Bhang Journeys (Book Review)

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”
― Carl Sagan

Perhaps very few people would know the full benefits of what a cannabis, hemp, marijuana, brown sugar or perhaps more specifically bhang and ganja would do to a person. What better than to understand the implications of this from a person who has seen both the positive and negative aspects of its usage for 10 years.

The book gives a specific account of why bhang is consumed but beyond that what we still don’t know

Bhang Journeys: Stories, Histories, Trips and Travels is a book by Indian author Akshaya Bahibala , published by Speaking Tiger. It chronicles the author’s ten-year experience with bhang and ganja, from 1998 to 2008. The book also details the lives of people in Odisha whose lives are impacted by these substances.

The moment I picked up this book I really wondered what it would be. Would it interest me? How would a person who has never taken these drugs respond to the book? How would a person who actually has taken drugs also respond to the book?

It was only after completing the book that I could sum up my experience of reading it. When I started off reading how Akshaya spent those years on the Puri Beach, I thought it would be a very personal retelling of his life from addiction to de-addiction. I thought it would turn out to be a typical triumph over circumstances story, but then Akshaya did really surprise me!

The book just doesn’t chronicle Akshaya’s experience of addiction but also traverses through the jungles of Odissa, through the Government depots and the reasons of how livelihoods are getting dependent on this crop. I especially could imagine how Akshaya travelled and talked to people, police and purchasers of the drug in legal and non-legal ways.

Overall it was an insightful read connecting something that’s debatable in legal angle, scientific viewpoints, livelihood perspectives and the drain of the police force engaged in the war in between legalization and mafias.

Suggestion – To get more insight about the back history about the use of bhang (Cannabis), opium and how India got trapped into this drug also read “Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey Through Opium’s Hidden Histories” by Amitav Ghosh

About the Book:

‘A wild ride through the dreamworlds and shadow life of bhang and ganja in Odisha… Akshaya Bahibala is the Baudelaire of Indian literature.’—Chandrahas Choudhury

For ten years, from 1998 to 2008, Akshaya Bahibala was in the grip of bhang, of ganja—drinking it, smoking it, experiencing the highs and lows of an addict on Puri’s beaches with hippies, backpackers and drop-outs from France and Japan, Italy and Norway. Then he drew back from the edge and tried to make a life, working as a waiter, a salesman, a bookseller. He starts this journal-cum-travel book with startling, fragmented memories of his lost decade. From these, he moves to stories about people across Odisha whose lives revolve around ganja-bhang-opium. There is the owner of a government approved bhang shop who takes pride in selling the purest bhang available and insists it can make people as forgiving and non-violent as Jesus. The opium cutter who learned as a boy how to massage a lump of opium with mustard oil and carve it into little tablets. The girl who survived cholera by licking opium and became a lifelong addict. The goldsmith whose opium de-addiction card entitles him to 20 grams a month, but who wishes it were 25. The ganja farmer who came from Punjab in a helicopter. A young man, a victim of ganja and-bhang-fuelled paranoia, who believes Indian and American spies are out to get him. Excise department men who go to destroy ganja plantations and are beaten up by angry villagers. Interspersed with these stories are official data on opium produced, seized and destroyed; UN reports on the medicinal properties of cannabis; and a veteran’s recipes for bhang laddoos and sharbat.

Full of surprises, utterly distinctive, this entertaining, often trippy book of memories, journeys, facts and figures about the popular intoxicant is both a celebration and a warning.

About the Author:

Akshaya Bahibala is a bookseller, poet, publisher and library activist. He is the co-founder of Walking BookFairs, an independent bookstore and publishing house.

About the Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Suryavamshi : The Sun Kings of Rajasthan (Book Review)

Marrying the facts with fiction is no mean feat, but then in the land of the brave Rajput people the romantic illusion of living life to the fullest is not only romantic but also an inspiration for ballads and songs.

Suryavamshi (The Sun Kings of Rajasthan) particularly focuses on the kings of Mewar who were said to have descended from the Sun God. The chronology of the kings isn’t what you can expect in this book but you can definitely have a wonderful storytelling that mixes James Todd’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan merged into a storytelling by Abanindranath Tagore, leaving you engaged till the end. The translation and adaptation from the original ‘Raj Kahini’ in Bengali to English by Sandipan Deb is a beautiful undertaking. This book is published by Juggernaut Books.

As a reader and reviewer hailing from the lineage of the Sun Dynasty, of course I would sound biased in my approach to the review of the book. However, I have tried and been objective in my approach to the reviewing.

