Book Review : 'Sita's Ramayana' by Samhita Arni & Moyna Chitrakar

The docile and soft Sita of Ramayana may not be a role model for most women today, however, author Samhita Arni in a new graphic novel has brought out the bolder colours of the epic character.

"Sita's Ramayana," a vivid book which retells the ancient Indian epic through illustrations in Bengal's folk art form of Patua, has Sita voicing out her turbulent life, her anger on Rama and various such emotions that have been underplayed in most of the 'sanitised' depictions of the Ramayana.

Arni, who found international acclaim at the age of 12 with her book "The Mahabharatha: A Child's View," collaborated with Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar to portray a Sita that the current generation could identify with. "The book came with the feeling that the kind of Ramayana that I grew up with is where Ram and Sita are like ideal characters, can't really identify with them but are held up as role models superficially.

"Sita's Ramayana comes from folk stories and versions which were sidelined and where we saw a very different Sita, one who has a strong voice, a voice articulating the kind of tragedy that befalls on her," says Arni.

The author was in the capital for the fourth edition of "Bookaroo" book festival which was held in Delhi from November 25 to 27.

Arni's interest in mythology began at a tender age of four with her grandmother s tales and grew further with time spent in Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand. Her exposure to different cultures also gave her an insight into the varying forms of Ramayana across the world.

"There's a wonderful poem that's written on a wall of a Thai temple where Ravana confesses his love to Sita and how he knows his love will kill and destroy him and yet he loves her. I think it s quite beautiful and creates a different image of these characters and also different image of love," she says.

The 27-year-old writer disagrees with Delhi University's decision to withdraw A K Ramanujan's essay on Ramayana from the history syllabus.

"You should not hinder knowledge and should not blinker yourself. Education is for the sake of expanding knowledge. I don't think we should restrict or prohibit it in anyway because that becomes censorship.

"Obviously, you can disagree with Ramanujan's essay, you can have a conversation about it, you might not like it but that should not stop it from being out there. Different versions of Ramayan are part of our heritage, we should celebrate it rather than push it under the carpet," she says.

Arni, whose book has made it to the New York s best seller, featured in the fourth "Bookaroo" book festival that was held in the national capital from November 25 to 27. Speaking of her experience at the festival, Arni says, "Although my session at the festival was for 12-16 years of age group, children as young as 8 years old had joined. The book is not restricted to any age group or language due to the visual treatment of the subject." Her next book, she says would also be based on the Ramayan but in the setting of 21st century and as a fictional thriller.

Stephen King, Haruki Murakami nominated for 'Bad Sex in Fiction'

Stephen King: Ouch!

Famous British journal the 'Literary Review' has nominated certain eminent authors like  Haruki Murakami; master of horror, Stephen King and the twice Booker nominated and Sebastian Barry for its yearly Bad Sex Award, the prize awarded to the worst literary depictions of sexual acts.The Bad Sex Award, now in its 19th year. We bring for our readers certain quotes from those authors books who have been nominated for this year's bad sex awards

Choicest quotes

11.22.63 by Stephen King  (“Her head bonked on the door. ‘Ouch,’I said. ‘Are you all right?’”)

The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey (“Every part of my body sang some song I had never heard.”)

The Great Night by Chris Adrian. (“His lady lifted to the stars on his impossibly stiff, impossibly elegant cock.”)

On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (“We got rid of our damned clothes, and clung, and he was in me then.”)

Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas  (“My tongue furiously worked the craters.”)

Parallel Stories  by Péter Nádas (“They hit gracefully on this exceedingly advantageous position.”)

Ed King by David Guterson (“At the moment of their mutual climax, Ed made sure Diane was on top.”)

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M Auel (“It surged up, unti, with volcanic release, it engulfed them.”)

The Affair by Lee Child (“Then faster and harder. Then we were panting. faster, harder, faster, harder.”)

Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller (“We’re part of the same organism: some outrageous sea creature.”)

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy  (“Henry reached up her thighs … as though quietly imploring.)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami  (“A freshly made ear and a freshly made vagina look very much alike.”)

And also : "[Her breasts] seemed to be virtually uninfluenced by the force of gravity, the nipples turned beautifully upward, like a vine's new tendrils seeking sunlight."

And also: “I’m still erect now, and it shows no sign of subsiding. Neither Sonny and Cher nor three-digit multiplication nor complex mathematics had managed to bring it down.”

