Indian culture.

Draupadi is depicted as Woman who is short of the regular emotional feelings that we Indians have known woman to have ,say for example a mother's love for her children. She had little or no contact with her 5 sons , Agreed that she had the situation to blame or plainly she was different that's why we are reading about her.

The story told is nothing new as most of us who live in Indian sub continent are well versed on it , so it was a kind of refresher too. One thing that this book mentions which I dint know was that even Draupadi was granted the power to view the battle of Kurukshetra from the tents that was sheltering the woman folks. As per my knowledge this power was only granted to Sanjay, Blind King Dhritarashtra's charioteer , so that he can narrate each day's happenings to the king.

Well what I did not like ?

First of all the comprehension is at times too dramatic thus making it sound more fictitious. Yes its a fiction I know but the art of good writing is to make you read a fiction as if its the most real thing. If I may, I will call  the writer the female version of  Amish (of the Shiva trilogy fame).

Second , yes it was a known fact that Draupadi adored Karna more than she adored her five husbands but in this book it has been played a time too many to my comfort. Ok I may sound hypocrite with at one time appreciating her speaking her mind and at same time not liking her overflowing love for a man other than her husband. For me it was a touch disrespectful to her but again going with the theme of Draupadi may be apt.

Third, in totality, the book was ordinary. I don't know what I was looking for but it fails to leave a mark. I felt despite the rich flow of emotions there was much more to touch upon. Especially since it was coming from a woman's point of view , there could be more. There was nothing that makes me think, oh that's why she did this or huh so bad on her.

Ok may be I am little over critical as Draupadi may have been different from a stereotypical  female and me having grown in this other culture may find it little unusual to digest and also I have read or heard of these stories so many times that somehow the level of empathy that I should feel on seeing her plight is subdued.

To be honest as I mentioned earlier that I admire her more than Sita , so I would like an ideal woman to have more of her traits and little of Sita's.

I will rate it as 3.5 out of 5 and although not highly recommended but you may read it just for the sake of reading Mahabharat again.

The Eagle Has Landed

 

 

Well I picked this because I simply loved "The Day of Jackal" by Frederic Forsyth and another of his book and my research of this book told me that Jack Higgins if not better than Frederic is in the same league and Eagle Has Landed surpasses The Day of the Jackal.

 

Unfortunately whenever you have high expectations from something it generally disappoint, even if if it has been good if not compared.

 

The story depicts how Hitler orders his General to plan to kidnap Winston Churchil from Britain so that it will turn the tide of the World War II back in favor of Germany and how one of his Major devises the whole plan in which 16 paratroopers were to land in a small coastal village of England where Churchil was planning to spend a quite weekend. The book narates how they prepared to carry out the capture with the help of an old lady who was residing in that small town and was serving Germany as a spy since a long time with the sole hope of causing damage to Britain and an IRA soldier Liam Devlin who reached the village early and made all the arrangements. Like Day of the Jackal this too unfolds a meticulously planned plot which some how fails due to an act of bravery and sacrifice by a German soldier for the people of that village.

 

Honestly I did not like this book as much as I loved The Day of the Jackal. Yes Jack Higgins is comparable to Frederic Forsyth but the content and execution comes just short off.

 

Before I come to why so, let me first list down the pros of this book

 

Pros
1. The subject of Adolf Hitler ordering the kidnap of Winston Churchil right in the fag end of World War II is indeed quite fascinating and attractive.
2. Naratives and the charatcers are really admirable and to an extent lovable.
3. Despite it being a war / assassination themed story, there is large scale humane touch in it. It characters make you think that everything is not black and white in war. Even in the enemy ranks there are people who are good and likable.
4. Like I mentioned for The Day of the Jackal, despite you knowing that its a fictious failed attempt you crave for it to succeed.