The captivating story of Shiladitya, adventures of Bappa Raval, the love of Rani Padmini for her husband and the Jauhar story, Mirabai’s devotion, tracing dynasties and lineage till Chhatrapati Shivaji and the relationship of the Rajput kings with the Bhil kings has been vividly described with many other stories of challenges the sun kings faced. The political intrigue, drama, ascendance to the throne, the right way to rule and the kingdoms and dominions are all fantastically described with facts and fiction. Abanindranath himself had admitted to getting the facts from James Todd’s work.

To get the idea of how the emergence of kings, kingdoms and kinship arose from various tribes, we need to understand the historical implications of different situations. The role of Bhils in keeping Mewar from the attack of invaders however can never be ignored. If you see the insignia on the coat of arms you will find both standing proud on either side of the Sun God.

जो दृढ़ राखे धर्म को, ताहि रखे करतार – has been the pledge of the Sun Kings of Mewar but it can be also be taken into consideration for all of Rajasthan’s brave men and women including the royal families to have followed this path. The pledge translates as – The Almighty protects those who stand steadfast in upholding righteousness (dharma).

Gods and Goddesses also form part of storytelling, weaving into the fabric of Rajasthan’s religious practices without being too obvious about it.

Overall, the book brings into its stories a beautiful amalgamation of wars, politics, justice, rivalry, enmity, love and bravery. The only drawback is that the book doesn’t go beyond Maharana Pratap’s story, I wish there were more stories to encapsulate the rule of the later kings.

The book is ideal read for readers of 10+years and onwards in age. The confluence of fiction and non-fiction makes it a great read for all kinds of readers.

Book Blurb:

For over a century, Abanindranath Tagore’s Raj Kahini has been among the most beloved works of Bangla literature. Mixing history and mythology with an extraordinary visual imagination, it tells the tales of the Suryavamsha – the Sun Dynasty that ruled Mewar. Here we meet Shiladitya, child of the Sun God; Bappaditya, who builds an empire that stretches up to Persia; Hambir, the cheeky teenager who reclaims the throne of Mewar. We meet Padmini, the princess from SriLanka who becomes a goddess; Mirabai, who renounces her kingdom to be with her child-god, Nandalala.

On every page, we are exposed to emotions that define the human condition – love, sacrifice, jealousy, courage, greed and treachery. Honour and loyalty clash with villainy and evil, and the better side does not always win. Epic in their sweep, universal in their essence, the stories are timeless. Suryavamshi is a translation and adaptation of Abanindranath’s classic for twenty-first-century India.

About the Authors:

Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) was one of India’s most important artists and led the influential Bengal School of Art. A member of the Tagore family, he was also a well-regarded writer, especially known for his children’s books which includes the classic Raj Kahini.

Sandipan Deb became a published author at the age of eight when one of his stories was printed in Sandesh, the Bangla children’s magazine edited by Satyajit Ray. Since then his writings have ranged from business to cricket, cinema to artificial intelligence.

About the Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Grandma in the Stars *Book Review*

Painful and abstract concepts of death, aging, illness can have a very negative impact on children. It therefore makes sense to give them a kind of understanding that matches with their age. That’s the kind of children’s book we need more these days and Dr. Sneha Sharma‘s Grandma in the Stars aptly touches upon this.

Grandma in the Stars is about a young girl, Ayesha who is missing her Grandmother. She lost her maternal grandmother in the pandemic. She is unable to bear the loss, however, a chance encounter with a calf ‘Chatur’ gives her a chance to meet her grandmother once again.

Key Takeaway for the readers –

1. Easy language for children up to 10 years
2. Fantasy fiction story form
3. Includes many aspects of curiosities that kids encounter. For example, lunar eclipse
4. The role of grandparents in grandchildren’s lives and how they want to communicate or express their absence
5. Illustrations to propel the story forward.
6. Animals and Indian lifestyle and culture are explored.
7. An abstract concept is touched upon in a very positive and non-scary way

Notes for Parents when explaining the concept of death to very young children:

1. Simply and honestly respond to their inquiries.
2. Adopt a soothing voice and a soft mannerism.
3. Soak in your child’s tears. Expressing your feelings lets them know it’s alright for you to be depressed as well.
4. Children all grieve in unique ways. Show understanding and patience.
5. Take a look at children’s books that illustrate Indian cultural views on death. Pick up this book – https://www.amazon.in/Grandma-Stars-Sneha-Sharma/dp/9360160369

Overall, it is an interesting story especially suited for Indian children. I wish it were a fully illustrated book so that very young children would get gradually used to the concept through pictures.

Book Blurb:

Ayesha lost her Nani-maa to the pandemic two years ago. With summer just beginning, she’s already missing her Nani and her home in Delhi, which she used to visit this time of year. But this summer promises to be unlike any other. Ayesha’s best friend, Shreya, plans to make her smile again. She shares a story of an adorable calf named ‘Chatur’ and invites Ayesha to spend time with him. Chatur is born to Leela, a friendly white cow, at Shreya’s Nani house in Nashik. Ayesha is captivated by Chatur’s story and can’t wait to meet him. However, she soon discovers that Chatur is not just an ordinary calf and her companion to a place among the stars where she finally reunites with her Nani-maa!