'Chapter Eleven', the corporate tale that wasn't

(IANS) Chapter 11, which in legal terms means filing for bankruptcy, is the central theme of this supposed peek-a-boo into the corporate world. The title is apt and justified as it won`t even take you 11 chapters to figure out that the book is a result of clear bankruptcy of ideas.

For starters, it could have done with some sharp editing and generous chopping of the tech lingo, which though simplified still manages to sound like gibberish.

The plot is a done-to-death Bollywood cliché. Virendra Vikram Singh or VVS is your typical small town boy dreaming of making it big one day. The dreams of VVS, a Rajput from Udaipur with exceptional intellect, come true when he lands a job with a Fortune 500 company in Gurgaon with the help of a sleazy college senior who`s now a strings-pulling "fixer" office senior.

The Blackberrys, laptops, corporate suits and king-size breakfasts make for a glamorous entry but soon lose sheen when the company files for Chapter 11.

Heads roll, VVS does a `what-am-I-doing-here` act but the "fixer" senior comes to his rescue, time and again.

Meanwhile, our protagonist naively manages to get into a soup by doing a hacking job for a blue-blooded Rajput from his hometown, finds a place to stay with two women - one of them beautiful with a bell-like voice - and discovers the virtues of Facebooking and coffee guzzling to kill office time.

In between, we`re also subjected to ill-timed flashbacks where VVS is still a student in Delhi University. We`re told, more than once, that he was IIM (Indian Institute of Management) material but the "god-like" influence of the sleazy senior changes the course of his life and puts him on the path of Navy Cuts and Old Monks.

Back to the present, VVS expectedly falls for the girl with the bell-like voice despite a sarcastic wife back home who keeps calling to check if he`s been asking "how was it" there too -- a reference to a question he used to ask her after their passionate act.

In office, he`s been christened "thakur" and is just beginning to make an impression on seniors with acronyms like his when tragedy 1 strikes. A marketing campaign is leaked and all fingers point towards him. Under the impression that he`s innocent, VVS gets the shock of his life when he finds out that he`s been stabbed in the back by the bell-like voice. Tragedy number 2.

Losing all sense of faith and sanity, VVS bursts out with an impromptu, supposedly-brave speech in the office whose customary purpose is to make the protagonist appear like a coming-of-age hero. Unfortunately, it is neither heroic nor does it move, it`s just a never-ending rant.

Contemporary in its voice and setting, what drowns ‘Chapter Eleven’ is the oft-trodden path it takes.

What could have been an insightful, vivid journey of the corporate industry is reduced to an underwhelming and unintelligent drama with one-dimensional characters, uninspiring writing and a storyline that can be predicted just by turning the book over and going through the blurb.

Grace Before My Eyes: A Poem by Mukul Raisinghani

A letter kept beside my sleeping girl

My Grace

My love, as you are about to read this, I just wanted to tell you I kept on looking for hours at you. I was glued to this serene grace of god on your face and trust me each and every moment lasted forever endlessly...

Sitting beside my sleeping grace, sitting beside my sleeping you I just kept on wondering and wondering whether to keep on wondering and feel this eternal beauty of your soul forever endlessly....

Or

Should I paint this splendour of yours on a canvas and immortalise you forever in colours so vivid and exquisite seen or felt never before so that each and every one feels this eternal bliss of paradise....

Or

Should I fill life in these lifeless papers of my diary in reverence of the everlasting serenity of an angel sleeping right beside me, who makes me realise this delight of paradise....

Or

Should I compose a melody so soothing and alluring heard or composed never before that touches each and every soul that hears it in the same way it touches me and makes me feel this rhythm of paradise....

All I wondered was whether to keep this music, lyrics and paintings of

Paradise that resides in you to me or should I tell everyone about these including the heavens above about this paradise of LOVE in the form of a PAINTING coloured with the colours so enchanting never seen before, or a SONNET immortalised with the elixir of ink, or a MELODY so mesmerizing that mesmerizes even the heavens above......

...........

I know it very well no matter how much I wonder and how much I try, I‟ll never be able to colour my reverence for you on a canvas with perfection like the way God did on the canvas of my life.

I know it very well no matter how much I wonder and how much I try, I‟ll never be able to present flowers of my words in my reverence for you on a paper like the way God did on the pages of my life.

