Jul 27, 2011 04:50 PM
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(Updated Jul 28, 2011 04:54 PM)
We all have read and heard of many a tales of Lord Shiva and of His Avatars being born on the face of our very own Earth and played a key role in epical stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata. But those are the tales from the mythological view point. Now, forget that perspective and think of Lord Shiva as a man who once lived in Ancient India and with his Karmas rose above the rest and became a God like figure that we all worship and adore. That’s the idea of Shiva Trilogy written by Amish with “The Immortals of Meluha” being the first book in the series of three.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Just like many others in the current bread of Indian Writers, AMISH is an IIM (Kolkata) passed out; but what he has attempted is a path less travelled . He is finance professional; but seems like his destiny has something else is store as his interests in History and Philosophy has made him tread a different path of writing. With such good writing skills and Huge success of ‘TIOM’, I hope he soon will make writing his permanent profession.
ABOUT THE STORY: Back in 1900 B.C, tired of constant clashes with adjoining tribes, Shiva and his tribe, Gunas, abandon their ancestral abode near Mansarovar Lake to live in the promising land of Meluha. In Meluha - an orderly empire based on the rules set by Lord Ram hundreds of years ago - Shiva hopes to find peace and contentment for his tribe. Little did he know that destiny infact is going to make him the Lord NeelKanth, for whom Meluhans were waiting to appear for hundreds of years. Shiva also discovers that Meluhans create and consume Somras which provides them longevity and absolute health. Then he comes to know of the prophecy: ”Neelkanth will emerge to complete the unfinished tasks of Lord Ram, which involved; Destroying the Evil and restoring the peace and greatness back to Meluhans”.
Being Neelkanth, Shiva is now supposed to fight a battle against the Swadeepan Empire; who according to Meluhans are stealing the waters of Saraswati - an essential ingredient of Somras - to devour them of Somras, and were also carrying out Terrorist attacks on Meluhan’s soil in conjunction with the NAGAS. After much doubts and reluctance, Shiva agrees to lead Meluhans against the mighty forces of Swadeepan, but will he be able to win the battle and fulfill the prophecy of Neelkanth?
In parallel runs the love story of Shiva, who falls in love with Sati, Meluhan King Dakhsa’s daughter, a Vishkarma woman, kind of untouchables of those days. Will he be able to convince Meluhan to discard one of Lord Ram’s laws and marry Sati, and also to free thousands from the vicious life of being a Vishkarma? Read ‘TIOM’ to find out.
ABOUT THE BOOK: ‘TIOM’ was first published in 2008, which is quite latest for me considering the long list of books I have read so far. As said earlier, ‘TIOM’ is the first book in the series of SHIVA TRIOLOGY and is to be followed by two more books by the names of ‘THE SECRETS OF THE NAGAS’ and ‘THE OATH OF THE VAYUPUTRAS.’
‘TIOM’ is close to 400 pages long - don’t get disheartened by this fact as – but forms a very easy read as the language is very very simple that even a 12 year old could follow quite easily. It is written in quite a linear fashion without involving any complexity of words. I finished ‘’TIOM’ in 6 days (around 3 hours of read every day), which is quite an achievement for the book, considering the lousy reader that I formJ.
Some Books and concepts might have inspired Amish in forming the concepts like : the idea of longevity and perfect health that Meluhans achieve after consuming Somras might be derived from ‘LOST HORIZON’; two different ways of living - one of Meluhans and other of Swadeepans - seems to be derived from Communist and Socialist way of life.
A map is provided at the back of cover page, that’s quite useful in helping you out to visualize the places and connect with them. Also a Glossary at the end pages with meanings of all Hindi words used in the pages may turn out to be quite useful for non-hindi readers.
WHAT I LIKE:
- I really appreciate the way the story moves forward. Always keeping a thing or two in mystery to make a reader anticipate the outcome and form his own imagination.
2.Way the various characters of the Mythological tales of Shiva like Nandi, Parvati, Tarak etc are woven around this fictional tale of Shiva, it sometimes makes the reader believe, he really is reading the real tale of Shiva.
- Way the cities of Meluha (Kashmir, Devagiri etc) and Swadeep (Ayodhya) are described and formed out of words. Writer has succeeds in painting a picture of those places in a reader’s mind.
4.Way the myths (characters and legends) and history (places and rivers) are joined together to form the tale of Shiva. Excellent.
WHAT I DISLIKE:
Writing is quite casual; I guess when you are writing about Legends and mythological characters that too of Lord Shiva, you do need to maintain some graciousness, even if it’s a fiction you are offering. The way the characters – esp. of Shiva – curse and use foul language (words like Bloody Hell etc) seems to be bit improper.
Length could have been shortened a bit, though it keeps interest intact all the time, still I feel some of the incidents are dragged needlessly.
Some scenes are illogically formed. E.g in one scene, Shiva sees Sati walking towards him and tells her something to which she gives her reply, then he finds someone attacking her from behind and he has to run to save Sati. I can’t understand, how they can converse if distance is so long in between?
LAST WORDS: With all said and done, I’ll say ‘TIOM’ is brilliant in its concept and implementation; too good a book to be written by a first timer. The way it illustrates the ancient Indian cities and rivers is very praiseworthy. Above all, the way it starts of journey of Shiva from the leader of a meager tribe to that of a Neelkanth, Lord Mahadev, is praiseworthy. There are shortcomings but they are ignorable. ‘TIOM’ is a brilliant start for the Trilogy, hope the Author (Amish) will maintain the standards set by him in the books to follow. I recommend 'TIOM'.
My Rating : 3.5 Stars.
P.S : Second book in the series ‘THE SECRETS OF THE NAGAS’ is releasing next month, August 2011. It feels good that I don’t have to wait so much to continue with the journey of Shiva.
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VIKKY GURAL
PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA...