About the Author:

Dr. Sneha Sharma is a PhD in Media Management, faculty member in Renaissance College of Commerce and Management, author and coach. She has written for platforms like Woman’s Era, SheThePeople, The Hindu, The Children’s magazine, Kitaab, Toastmasters International, among many other. 

She enjoys both speaking and writing. While writing is her passion and home speaking is something that she passionately aspires to pursue as a skill. 

She is the author of the novella, ‘Grandma in the Stars’ – a fantasy fiction for primary school children. 

Her past experiences include service as a National TV host for Care World TV, columnist for Times of India and a Voice Over Artist for broadcast commercials and documentaries.

Her debut documentary Adrashya Nari as director and script writer, has won national and International acclaim, including silver at Usha Pravin Gandhi, Aligarh Muslim University, and the Hawai International Film Festival. It was also screened at the prestigious Mumbai International Film Festival. 

She is also an avid Toastmaster and has achieved a rare feat of being a bronze medalist and finalist at two districts of its public speaking championship in a single year.

About the Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Tomorrow Someone will Arrest You: Book Review

The voice is important. Not only the voice to be heard but to marvel at the way the voice speaks out on a range of topics that may seem offbeat but bear the brunt of the beaten track over the years.

Meena Kandasamy‘s poetry book is the assimilation of those voices. Voices that have been drowned in the agony of living. ‘Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You’ published by Juggernaut Books is something of an unfolding of woman’s enigma to the universe; yet with a hidden subversive approach, it gives you something more.

A striking book cover

The title is totally a ‘let me know what this is about’ reaction maker. Why this kind of title? Not only does it draw attention to the reader to pick up the book, but it also makes way for the right to speak out about speech impediments that make way in our lives without our conscious allowance.

The experience of reading this poetry book is not only bi-lingual (Tamil words with translations with English) but also multi-lingual in the context of violence against women, the society’s performance and the political mayhem that’s plaguing us.

Meena doesn’t mince words to speak out against the various atrocities we are facing in different aspects of life. To say that she is the representative of a collective voice for women against violence is a major way to say “yes” to this book.

Overall, not only did I relate to what Meena was talking about but also I could feel that certain stanzas were spoken to me from other women. I did feel that though Meena is more favorable in talking about women, the poems also had a hint of talking about men too. After all, while the percentage of victims of violence is more for women than men, men too undergo a different kind of violent deals that change them.

Some of the poems I liked are –

1. A poem in which she remembers
2. The Seven Stages
3. A cat closing her eyes
4. A poems on not writing a poem
5. We are learning by heart

The title poem Tomorrow Someone will Arrest you has many aspects to understanding how a misunderstanding can be dangerous for anyone.

Especially loved the endnotes that gave a distinctive explanation of the triggers of that particular poem.

About the Book:

All discipline
a deception to hide the wildness, all symmetry
an excuse for keeping count.

Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You cements Meena Kandasamy as one of the most exciting, radical thinkers at work today. These poems chronicle wanting, art-making, and the practicing of resistance and solidarity in the face of a hostile state. Here, the personal is political, and Kandasamy moves between sex, desire, family and wider societal issues of caste, the refugee crisis, and freedom of expression with grace and defiance. This is a bold, unforgettable collection by a poet who compels us to sit up and listen.

About the Author:

Described by the Independent as a ‘one-woman, agit-prop literary-political movement’, Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, translator, anti-caste activist and academic based in India. Her extensive corpus includes two poetry collections, Touch (2006) and Ms Militancy (2010), as well as three novels, The Gypsy Goddess (2014), When I Hit You (2017) and Exquisite Cadavers (2019).

About the Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy

A fiction writer wrote a biography and I was intrigued! While the author, Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee herself expressed that it was her first book in non-fiction genre, she enjoyed the process.

An Uncommon Love – a title that definitely gets everyone to sit up and notice! This book by Juggernaut Publishers has had people getting curious and rightfully so! Who wouldn’t want to know about the person who created Infosys!

If you approach this book as a love story or rather a biographical romance then I would say you haven’t opened your mind to the possibilities yet!

This book though puts the readers into the early lives of Sudha and Narayana Murthy, it also attempts to take the readers into a journey of how their childhood life lessons and values instilled shaped their adult life. It definitely puts everyone in a framework of how India was also shaping itself in the different political climate and the background of families and culture.

This book isn’t just about two people. Rather, I would say, I felt richer in getting all the background scoop of how their lives were shaped up by so many incidents and causes.