I know it very well no matter how much I wonder and how much I try ,I‟ll never be able to create a melody of my reverence for you so soothing and enchanting like way the God composed on the memories of my life.

All I can do is praise and thank the Almighty,

For providing this solace of coldness to my eyes, for filling my life with the music of love, for blessing me with pictures lovely sunsets, filled with rainbows of bliss, and each and everything he bestowed upon me by gifting you......

Sometimes there is only one thing that I wonder, whether you yourself know how charming you are,

Whether you can see what I see in you,

Whether you have the slightest idea of the depth of your beautiful soul,

Whether you know what all you do to me with all those little gestures and those smiles that take my breath away,

Whether you have had the taste of your own eyes, the way they play and the way they talk to me,

Sometimes I really wonder whether you yourself have talked to your own eyes looking into them like the way I do.........

Sometimes all I wonder is whether even God knows the delight of your beauty, does he have the slightest idea of what it feels to be me while looking into your eyes and talking to them, does he knows how it feels to be me as I am sitting beside „ the sleeping you‟......

As you are sleeping and I am sitting beside you, my Grace!! And looking at your angelic face there is one thing I can say, Everything is there in a name, and it seems to me that “it‟s all about the name”.

Ohhh dear gracious Grace!!! it‟s God‟s grace that I can see in you, it‟s God‟s grace I can see in my life when I look at you. And all those who have you in their lives, they not only have you they have God‟s grace in their lives in form of you, ohhh my grace!!!!

Ohhh baby!!! I am looking at you, the sleeping and dreaming you, with the dreams of pleasant heavens and clouds above. Your eyes that are peacefully and delightfully closed like that of a seashell shining brightly in morning on rhythmic seashore....

And these red lips of yours seems like a bud of a red rose waiting to mesmerise the aura around it and as you smile unconsciously I can see

them blossoming into a beautiful red rose filled with infinite amount of magnificence and heavenly fragrance....

And these hands of yours joined unconsciously seems like a

Bouquet of baby pink roses, all I wish is I could hold them forever and remain forever in awe of you....

Ohh my dear!! with these joined hands and serenity in your closed eyes you seem to be a sweet little kid praying with blissful innocence.......

And as this sunshine falls on your face, trust me you shine brighter than everything that shines, brighter and finer than glowing snow and the Merril. I can feel the divinity of heaven and calm of innocence in you....

And as I touch your cheeks of yours trust me I can tell you I have never felt the softness this way, no feather and no petal can be softer than you my Grace!!!

As I try to keep your lovely and silky hair behind your ears, to me it feels like making way for the sunlight through the leaves of a tree....

Like the shadow of leaves of a tree standing beside a lake and in between the leaves when shines the sun, in the same way my Grace you shine in the morning light and in the same way your grace shines on my smile....

While looking at you I can feel the beauty of heaven and see the soothing innocence, I can feel and see the unseen Love, I can fly without the wings and swim without the fins, I need nothing more than the moment I am living. All I wish is I could stay magnetised to you like this.... Forever, hypnotised and mesmerised the way I am... Forever.

The perfection of the beauty of your soul and perfection of the moment says it all about the existence of an eternal power, it says it all about the presence of God.

“Bow to thy god, who created thee”

“Bow to the god because of you I am sitting beside thee”

As this sun will blossom more, it will bother you, and soon you‟ll wake up but as always you won‟t let this sun bother you much. You‟ll shine back at the sun with a radiant smile on your face for you know that love shines in you and this shine of your love makes the light of sun feeble to bother you.

Ahhh!!! How lovely will it be...., watching you spread your arms with a sweet smile on your face, like watching a bud blossoming into a flower in morning light just like the way your smile seems......

“Will it be like blossoming of a flower or will it be like a dove waiting to spread her arms to kiss the sky or an impish butterfly fluttering her vibrant wings while coming out of the cocoon....

I came to wake you up by embracing and cuddling in the sweetest possible way, I wanted to hold you close to my heart and wanted you to feel how it feels to be me in your arms but I am allowing my words to do the talking, to touch your soul.

You listened to my heart and now it‟s time to feel it, My Love!!!, my sweet embrace is waiting for you or rather say I am waiting for your sweet embrace. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, and now is the time it will come by.

