Shiva Trilogy - Immortals of Meluha

I passed by this book many times over during my last visits through book shops. Somehow I was not urged to pick it up. But again, I read about the trilogy somewhere. I must say I am stunned.

The author has done an excellent job of this box. It is a mixture of old and new, internal struggle of Shiva and his self doubts. The book depicts a lot of how life was to an extend in India. How religion and philosophy is ingrained in the daily lives of human beings. How regular emotions and acts like friendship, love, doubts, treachery is intermingles with a discussion on life, of what is right and wrong, political ideology and foundation of a good civil society.

The protogonist Shiva's travel and life in Meluha and its various people, the advent of Sati, Meluha's society as set up by Lord Ram, its customs and traditions, its obsession to Dharma all seen through the eyes of Shiva make it a page turner.

Meluhan's secret to immortality and their war with chandravanshis are interesting. But impressed me after that is the chandravanshis themselves. the book ends with an interesting paradox that just because someone does not live life ours style does not neccessarily mean that they are evil. Like how I heard it once said, blotted ego in a human is bad. learn to destroy that ego to save the human and not the human himself. You have to distance evil for evil itself.

Spinx

Here's the book that I am reading now.

Sphinx - by T S Learner. Its about an Egyptian Astratium. As per the story the carbon dating of this instrument is something like 3000 to 4000 BC. thats the time around Moses. Didn't even know that Egyptians had something like instruments those days. The timing of this instrument is interesting. Its during the time of Moses and Ramses - III. Thats the time when Egyptians believed in sorcery and practiced sorcery. For argument's sake, the book imagines that this astratium provides the holder with powers to accomplish anything he wants. Thats a lot of power. Can't imagine what all damage such an instrument could have done in the hands of power hunger Egyptians and Romans during their time. But then I suppose this is a bad bet at any time of human civilization. I mean from the time homosapiens developed from hunters to settlers, when have we ever showed sense with anything that wields power?

Will update this page once I am done reading this book.

Department 19 - completed

Those who like the pace and speed of Bram Stoker's Dracula will like Department 19. I finally completed the book. Will Hill wrote in his acknowledgement at the end of the book, that he was travelling on the shoulders of authors like Bram Stoker, Stephan King, J K Rowling, Mary Shelly and a bunch of other authors. Well, he was not kidding when he wrote that. The book has shades of style from all these writers... Makes a very good read. It was the last one in the list of books that I bought recently. I completed Department 19 first.

Liked it a lot. Thanks to Will.

Department 19

Reading Department 19 currently. It makes an interesting read. These days I pick up about 6 to 7 books at a time and read them all in stages.. So I am in various states of completion for each of these books.

This one is from Will Hill. Got to know this through a book review. The book moves forwards and backwards in various stages. It can hold your attention. In whichever state or stage it is in, it has a steady style of rendering. The story of a secret department is the run of a mill..but a teenager's fight against elements and himself while at the path of rediscovering and analysing his emotions about himself and his parents are worth watching.

Hope to update this page once I am done with the book.

Godaan

Visited landmark again and bought some more books. Somehow I ended up getting thrillers this time along with a translated version of a hindi classic. I might end up writing about those books.

Have not yet completed reading any of those books. Reading Noah's Ark and Godaan. Godaan meaning offering of cow. I started reading it today. I have not yet completed it but am highly impressed with whatever I have read so far. This is an English transaltion of a hindi classic by Premchand. The book is the last work of Premchand.
Since I have not completed the book, I want to wait till I do a full review of the book. But would like to, shall we say, put the cart before the horse and talk a bit about few characters in this novel.

Hori, a bonded farmer who is a tenant in his zamindar Raja Saheb's lands. seems like he has 5 bigha zameen. there is an interesting character sketch of Hori. He comes out as a not so wiley. He is but worldly wise. knows his position in the social structure of his village in the fact that he feels it necessary to visit his zamindar. he can listen to his master's philosophical ramblings and yet has some of his worldly philosophy to dish out to his family. There is sketch of his world - the world filled with travails and troubles of the working class. His family consisting of is wife dhania, his young son gobar and his daughters. His extended family consisting of his brothers and their wives and the respective dynamics involved in handling them. the interaction of Hora with Bhola, the cowherd. Its interesting to see how each of them have a hidden desire and how they go about trying to realise it with least pain and expense to themselves. Bhola's daughter Junia and the description world - her world through her eyes and experience - shows a relevancy even to this age. Her budding love with Hora's son Gobar. need to see how this goes forward. Hora's interaction with his each of his family, his fellow villagers, his master etc is neatly interwoven in the start.

Right opposite is the world of the zamindar. His oppulence, his interaction with his servants, his peers and his english superiors or the english babus are well pictured here. The fact that his beliefs do not really match what he really does in practical life, his dependencies, his false world are all pictured here very well. Need to see how this will go forward.

A farmer's connection with acquiring a cow for various reasons starting from his wish to provide milk to his growing son, to getting some extra cash, to his belief that a cow enhances the prestige of every farmer. The farmer's hidden desire for a cow has started off in the early stages of the book. will need to wait and see how it proceeds. This is a good picture of pre-independent india which still has a good share of English babus and the last stages of zamindarism, the emergence of women in social structure. Will write more about this book once I am done.