Review: 7 Secrets of Vishnu

Reviewed by: Baisali Chatterjee Dutt

When you are asked to review a book by one of your favourite authors, and that too, on a subject that you have been passionate about ever since you have been a little kid, then the task at hand can only be a pleasant one. Well, that is exactly what reviewing Devdutt Pattanaik’s “7 Secrets of Vishnu” was for me. I have been an avid mythology buff ever since I can remember and the passion has only intensified with time.

I have been reading Devdutt Pattanaik’s work for quite a while now. Not just me, in fact, but my eight-year-old son as well, who is a fan of Pattanaik’s “Adventures in Devlok” series.

The Hindu trinity, as we all know, comprises of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer. The symbols and rituals connected to Each One are markedly different. And why not? It stands to reason as They represent different levels of consciousness. They do not look like Each Other, nor do They behave similarly and They perform different duties. Pattanaik’s “7 Secrets of Vishnu” attempts to help the reader decipher the symbology and unlock the secrets behind the stories and rituals associated with Lord Vishnu.

Through the stories of Vishnu, complex Hindu ideologies and philosophies have been communicated in an easy to read manner. Issues that we have always wondered about have been addressed beautifully by the author. Like, for example, why are the Devas and Asuras, both the offspring of Brahma, always at war? The saga of the never-ending battles between the Devas and the Asuras bring to light the emotional turmoil faced by both; the Devas also represent insecurity while the Asuras embody ambition and thus the constant state of unrest.

The book takes us through the various avatars assumed by Him on Earth. Divided into seven chapters, each one helps us in understanding key concepts and in delving into the mysteries of the Divine. I learnt so many new things from each of these chapters, which is always very exciting. For example, I learnt about Alakshmi, the Sister of Lakshmi who accompanies her Sister wherever She goes and She represents strife. The entire passage about how Lakshmi arose from amrit and Alakshmi from halahala – brilliant! Also the gem about how Shukracharya, guru to the Asuras, lost an eye when Vishnu descended to Earth as Vamana, the Brahmin dwarf, was a new story for me to imbibe and marvel over. The absolute crowning jewel for me was how Pattanaik beautifully explained that Luv-Kush’s victory over their father showed that dharma rests with Sita and not Ayodhya! Brilliant! As one who has always been furious over the treatment meted out to Sita in the epic, this one statement was a fist-pumping hurrah! moment. Yes, it has been explained time and again that Ram put his kingly duties above his personal needs, but that only serves to make him the Perfect King, not the Perfect Man.

The photographs of ancient artwork and temple sculptures help bring the book alive, especially with their little bubbles of explanation. Colour photography would have been greatly appreciated, of course, but that’s nitpicking. An index would also have been of great use, and I strongly suggest the publishers think of adding one in the next edition.

All in all, a great read and one I would urge all mythology buffs to immediately indulge in!

(This book is reviewed by Baisali Chatterjee Dutt. Baisali blogs at http://mammamiameamamma@blogspot.com )

Review: The Best of Quest

Quest was born in 1954, a magazine that was published out of Bombay (now Mumbai) with Nissim Ezekiel at its helm. After successfully publishing it for two decades the magazine collapsed during the Emergency period.

An intellectual magazine for the discerning reader with articles contributed by the best names that light up newspapers, magazines, academic journals and even television screens today. The common link between them? They all made their mark with a piece in Quest.

The Best of Quest brings to the reader the best of stories, essays and poems published in the magazine. Hence making the book a treasure trove of well written, well argued articles. It gives the reader insights into the political and social history of independent India.

Some of the articles in the book, in all honesty, were difficult for me to fathom or read through. But some were exceptionally brilliant. The book is edited by Lafeq Futehally, who worked as the Literary Editor with the Quest for over twenty years. Achal Prabhala who is a writer and researcher in Bangalore. Arshia Sattar who works with classical Indian Literature and teaches at various institutions across the country.

So you have eminent writers such as Nirad Chaudhuri, P.Lal. Jyotirmoy Datta, Khushwant Singh, Dilip Chitre, Ashis Nandy and others who have contributed towards the magazine. Poetry contributed by Dom Moraes, Kamala Das, Nissim Ezekiel. Mukul Sharma makes this section extremely interesting.

The pieces are well selected and show the kind of enrichment in terms of knowledge and thoughts the magazine brought to its readers. You know when you read through the book the editors have worked with a passion to make this book worth a collectible for every reader.

Do pick this book up to get a better understanding of the country we live in by the writers who are the very best in the industry today. The book is a fitting tribute to a man who headed the magazine.

Magazine Review: BBC Knowledge India

This particular review of BBC Knowledge’s long overdue. I should have reviewed it much sooner, in fact as soon as I read it. I am not much of a magazine person except for the weekly news magazines but whatever issues I read I found the magazine an enjoyable read.

So here goes. I had got two magazines for review one was the May/June issue which covered– Does god exist?And the other was Jan/Feb issue with “So you want to be a spy “as the cover story. The cover stories were good and interesting to read. The picture and print quality of the magazine was at par with other international magazines.

This bi-monthly magazine encompasses 3 main topics - science, history and nature. Besides these topics the magazine is also divided into sections like updates, round-ups, comment & analysis, insights, world news in context, Q&A, reviews, etc.

I personally found the content in-depth, well researched and written in simple and easy to read language.

It is worth a read or rather a long term subscription! Go ahead-enjoy!

