Book : The Immortals of Meluha
Book Author: Amish Tripathi.
I first saw this book at Bangalore Airport. I already had bought my quota for flight so just went through the opinions of other people and a small paragraph about it.
I finally bought it online. The book is written by Amish Tripathi another IIM graduate who heads some insurance company department. The take by the author is good or pretty unique. The novel is about Shiva the Destroyer (a god revered by millions of Hindus).
The story roams around the Indus Valley Civilization, giving out the various concepts and the author's take on those concepts in form of the story. Especially the part where Shiva discusses with The Vasudev Pandit the concept of Evil and the fact that what is considered evil or wrong by some may not be the case with other people. Further he describes the prevailing concepts of terrorism, caste system and most importantly the position of woman in society.
The drawback includes repetitiveness of some things over and over again. The characters are flat not so well developed, at one time Shiva is curious about the evil and traditions and one time is lurking behind girl (parvati). The characters of high statures like King believe the facts which one would take time to believe even after verification.
The story languishes a bit and holds on a bit. Language is a bit of a problem as compared to the subject. Though it feels funny to read that Shiva smokes ganja thru chillum with friends.
All in all, a good read as the attempt is very good and approach is unique. Handling it a bit different would have enhanced the story very much. The book has got dadi ma touch and masala touch from movies.
Review by : Tushar Mankar