Some quotes/ lines I would love to share from the book that have impressed me –

“To me, learnability is the ability that allows you to extract genetic inferences from specific instances and use them in new, unstructured situations to solve new problems. It’s far more useful than having knowledge, which can get outdated fast, especially in the rapidly changing IT industry. We’ll be going from country to country, developing new applications for new domains. What my team needs is flexibility to learn new things quickly and the ability to think nimbly.”

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But on the way back, he began to think through his failure and delineated some lessons he could learn from it. The first was that a startup needed to be in touch with the senior management of a potential client rather than its mid-level or junior managers. The second was that Murthy’s presentation needed to strongly differentiate Infosys from its competitors both in technical competence and in business value – otherwise a large company would not take a small start-up seriously. The third was that the vendor had to demonstrate unusual strengths in areas where the customer was weak. 

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When all possible options are eliminated, we must try the impossible.

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Entrepreneurship has a human cost, and it is the entrepreneur’s family that pays it.

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Overall, I have really enjoyed reading this book. Being a reader and an entrepreneur, it is definitely an eye opener. As a woman, it tugs the strings of your heart for you can empathize with Sudha and rationalize with Narayana. Do pick this book!

About the book –

Sudha Kulkarni was forging a career as TELCO’s first woman engineer when she met the serious, idealistic and brilliant Narayana Murthy, and they fell in love. For the first time comes the story of their early years – from their courtship to Infosys’s founding years, from their marriage to parenthood – told by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. What drew them together and kept them bound tightly through the challenges and loneliness they faced? What was it like to create a start-up during the licence raj, when there were no VCs, and entrepreneurship was regarded as a dirty word? How did Sudha Murty balance being a career woman, a mother and a start-up wife? How did Narayana Murthy’s obsession affect himself and his family? Taking us deep inside the minds, hearts and values of the Murthys, with exclusive access to them, Divakaruni tells their story with extraordinary emotional depth, bringing them and their worlds vividly alive. This book is about the sacrifices it takes to forge a powerful and lasting marriage, about the early story of Infosys and Indian business before liberalization, and most of all about two icons before they became the legends that transformed the fields of business and philanthropy.

About the Author –

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the award-winning author of 18 books. Her themes include the Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Her work has been published in over 100 magazines and anthologies and translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Japanese. She has won numerous awards, including an American

Book Award and the internation Premio Scanno Prize. Divakaruni also writes for children and young adults.

Her latest novel is Oleander Girl (Simon and Schuster, 2013). Her upcoming novel is Before We Visit the Goddess (about 3 generations of women– grandmother, mother and daughter– who each examine the question “what does it mean to be a successful woman.” April 2016, Simon & Schuster.)

Two of her books, The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart, have been made into movies. Her novels One Amazing Thing and Palace of Illusions have been optioned. Her collection of stories, Arranged Marriage has been made into a play.

She was born in India and came to the United States to continue her education, receiving a Master’s degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

She currently teaches in the nationally ranked Creative Writing program at the Univ. of Houston. She serves on the Advisory board of Maitri in the San Francisco Bay Area and Daya in Houston, organizations that help South Asian or South Asian American women in abusive situations. She is also closely involved with Pratham, an organization that helps educate children (especially those living in urban slums) in India.

She has judged several prestigious awards, such as the National Book Award and the PEN Faulkner Award.

She lives in Houston with her husband Murthy and has two sons, Anand and Abhay (whose names she has used in her children’s novels).

About the Reviewer –

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Welcome to Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (Book Review)

If you think that bookshop owners are the luckiest because all they have to do is read – then you are in for a surprise! They do read; however not just that is all that makes them successful.

Go inside the bookshop of Yeongju and find out for yourself how the bookshop works. Who made the bookshop successful? The readers! But not just readers. You have to count on more than just readers.

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop!

While someone pegged this book as a love letter for bookshop owners, readers and publishers; for me this book was a sweet way to give anyone a glimpse into how a bookshop comes into existence. Setup in Korea, the geographical difference, the reading habits of the people and their thought processes are what drew me to read more of the story until it ended.

The story had me thinking about many aspects of bookstore owners and their lives. When you open a bookshop you are open to the lives of the people too. While a book is therapeutic, it can also put you in a fix about what to do next! The world of books is great but the real world needs the book owners to interact with people when they probably might not want to. When a bookshop opens, the economics of keeping it going trickles in. This story is not just focused on the bookshop but also talks about the people in the neighborhood who slowly become part of the book shop and the benefits it provides.

Some interesting quotes from the book –

“Books are not meant to remain in your mind, but in your heart. Maybe they exist in your mind too, but as something more than memories. At a crossroads in life, a forgotten sentence or a story from years ago can come back to offer an invisible hand and guide you to a decision. Personally, I feel like the books I’ve read led me to make the choices I’ve made in life. While I may not remember all the details, the stories continue to exert a quiet influence on me.”