 

Cons
1. Well the fact that the Day of the Jackal mentions to you in the second page itself that assassination attempt failed ,you still till the last page hoped for them to succeed. But in this book that feeling was not strong enough and you somehow were hoping it to fail sooner than later.
2. The books could had a few more twists and turns :) It looked too plain and simple at times.
3. For me the book failed to keep me revited to it as can be seen from the fact that it took me almost 2 months to finish.
4. Some questions were left unanswered in the end which I would have loved to know about.

 

Overall I would have give it 3 and 1/2 rating.

 

I can't say if I would like to read more from this author but as they say you never know when you might fall in love with a book ;)

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is 1925 novel by F Scott Fitzgerald

The book was recommended to me by my fellow blogger and friend Maverick and since recently a motion picture was released based on the same, so I was also eager to read it before watching the film.

The book is reminiscent of a classic with its elaborate and almost poetic rendition of nature and surroundings and is considered quite popular for creating and depicting the period before the constitution of the American Dream.

Its the story of an extremely rich guy Jay Gatsby, narrated in the words of his neighbor , Nick Carraway. Nick was a bond salesman who was trying to make his own on the East side of America and Gatsby was his next door neighbor who used to throw lavish parties, full with sea of people every day, which used to run till wee hours of next day. Nick too got invited to one of these parties , where he finds that most of the guests don't know Gatsby and have only heard unconfirmed rumors about his claim to fame and inheritance. 

Nick initially thought that Gatsby was friendly to him due to their common war background but later gets to know that his proximity was more due to the fact that Gatsby once had a small fling with Nick's cousin Daisy in past , who was now married with a kid to Tom Buchanan ; And Gatsby was still in love with her and Nick could be instrumental in getting them together.

So the book covers how their relation and past unfolds leading to intense drama and murder.

To be honest it cannot be termed as a great read but at the same time it had some uniqueness which makes one glued to reading it.

I liked the flow of the story despite the fact that the story has not much to offer. But as I said it had a classic sense of drama which narrates a simple period story at its own comfortable pace. 

The fact that its been told from the perspective of Nick Carraway instead of Gatsby gives an added punch to the book.

I will rate it as a light read and one that should be enjoyed by ardent readers.

Next up will try to see the motion picture to give visual to the imaginations that the book has created.

Random Thought XXXIX

Reading the you-will-take-it-for-real fictions written by the Indian authors portraying the life of Indian youth I sometimes feel that I myself have been living a fictional life quite contrary to the real life portrayed in those books.

Neha........ I

Walking through that busy corridor , scanning every face on my way to find at least one face that does not have “Don’t bother I am busy ” board, I finally stumbled on a door and without stopping to check what room it was, I simply pushed open the door.

As I entered a dozen pair of eyes turned their focus on me and the whole room which was a moment ago buzzing with activity was turned into a silence which is similar to the one we have when a teacher enters a noisy class. But it didn’t took them long to make out that’s not the case.

As I was going from one pair of eyes to another looking for a familiar eye suddenly my eyes stopped, wow, two big round sparkling eyes were looking at me. I could see nothing beyond those eyes as if there were only those two eyes floating. So clear, so magnificent, so full of life, full with sparkle that could lighten up the whole universe. I was so lost in those eyes that I did not know that since how long I did not blink.

“What do you want?” an angry voice blurted out from somewhere, which brought me back to the reality and made me realise that there were other people too in that room. I somehow turned my eyes trying to find out from where did that noise came and asked “Sorry”.

The voice again said “What are you doing here?” This time I could see who it was. I sheepishly replied,” Sorry to disturb, actually I was looking for my friend, Ruchi, she told me that she will be down this corridor.” Then before I could finish, a voice as soft as sponge, came from the back “Oh, she just went outside, she will be right back”. I turned in that direction and man, it was her, and like Dorothy said to Jerry in Jerry Maguire “Shut Up, You had me at Hello”, I could not make out anything after Oh. I was again in that fantasy world but this time I could see the face too. If eyes were huge and vast as ocean, the face was that of an angel, so white, so pure. If eyes had that sparkle of stars then the face had that brightness of sun, so vibrant. Her cheeks were white and were giving a tempting signal to come and pull them.