Come oh dear Grace, love of ours is waiting to get flourished in the garden beside the lake. As you are reading this my love, I am waiting by the lake side just for you to come by, and paint my love with your shining colours. As you are reading this I am feeling the most blissful moments of waiting and as I am waiting the nature is singing the songs of immortal dreaming.

Come my dear love!!!

I am waiting to hug you in the laps of nature, with these orangish red flowers sprinkling down from these tall trees and this fragrant and chilling breeze playing with our cheeks.

Come my dear love!!!

As this flowing lake and this charming wind has also started playing a melody so soothing and alluring heard never before,

Come ohhh my dear love!!!

Let me love you in this mesmerizing aura of magnificent love

Come oh my dear love!!!

let me play with your long flowing locks and touch your cheeks like the way these enchanting winds are touching me, come and let me enlighten you the way this aura is enlightening me and the way you have enlightened me....

Come oh dear love!!!

let us walk down these miraculous path of love holding hands in and hands and constant cuddling of love, come let us walk playing with each other‟s fingers,. Come and we‟ll fly out to heavens above......

Waiting by the lake, with the sprinkles of flowers from the heavens above, and the drizzling of elixir from the paradise above, and listening to the most melodic melody ever heard created by these alluring winds and enchanting lake...

Come my Grace!!! Come and let me love you this way!!!

Love you more than my words can say....

Waiting endlessly

Mukul Raisinghani

Book Summary of Chetan Bhagat Combo Of 5 Books

The box set includes the following 5 titles : 

1) Revolution 2020

Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys.
One wanted to use his intelligence to make money.
One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution.
The problem was, they both loved the same girl.
Welcome to Revolution 2020. A story about childhood friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarti who struggle to find success and love in Varanasi. However, it isn't easy to achieve this in an unfair society that rewards the corrupt. As Gopal gives in to the system, and Raghav fights it, who will win?

From the bestselling author of Five Point Someone, one night @ the call center, The Three Mistakes of My Life and 2 States, comes another gripping tale from the heartland of India. Are you ready for the revolution?

2) The 3 Mistakes of My Life
In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their goals, they will have to face it all - religious politics, earthquakes, riots, unacceptable love and above all, their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individual's dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite a few mistakes?

3) Five Point Someone
Five Point Someone is a story about three friends in IIT who are unable to cope.

The book starts with a disclaimer, 'This is not a book to teach you how to get into IIT or even how to live in college. In fact, it describes how screwed up things can get if you don't think straight.'Three hostelmates - Alok, Hari and Ryan get off to a bad start in IIT - they screw up the first class quiz. And while they try to make amends, things only get worse. It takes them a while to realize- If you try and screw with the IIT system, it comes back to double screw you. Before they know it, they are at the lowest echelons of IIT society. They have a five-point-something GPA out of ten, ranking near the end of their class. This GPA is a tattoo that will remain with them, and come in the way of anything else that matters - their friendship, their future, their love life. While the world expects IITians to conquer the world, these guys are struggling to survive.

4) One Night At The Call Center
The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working in Connexions call center in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon in Haryana. It is filled with a lot of drama with unpleasant things happening to all of the leading characters. The story takes a dramatic and decisive turn when they get a phone call from God.
The novel has also been adapted into a movie.

5) 2 States (The Story Of My Marraige) 
Chetan Bhagat latest book '2 States' is about a boy and girl from two different states of India, who fall in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don't agree. What happens next is what the book is about.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don't agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? 

If you want to read these books you can purchase it from booked4books@gmail.com by placing your order for this 5 book set of Chetan Bhagat's novels. The 5 book set is available at Rs 455 only

JK Rowling ‘considered killing Ron Weasley’ in Harry Potter series

JK Rowling has admitted that at one point of time she seriously thought of killing Ron Weasley in the hit Harry Potter series.

Although the author had originally planned not to kill any of the main characters, it was one of the low phases of life during which she pondered upon killing Harry Potter’s sidekick.

“I planned from the start that none of them would die,” the Daily Express quoted her as saying.

“Then midway through, which I think is a reflection of the fact that I wasn’t in a very happy place, I started thinking I might polish one of them off, out of sheer spite.”

“I was thinking: ‘There, now, you definitely can’t have him any more.’”

But she always knew that she would not have taken this decision.

“But I think in my heart of hearts, although I did seriously consider killing Ron, I would not have done it.”

“Anyway, it’s a real relief to be able to talk about it,” she added.