Thinkfest: The hits and the misses

We were following up on all the news creators at the recently concluded Thinkfest in Goa. As expected Siddhartha Mukherjee, VS Naipaul, Mohammed Hanif, Thomas Friedman, Hari Kunzru sessions have come in for much praise. Here are a few links that will give you a better insight into who said what:

http://www.firstpost.com/living/siddharth-mukherjee-on-steve-jobs-his-death-was-a-failure-of-imagination-2-123433.html

http://www.firstpost.com/living/what-writing-can-do-that-nothing-else-can-124116.html

http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/living-blogs/what-ails-america-tom-friedmans-diagnosis-of-a-superpower-in-crisis-124139.html

Also making news at Thinkfest were Arvind Kejriwal, Shashi Tharoor ,Omar Abdullah and Shehrbano Taseer. From Bollywood we had Abhay Deol and Aamir Khan who were the news makers at the event.

Here's the FB page that will give you all the information you were looking for!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Think-Fest/232058883502002

Until next year then....

Thinkfest: Explaining India: The Most Persistent Mistakes we Make

The one session we at The Book Lovers are looking forward to at the Think Festival event? It has got to be Explaining India: The Most Persistent Mistakes we Make with Pavan Varma, William Dalrymple and Ashish Nandy.

William Dalrymple after spending many years in India and travelling through length and breadth of this country would definitely enrich the session with his insights and knowledge. Ashis Nandy needs no introduction he is an Indian political psychologist and a contemporary cultural and political critic. He is, without a doubt, India's most formidable and controversial intellectual, its most arresting thinker, and a cultural and political critic without perhaps any equal in South Asia. And joining the two would be Pavan Varma , he is a senior bureaucrat of the Indian Government and a seasoned diplomat. The author of a dozen books on equally diverse areas such as biography, poetry, social sciences, civic affairs, and history. His book The Great Indian Middle Class (1998) tends to be the first one that people read when they try to decipher the rise of the middle class in India. Being Indian (2004) is a masterpiece that even Indians should read to understand who they are and why they are. The subtitle says “The truth about why the twenty first century will be India’s.”

So with three stalwarts as a part of the panel the session without a doubt will be truly engaging and interesting. How do I think the session will progress and the topic that would definitely be deliberated and discussed upon as per me would be the unity in diversity of this country- is it over rated? Are the various states at war amongst themselves and the nation as a whole? Are we hurtling into the development zone without an actual plan in place? Is there an order in the madness that we see today? Am sure William Dalrymple would be able to give us keen insights into this.

The most persistent mistake would be the politics that our politicians have been playing since time immemorial that of religion and caste. Can India afford to move ahead if it continues with the games our politicians play. Is coalition politics a boon or a bane for this nation? I would really like to hear Ashis Nandy on this.

Can India move to the next level without good relations with our immediate neighbours? What about the great Indian middle class which has been the driver in this growth story of India. Where are we headed as a nation. What are the past mistakes that we absolutely have to learn from and the persistent problem that people face in this great Indian nation?

This session is something we excitedly look forward to on day 2 of the festival. Let’s see if it shapes up as we imagine it to be!

Think Fest: Siddhartha Mukherjee

As we mentioned there are too many speakers we are excited to hear from at this year’s Think fest but one speaker we are eagerly looking forward to hear would be Siddhartha Mukherjee. 

Siddhartha is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. The book gives the reader a detailed account of the history of this deadly disease and how the war is being fought against it by doctors across the world. The India-born doctor teaches medicine and is a cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Centre.

His book was published in the U.S. by Scribner and in India by HarperCollins Publishers India, the book was inspired by a personal event. One day a patient with stomach cancer asked Dr. Mukherjee a simple question about her prognosis: “Where are we going?” That led the author to think the larger scope of the question in terms of cancer research. The book before going on to win the Pulitzer has already received critical appreciation from many quarters.

Detailing the long history of the disease and the battles being fought to conquer it through case studies, the book also provides a glimpse into the future of cancer treatments.

"From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the 19th-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukaemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease," according to information about the book on the Pulitzer website. The book, the site says, is a "magnificent, profoundly humane biography of cancer".

So after a brief profile about his book and him what we would really like to hear from him at the conclave would obviously be how and where India lacks in terms of research, treatment in tackling this growing disease. What are the steps and measures could be implemented. More than research there is also a lack of understanding of this disease in India, cancer is still stigmatized. Lack of counseling, lack of understanding of the disease and most importantly lack of support groups can make the person suffering from the problem a lot more miserable than the disease itself.

As his topic of discussion is ‘How tragedy can Inspire’ would really like to know his thoughts on how families, friends of such affected people can continue to encourage and enthuse the person battling the disease. At a personal level I had seen a family member suffer depressive behaviour due to physical changes in appearance, the after-effects of chemotherapy, losing appetite etc.. What can one do to keep the motivation levels high? How can we create a network or solace group for patients.

Besides this would love to know the latest research happening on cancer front, honestly look forward to a day when cancer treatment would not be as grueling as it is now. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts at the summit and considering he has lived in India what are his thoughts on India battling and finding solutions for the big C?

Think Fest Think Blogger!

The Book Lovers blog is proud to be associated with one of the most looked forward to event this year, The Thinkfest, it is going to be held in Goa from 4th November to 6th November. With a stellar list of speakers our excitement to be a part of this event knows no bounds.

So who are the speakers we at The Book Lovers are absolutely looking forward to hear? Here is our list: William Dalrymple, Mohammed Hanif, Pulitzer prize winner for his book The Emperor of all Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee, Naipaul *yippee* and Sudhir Kakar. Ashish Nandy and Pavan Verma also form a part of this interesting list of speakers!

So while we eagerly look forward to the event we would be sharing what we would want to hear these speakers speak about and the topics they could touch on before the event. Of course they will not necessarily but hey why not think about the possible discussions? That's the whole fun part!

Until then you'll could get more details on their site http://goathinkfest.com Go on have a look and if possible join us at the fest!