As she could easily make out from the quizzical look on my face that I did not understand anything, she repeated in that magical voice “She went to get some papers, she will be back soon”. This time I had to hear and said “Ok, Thanks” and gave her a smile and before I could see whether she had returned my smile, the same angry voice came out” You can go and wait in her room”. And before I could say anything, my angel replied “You can wait here”, with a smile that could infuse life in dead.

But sensing that others may not like that idea, I looked around and said “Thanks, but I won’t bother, you people carry on with your activity”, with a smile mainly directed at the angry soul. I think this mellowed him down a little.

Then another voice came out,”Then you have to participate in that”. I could only muster “Ok, what I have to do?” Soon the room was again full of noise with each one shouting instruction to another. I put my bag down and was asked to stand at one corner. They started passing a plastic ball around.

I again looked at her, she was bursting with laughter and some of them were finding it hard to hold the ball and each time anyone missed it, it started a fleet of laughter. I was so lost in their laughter that I did not notice the ball being thrown at me and I did not have time to react and it hit me on the face. Everybody started laughing hilariously but my angel wasn’t. She asked me with concern in her voice“Did it hurt?” I said No and started laughing and she also started laughing. I picked up the ball and shouted “It’s now my turn to get you guys” and threw it lightly to person diagonally opposite, he caught it and soon we again started throwing around.

After a while we all got tired, and everyone started relaxing. I walked across to where she was and started looking from the window which was next to her. Then I looked towards her and I saw her panting but she looked still as vibrant as before. I asked, “That was fun”. Without commenting she asked “So you are a Magician, too?” Magician, I thought the only magic I could do is the card trick, in which you ask the person to pick one card and see it and you without seeing it put it back after turning it 180 degree, so that all other cards have same orientation of picture except the one he picked and that will also be a trick only to people who have not seen it earlier. So after a thought I replied with amazement “No...I am not.” She said “Oh, so you don’t work here.” I replied, “No, I just came to see my friend.” She said, “Oh, Yes”.

“So, you like Magic?” I asked her. “Yes, very much, Ruchi Di always does that, whenever anybody is in pain, she does something and it vanishes, whenever anyone is sad, she hugs him and they become happy.”

Pain, Sad... these words rang in my head and before I could think more, I heard a familiar voice “So here you are, sorry I got stuck somewhere”. And all the children gave a cry of excitement “Didi has come”.

I looked at her white coat and then looked around, and everything seemed new to me now.

Then a Nurse entered and shouted “Dinner time.” Everyone ran back to their bed. Ruchi said looking at me,” Come, let’s go”. Then she looked at the children and said “Good Night everyone, See you all tomorrow”. I was staring at my angel. She was getting ready for her dinner. Ruchi caught my hand and ushered me outside.

I couldn’t say anything, something stuck me. I just walked out and glanced at the plate hanging at the door.

It read “CHILDREN’S CANCER WARD”

She looked at me and asked “Are you Ok?” I sat down at the bench and just closed my eyes. She said “I know, let’s go”. I uttered”My bag...” and ran back.

The moment I entered she looked at me. I went to her; she said “Good Night, Will you come again?” I said “Good Night dear, Yes, I will.” Kissed her forehead, picked my bag and everybody looked at me and said “Bye, Good Night”. I got a meek smile on my face and said “Bye, Good Night” and ran away.

That’s Neha, a seven year old angel, suffering from leukaemia (blood cancer).........

"Its all imagination that I have penned down,
but somehow I feel someday you will be running around
I will hold you in my hands, hear you say "I Love you",
and hug me tight and will stop the tears flowing down
But till that time, I will have to put the Disclaimer down."

All the thoughts mentioned above are author's imagination and any resemblance to anyone alive,dead, healthy or ill is purely coincidental and unintentional and any information cited is purely fictional.