“Life is too complicated and expansive to be judged solely by the career you have. You could be unhappy doing something you liked, just as it was possible to do what you didn’t like but derive happiness from something entirely different. Life is mysterious and complex. Work plays an important role in life, but it isn’t solely responsible for our happiness or misery”

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Final Takeaway –

A soft, sweet yet realistically built up story of a bookshop owner and her struggles to come to terms with her life decisions. Asian parenting is something that attaches itself as a footnote to understand the way the protagonist behaves. I found this book a nice read.

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Blurb –

The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.

Yeongju is burned out. With her high–flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

For the first few months, all Yeongju does is cry, deterring visitors. But the long hours in the shop give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store, and as she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she begins to ease into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

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About the Author–

Hwang Bo-reum studied Computer Science and worked as a software engineer. She wrote several essay collections: I Read Every Day, I Tried Kickboxing for the First Time and This Distance is Perfect. Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is her first novel, which has sold over 150,000 copies in Korea and been sold into 9 territories. Before its release as a paperback, the novel was initially published as an e-book after winning an open contest co-organised by Korean content-publishing platform ‘Brunch’.

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About the Reviewer –

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Warlord of Ayodhya (Book 2) – Book Review

India is abuzz with the Ram Temple and Ram Rajya philosophy. While Lord Rama paved the way of “Ideal King’s Rule”, as we trace the story of Ramayana we tend to realize over a period of time that it focusses on Lord Rama. What about the others? What did they think?

A curious reader might have some questions in mind about this. What did Sita Mata feel about her role in the whole process? Was she happy? Did the trials sit well on her mental state? While Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Anand Neelakanthan have explored these perspectives in their books – The Forest of Enchantments and Valmiki’s Women; there are many authors and researchers like Utkarsh Patel (The Mythology Project) who have explored female narratives in mythology. While we aren’t chasing the female perspectives here; we definitely are including their echoes in the setting of the gap years when Rama was in exile.

Imagine the impact of suddenly being made a regent king with the public already in favor of Rama, the palace left shaky after Kaikeya’s favor and King Dashrath’s deaths and the administration torn between wanting different kings. Added to that you have the magic being depleted, kingdom under siege of uncertain weather and internal unrest to claim the throne. That’s Warlord of Ayodhya for you! Shatrujeet Nath‘s second book – The Warlord of Ayodhya :Resurrection is a blending of master storytelling in fiction format with mythology swirling around it.

It is important to remember that this is a fictionalized account of the gap years. There is no systematic record of what happened in Ayodhya in absence of Rama – the people’s king. Shatrujeet Nath has tried to piece together a story so that we may not feel the absence of history; however it’s the historical backing that’s severely missing in actual records. While Ramayana is said to be a mythology, the fact that it is embraced throughout South Asia cannot negate the fact that such a kingdom and king really existed. There are no doubts about that. What is missing from our stories and archives is the gap and that’s where the author has taken creative freedom to fill, understanding the fact that it must have been a really heady task for Bharata to rule.

My Perspectives about the book –

• The cover is minimalist focused and brings attention to the choice of weapon. Each series in the Warlord of Ayodhya has a different weapon to check out. It is a research in itself.
• Shatrujeet Nath writes like a dream. His ability to evoke imagery in storytelling is powerful. I don’t have to consciously make any efforts to bring out the imagined scenes and dialogues, they simply swirl while I read
• The language is easy to understand and given the Indian context all Indian readers can easily identify with the situations and scenarios presented
• The pace of the story is mostly moving at a moderate pace, ensuring that the readers don’t feel the strain of the the events happening all together at the same time and yet ensuring that the attention doesn’t waver from reading. If you can do it, you can even finish this book at one go!
• The support of other characters to the building of Bharata’s attempts to rule well with justice and balance is an important aspect to be considered.

To say that I enjoyed this book at one go is really telling about the way Shatrujeet writes. If you think I am sounding like a fan of his work…. well, he is one of the most stellar authors that India must notice in mytho-fiction format. However, I wouldn’t typecast him with that genre specific title. He is definitely an author worth looking out for!

Check out this invigorating online meet we had with him recently in which he talks about fiction, mythology, creation of stories, research inputs and lots more – https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1PL8RcoHVB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Meanwhile the Book 3 (the last of this series ‘The Warlord of Ayodhya’ is awaited eagerly!

About the book –

A kingdom on the brink of collapse.
A dynasty under threat.
A legacy in peril.

Having taken on the responsibility of governing Kosala in place of his exiled brother Rama, Bharat has had to deal with multiple setbacks—a rakshasa attack on Ayodhya, a drought, a mysterious epidemic of people vanishing, and a waning of the magic that keeps the kingdom protected.

