Book Review : Kartikeya & his battle with the soul stealer.

Kartikeya is very much in news today for obvious reasons. And to read this book meant discovering so many tales surrounding Muruga s he is popularly known in the south.I had only seen people going to Palani & Sabarimala .I had no idea about the folk lore or even a story relating to Karthikeya except that he came second to Ganapati circumvating around the world.

This story of Kartikeya by Penguin Books starts with the enmity between asuras & devas. Asuras take great pains to perform severe austerities & get granted  boons from the trimurtis. And then asuras begin  their mayhem. One such asura is Surapadma. He is so strong that all gods fear him .And they want him to be annihilated. And yet , Surapadma's boons seem to have made him invincible . Is there any salvation for the gods ?

On a hill, there is small child .He has no idea how he came there. He is pining for some care. He is cared for by the wild beasts & how ? Yet, he longs for someone like him ,to care for him. Who is he ? He is strange. And brave too. And his compassion makes him the favourite of one & all ,as time goes by. And then ,his parents come to claim him. Does he go with them ? And he has many sets of parents ?

As Harihara putra  grows up, he engages ,the mighty Taraka in a fight .Yet, before that , he ponders if fighting is the only way to get rid of Taraka . His doubts are cleared & he emerges victorious ! Skanda says that he would rather remain unattached & yet he cannot take his eyes off Indra's daughter soon after. Does he get hooked ? The author makes  the characters so human like that this book gets very  interesting !

And then ,he decides to go seek his destiny ? What happens next ? The wait gets long for his parents & others. And then , he has to be reminded of his duty. Yet, nobody is sure ,if he can do his duty in such a way that Surapadma will no longer trouble earth or its inhabitants. Does Muruga have the courage & skills to defeat Surapadma ? Skanda thinks he is overconfident or is he ? Does he achieve what all he is destined  to ?

The author , Usha Narayanan, has weaved so many tales into this book  giving cross references about how all the tales are interlinked .This makes the tale complete ! She makes the characters stand out ,with their vulnerabilities ,which makes them so real & believable !

The author describes the beauty & the valour of the characters in magnificient ways .Even the scenarios of forests & palaces are vividly described ,so much so, that they come alive !

Readers would surely read mythology if books are written in such an interesting manner . And this can come about ,only ,when someone has done painstaking  research .Perhaps, Sabarimala row would have never arisen, if the parties to the row, had ever read about the Shivaputra !

Book Review : Secretly Yours

Vikrant Khanna has penned a teenage romantic thriller in his latest offering "Secretly Yours " . He has two bestsellers to his credit, namely "When Life Tricked Me "  & "Love Lasts Forever " . He loves music .He writes poems as well. He knows to play the guitar. Vikrant Khanna is a resident of  New Delhi. He is employed in the merchant navy, as a captain.

This latest book is published by Penguin Books. Need anything else be said ? ! The cover shows a girls' face with a lost look in her eyes. There is a reflection as well.The reflection is on glass , it appears.The reflection is hazy . The background is bluish with shades of buff colour.The book has 271 pages. The book is dedicated to the author's family members at the start of the novel.It is followed by  the prologue in which the author talks about love & its profound effects. There are sixty two chapters in all. Lastly comes the extremely  short epilogue.The chapters are very short .Most of them are two - three pages long.The longest chapter is five pages. This egged me on to complete the novel faster & faster. 

This is the story of Sahil, a seventeen year old teenager. He is an excellent guitar player.He writes songs. He is part of a band with his friends.He just manages to survive schools & studies in the same order as all teenagers do. He is nagged by his worried grandma.He resents his family & himself.And this prods him now & then to self destruction.

He meets a girl, Anya at the Shimla festival.And he falls for her, hook , line & sinker. And she says that she cannot fall in love with him. Sahil fails to find any logic in Anya's statement. And he feels that Anya is the chosen one for him. Anya is all sweetness personified at times.At other times, she dispapears as mysteriously as she appears. Sahil  is baffled & yet ,cannot ask Anya for fear of losing her. Sahil meets with an accident. As he recovers slowly, he learns that he is able to read minds. And then , there is  no holding back.He tries to read Anya's mind. He is able to read it.Can he decipher ,what he reads ? Sahil is bewildered as he tries to unravel Anya's thoughts.He is afraid. What is his fear ? What happens to the Sahil Anya love story ? Are they made for each other ?   Does their love remain same or does it get stronger ? What is Anya's secret ? What about her friends ? And what about the grotesque murders which are happening all over Shimla ? Who is the murderer ? And what could be the reason behind the murders ? All this & more, makes for  an easy read .

The teenage angst is nicely captured. The teenagers are constantly eating junk & this is aptly described in the story. The rebel without a cause title  is  for the teenagers & Sahil is one teenage  rebel,a true representative of generation next. And though ,I have visited Shimla, I feel that I have missed so many places worth visiting there. Hence, need to visit soon.

The novel has its share of wry humour " germ filled eatables " & "what goes on in the minds of teachers while deciding on a place for a picnic " .Its another matter, that teenagers enjoy germ infested eatables as also picnics .I could relate to all the teenage rants as I have a teenager at home. This novel has given me a glimpse into  the world of teenagers .Thank you, BlogAdda for that !

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