How Medieval South India Shaped Global History
What if the history you know is just the tip of an iceberg, with centuries of stories ignored and forgotten lying beneath?
What if the history you know is just the tip of an iceberg, with centuries of stories ignored and forgotten lying beneath?
The book review of The Doctor of Aleppo was not an easy task. It is one of those books which lingers for long after it’s over. It’s haunting, in a poetic way, while it spins the story of loss, destruction, hopelessness and unrequited love.
The first three books covered the lives of the central characters of Rama, Sita and Ravana, each intersecting each other’s lives at crucial points. Book 4 of the Ramachandra series is the ultimate culmination of the series of events over the lifetime of the three protagonists. The War of Lanka is the battle of all battles; of good versus evil, of duty versus pride, of dharma versus adharma.
The Forest of Enchantments turns out to be a suitable title for the narration as it is in the forest that the story unfolds, it is here that the people undergo transformations at a deeper level.
At the beginning of every year, I religiously set a target for myself – the number of books I’m going to read in the year. I’m proud to say till this year I’ve always managed to meet the target and had even surpassed it some years (oh yes!). But this year, I realised that I had not met the target; actually, I was way, way below the mark. My excuse – it’s been a crazy year. I know I used the excuse last year also but this year I’m admitting it. Feeling a little bad about it but no worries I have still managed to read some fantastic books and loved the time I spent with them. Here are the top 5 books of 2021 I super enjoyed.
This book lives up to its name – No Rules Rules. I came across it quite by chance. And learnt about it not by discussing management strategies or work issues but over the dinner schedules! When I refused to have a cuppa tea late in the evening, my neighbour (another fellow bibliophile) said “No rules rules…
What I liked most was its simplicity. The things he said did not need us to be qualified rocket scientists. Au contraire, all it needed was we be true to our beliefs and not delude ourselves. So, when I chanced upon this book by him, there was no way I was going to give it a miss.
The storyteller was at it again. If someone has been able to spin magic into our stories from long ago, then it’s Amish always. Suheldev – The King Who Saved India is the latest from his repertoire and set in the time much closer to our times. It’s the story of a brave warrior prince…