Desperate to bring the magic back and give his people a reprieve, Bharat takes a risky decision… But the gamble puts his son Taksha’s life in grave danger.

Meanwhile, Kosala’s rakshasa and human enemies move relentlessly closer to destroying the kingdom. And Sudhanva’s rebellion against Bharat erupts when developments in faraway Kekeya cast a shadow of war over Kosala.

At the centre of all this is Bharat, unaware of the dangers that besiege his kingdom and threaten to cause the downfall of the Ikshvakus…

Crackling with characters overlooked and forgotten by the Ramayana, Warlord of Ayodhya is a thrilling spinoff by bestselling fantasy author Shatrujeet Nath.

About the Author –

SHATRUJEET NATH is the creator of the runaway national bestselling series Vikramaditya Veergatha, and the upcoming alternative mythology series Warlord of Ayodhya. Described as “a new face to Indian mythology” by DNA, Shatrujeet writes for movies and web shows as well.

About the Reviewer –

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Welcome to Paradise (Book Review)

Mrs Funnybones aka. Twinkle Khanna comes back with another book this year. The funny form is replaced by seriousness that bites the bone! But hey! It isn’t so serious as it is so contemplative in theme aiding the feelings of loneliness, deception and heartbreak.

Welcome to Paradise by Twinkle Khanna by Juggernaut Books houses tales that have a peculiar women’s lens.

Twinkle Khanna blends the various Bombay vibes and lives in various moods, across different religions into a single need to experience slivers of paradise.

There is nothing great about the stories. They are not wild or other-worldly but so very ordinary that this ordinariness attempts the itching need to unwrap the human emotions at work and the mind at it’s most displaced moments.

‘The Man from Garage’ looks into family situation at a personal yet very astutely impersonal level. The family is broken apart in death by the religious sentiments but that’s not what the story is about. There is something more and that you need to read to know it.

‘Let’s Pretend’ goes beyond identity hide and seek and steps into the murky matters of loneliness…and perhaps more?

‘Nearly Departed’ takes you into the by lanes of human mind as it contemplates the decision of living or dying in old age.

‘Welcome to Paradise’ pricks the bubble of paradise kind of happy life that could be easily torn apart if a secret reveals itself.

‘Jelly Sweets’ brings a sweet end to a bitter tale of living and actually living again.

Each of the stories in the book have the component of loneliness, desire and deception with the undercurrent of heartbreak of different kinds.

Usually, Twinkle Khanna tends to engage with wit and satire in her books. This book takes up heavy themes without making it dragging boring or depressive moorings; however some wit or sarcasm here and there does make it sail worthy in the story’s choppy waters.

My Reading Experience:

• In some stories the Old Bombay imagery comes to my mind and in some a contemporary one.
• Life and death, masking and unmasking, love and loneliness, deception and perception, all blend into the stories that are simple to read
• The reader can easily flow with the story narration.
• Keen observations about daily life that we all tend to see and yet it just bypasses us. The stories make us sit up and nod our heads – “Oh yes! This happened once upon a time…..”
• Stories can be good OTT theme for viewership
• Ideal for Young Adults and Adults

Blurb:

Rich narratives that explore the depth of loneliness, heartbreak and deception. Huma’s divided family – Team Cemetery and Team Crematorium – clash hilariously over matters involving pigs and penises as they decide what to do with Amma’s body. Madhura Desai writes an email to the chief justice of India, urging him to choose a ‘nice cut-off age’ to die, sending shockwaves across the nation. Along the shores of Satpati, Nusrat grapples with the loss of her son, and her voice. And Amita tells her husband about her breast implants but not about Bua, Bangalore and beautiful men. Perfectly observed, shot through with light and shadow and wry humour, Welcome to Paradise confirms Khanna’s reputation as one of our most masterful storytellers.

Author:

Twinkle Khanna, also known as Tina Jatin Khanna, is an Indian author, columnist, interior designer, film producer, and former actress. In 2015, Khanna released her first non-fiction book, Mrs Funnybones which was declared a bestseller, making Khanna India’s highest-selling woman writer that year. Welcome to Paradise is her latest book.

Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

Sandalwood Soap and Other Stories (Book Review)

Perumal Murugan’s Sandalwood Soap and Other Stories, published by Juggernaut Books is a translated book from original Kongu dialect of Tamil language. Translated by Kavitha Muralidharan, this book marks a return to the subtle themes of caste in the semi-rural and rural settings of Tamil Nadu.

The everyday lives in the stories are juxta positioned by subtle infusions about caste and identity issues.

The stories are all different yet held together by an invisible thread of everyday living in a world that is so relatable yet so ordinary that we see it clearly only if we see it closely.

