Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Immortals of Meluha


A title that was rejected by plenty of publishing companies until one finally accepted the story and published it. This book, within a week of its release, was the buzz word you could hear everywhere around you if you are surrounded by book-lovers. This book, released in February 2010, became an instant hit, selling over 125000 copies, and the demand for the book was so huge that it had to be reprinted several times to keep up with the demand. It became one of the best selling novels of 2010.



I kept away from this book, till a week ago, when I decided to read the book. I tend to not read Hindu mythology in a language other than Tamil, and I was of the opinion that this is a mythological book until I read a small piece of it at Landmark. Misled by the cover picture, I thought it was some sort of religious remake of existing Hindu mythology.

I order this book online (Flipkart) along with its successor, The Secret of the Nagas. I read the complete book in less than a day. The book is about – What if Lord Shiva was not a figment of rich imagination, but a person of flesh and blood – a man who was raised to become godlike because of his karma.

These lines attracted me further. An interesting plot. The novel revolves around the protagonist Shiva, who is a Tibetan immigrant to the land of Meluha, a perfect ancient India as Amish has described, how he pursues Sati (Parvati) with all his deepest love, and how his karma recasts him as our Mahadev, God of Gods.

For those who think this is only for Hindus, you are wrong. It has nothing to do with Hinduism. It has all the perfect society that could be imagined to exist 4000 years ago, a period where this novel is set.

If this book is plainly read, it is yet another novel, with a different plot, blending myth and history, with volumes of fabulous imagination. Amish has blended all the important characters of our Hindu mythology with vibrant imagination, and has cast a beautiful narrative out of it. Plainly read, the narrative is quite predictable. At least, I felt that way. I loved some of the explanations given for the society that Amish has created. The Maika system, Somras, Vikarma etc. are to be really appreciated.

If you look deeper into what this book tells us, a whole lot of philosophy is hidden within a wonderful story line. 
a.   We, as individuals should be judged only by our karma, not by caste, religion, region, etc.
b.   What is evil? – Something that is different from your world of ideas
are some of them.

Talking about the author, Amish Tripathi is an MBA turned writer, and is now writing the third book in the Shiva Trilogy, The Oath of the Vayuputras. Though the story line is simple, his imagination and the blending of characters into it, and infusing his philosophical ideas into it is worth appreciating. Another aspect I loved when I checked out this book at Flipkart was the video trailer for this book. It is definitely a cool way of attracting even non-readers out there.

I have the second part of the Trilogy in hand. Let's see what this creative author has to say about the Nagas.


6 comments:

pacatanthony said...

What is nagas?

Satish Nair said...

I am nearing the end of this book and every page inspire me to change the way I live my life. And its realy worth it. I hope even you might have had made some changes to the way you live.

Unknown said...

I am reading this book and the story seems amazing but what I reckon is Amish being a pedestrian English user as written in the book's acknowledgement improved his language with the help of his editors but now his extraordinary efforts to improve readers vocabulary is mind boggling. Seriously the language used in this book is annoying and it slow downs readers speed. What I recommend for the next edition is please use reader friendly language.

mumbaimidlife said...

Hi,

I liked your blog. I thought that we could do a few cross blog things.

Would you be interested in reviewing my new book "Love, Peace and Happiness:What more can you want?"

I could do an author interview on yours. I could also post your review on my fanpage referenced below which has more than 10,000 fans giving you a whole new set of visitors.

Let me know if this makes sense for your blog.

Rituraj Verma, author
www.facebook.com/BookLPH
www.riturajverma.com/blog
email:riturajverma2005@gmail.com

nithinh123 said...

nyz book!!!

Unknown said...

Its an amazing book. Compareraja is giving away autographed copies of 'The Oath of The Vayuputras' For more details visit http://www.compareraja.com/luckydraw1

Post a Comment