‘Loser‘ is direct yet subtle in its fantasy quality. A cat that talks? Emerging from a banal yet stressful office environment comes a tale of hours at home with a cat. The story somehow involves stories of the boss and the cat. Is the cat real, or it is a person or is it all imagination?

‘The Last Sacrifice‘ holds the people on the fence of tradition and change; to cling to the last visages of doubt and development. Are the superstitions real?

‘Thigh’ has a circular impact wherein a love that’s not reciprocated takes an ugly form of swelling that won’t go.

‘Grant us pardon, Saami‘ is a direct reference to caste thinking. Mob violence erupt from the old scars and thoughts that resurface.

‘Anointing‘ builds up a tempo with the husband’s thoughts with a festering end as the story progresses.

‘Meowdi‘ presents the picture of a family whose interpersonal dynamics change on the arrival of a cat.

‘The Game‘ connects an older generation with the young one. It throws light into the father-son relationship in a new twist.

‘The Last Cloth’ wraps up the last generation of traditional tamil attire of a woman into a matter of shame. The solution though is sought with strange result. Who can deal with an elderly’s ways when the younger generation think they know better?

‘Neelaka‘ focuses on beauty to aversion – a journey that grinds your mental imagery. Can beauty be tarnished by an obsession?

‘The Obstinate‘ looms surprisingly between a reckless man who leads others to a grave danger.

‘Dog‘ puts a lover’s position to the level of dog due to the way he handles a particular incident.

‘Sandalwood Soap‘ washes off the promise of a man to a boy from his village. This later on brings to the question as to who shapes the experiences the child undergoes.

‘Hail Comrade, PM‘ fits the struggles of those who rebel and are communists. This story focuses on a singular incident.

‘Magamuni‘ threads up warnings of danger with that of a challenge from a suspicious priest. It’s a woman’s word against the male priest.

Overall Experience –

Perumal Murugan builds up stories around so ordinary life that the reader is left thinking, why didn’t I observe this in first place? It has a familiar tone in each story and yet a distinctive approach to the way the relationships are viewed.

Given his realistic narration, there are angles in certain stories where fantasy is a way to reveal something. Perumal’s stories are so impactful – they resonate long after the stories are read. For me Sandalwood Soap, Grant us Pardon, Saami and Anointing have left particular impressions.

Overall, a must read for all readers!

Note: As mentioned by the translator, the original book was written in tamil language with Kongu dialect. The translator has admitted that the beauty of the original language and its specific nuances are sometimes lost in translation.

Yet, for the sake of understanding and translator’s attempts to stick to the most closest word – this book is a real treasure!

Book Blurb:

Acclaimed writer Perumal Murugan returns to his old themes -caste and the world of rural and semi-rural Tamil Nadu – in his new collection of short stories, mingling absurdity and pathos like no one else.

The titular story is about a young boy whose job is to police the toilets in a mofussil bus stand and urge users to emerge sooner. ‘It is as if shit is stuck on my body’, he tells the story’s narrator, pleading to be taken away.

In ‘The Last Cloth’ , a man who returns to his village after a city education is revolted seeing his mother walk about bare breasted. She however has never worn a blouse, not even in her prime, and is terrified at being asked to in her old age.

While ‘Neelaakka’ tells the story of a woman who is mocked for stains on her teeth.

These stories and many more are part of this unsettling, moving and grippingly told collection. Sandalwood Soap and Other Stories is another extraordinary book from one of our great writers working at the height of his powers.

About the Author/ Translator:

Perumal Murugan is one of lndia’s most well-known literary writers. He has written twelve novels, six short story collections and five works of poetry in Tamil, many of which have been translated into English. His books have won and been nominated for numerous prizes.

Kavitha Muralidharan is an independent bilingual journalist from Tamil Nadu with over twenty-five years of experience and a translator.

About the Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com

The Last Island (Book Review)

The Last Island by Adam Goodheart (Published by Juggernaut) is the window to the world so close to India and yet an archipelago that we know nothing much. Unless you read this book and clear up the cobwebs of mind!

Before you look into the word that you encounter in this book, The Last Island by Adam Goodheart; let me help you with the meaning of the word – Civilization.

civilization

/ˌsɪvəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn/

noun

1. the stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced. The Victorians equated the railways with progress and civilization”
2. Similar: human development, advancement, progress, enlightenment, edification, culture, cultivation, refinement, sophistication
   • the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social and cultural development and organization.
   • the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area.plural noun: civilizations; plural noun: civilisations“the great books of Western civilization”

Central to this definition are the words – human – along with social and cultural development. This is the point we need to talk about and perhaps I believe that’s what even Adam Goodheart is trying to lay emphasis on. Let’s begin to understand why this book is important for everyone of us.

Technically, we all grew from tribes. Irrespective of the country that you come from, whether India, America or Australia. We all trace our ancestors to tribes who then probably went on to either be the kings or the subjects. Taking this into consideration, the book talks about different tribes of Andamans and how the last tribe of Jarawa were not civilized until the British “rescued” them.

Vishwajit Pandya, an Indian anthropologist who has been studying the Andamanese since past four decades, in his conversation with Adam mentioned about the security around the Sentinelese. He said, “There’s this romantic idea that they want nothing to change, and also that we can never understand them, even though we don’t know the most basic things about life on their tiny island. Nowhere in the world has there ever been a society that can survive in complete isolation, without any relationships of contact and exchange with groups outside itself. That’s a bullshit notion of outsiders.”

Yet the rumor mills persist and myths prevail about the North Sentinelese. Labels fly arbitrarily ranging from uncivilized to savages to monsters. During the British Raj, these secluded tribes were forced upon. They weren’t too large in numbers and their population declined rapidly as they came in contact with civilization and then were released back to their tribes. The narrow viewpoint that they had bad immune systems was a cover for the rampant forced interactions leading to high transfer of STDs, apart from digestive disorders and other kinds of diseases. The children the women bore after these were weak and didn’t survive beyond 2 years. As of today, it is believed that a few handful survive. There’s no official take on the numbers.

What Adam was trying to do by talking about this tiny island? A lot! Our foggy lens of viewing people, civilization and imposing on others ought to stop. In the end pages of the book, Adam mentions very startling facts that we all need to absorb and not float around with –

Their presence in our world enlarges the boundaries of what it means to be human. Holding fast to a few square miles of their planet, they declare their independence. With eyes as shrewd as any explorer’s, the Sentinelese look at all that we have to offer them – our planes, our plastics, our inflatable boats, and our waterproof bibles – and say: Thanks anyway. We’d rather not.

Why read this book?

• This is the only book that throws in different aspects of life and perspectives of North Sentinel Island.
• It fits in the historical, geographical, anthropological, political and social aspects of life on the Andaman islands (digging into the North Sentinel Island too specificially)
• Blend of Adam’s own journeys interspersed with archival records and also of the accounts by other people who are living and have tried to establish contact with the tribes.
• Our realities and how isolation and contact concepts need to be looked at.
• Well engaged narrative form of writing
• Attempts to answer questions like – Is North Sentinel as isolated as it is claimed to be? When the islanders want isolation, do we, as outsiders, respect that? What is responsible contact and where do we draw the line?

My take on the book:

• I loved the way Adam narrates his journeys and his conversations with the people who are trying to understand the North Sentinelese people
• Humane way of looking at people – empathetic front
• Historical and archival accounts laid bare for better understanding of the Andamanese
• Well researched book with photographic references too for better understanding
• Good blending of history, geography, anthropology and sociology.
• A complete book from past centuries till present day

Blurb:

A journey to the coast of North Sentinel Island, home to a tribe believed to be the most isolated human community on earth. The Sentinelese people want to be left alone and will shoot deadly arrows at anyone who tries to come ashore. As the web of modernity draws ever closer, the island represents the last chapter in the Age of Discovery—the final holdout in a completely connected world.
In November 2018, a zealous American missionary was killed while attempting to visit an island he called “Satan’s last stronghold,” a small patch of land known as North Sentinel in the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean. News of the tragedy fascinated people around the world. Most were unaware such a place still existed in our an island unmolested by the advances of modern technology.

Twenty years before the American missionary’s ill-fated visit, a young American historian and journalist named Adam Goodheart also traveled to the waters off North Sentinel. During his time in the Andaman Islands he witnessed another isolated tribe emerge into modernity for the first time.

Now, Goodheart—a bestselling historian—has returned to the Andamans. The Last Island is a work of history as well as travel, a journey in time as well as place. It tells the stories of others drawn to North Sentinel’s mystery through the centuries, from imperial adventurers to an eccentric Victorian photographer to modern-day anthropologists. It narrates the tragic stories of other Andaman tribes’ encounters with the outside world. And it shows how the web of modernity is drawing ever closer to the island’s shores.

The Last Island is a beautifully written meditation on the end of the Age of Discovery at the start of a new millennium. It is a book that will fascinate any reader interested in the limits—and dangers—of our modern, global society and its emphasis on ceaseless, unbroken connection.

About the Author:

Adam Goodheart is a historian, essayist, and journalist. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and he is a regular columnist for the Times’ acclaimed Civil War series, “Disunion.” He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he is director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. (source: adamgoodheart.com)

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About the Book Reviewer:

Reviewed by Kavita Jhala, Founder of Kaffeinated Konversations – a Bibliophile, writer and artist. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. If you want your book to be reviewed, drop an email to kaffeinatedkonversations@gmail.com