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Book Review: Raavan - Enemy of Aryavarta


It was a Sunday afternoon when I relaxed on the sofa after buying the much awaited book of the Ram Chandra Series: Raavan - Enemy of Aryavarta. Being hooked on Amish's book until I complete it for once has been my personal ritual now ever since I first read Immortals of Meluha, his first book of many. Here I am, finishing that ritual at exactly 1 am on a Tuesday morning, 36 hours after buying it.

There's something that glues me to his story-telling, something makes me forget time and I get sucked into that world completely. Somehow the language connects with my mind effortlessly.

Claiming that the number of times I've heard the story of Ramayana is a hundred wouldn't be an understatement. Perhaps it won't be an understatement for any Indian kid. But my 101th time, the story had taken a different turn. This is Amish Tripathi's Ram Chandra Series, the genre of Historic Fiction.

Although I'm a believer of the original Ramayana and most of the mythological stories, reading Amish's story about the same provides a different perception about its symbolism, the characters, and surprisingly, my own character.

Through the character of Raavan, the book tells us what a world-conquering man truly comprises of - the fire. The fire to keep going, the fire that refuses to keep him down and satisfied, the fire that takes the form of an excuse for the man to unleash his inner monster.

Raavan, even mythologically, was a person who could sing, dance, paint and be extremely passionate.
It was beautiful to perceive love through an artist's heart, the depth to which he loved a woman, and the rage which filled him when he lost it.

Surprisingly though, I could see through the author being influenced by the current world's events to write down certain things such as a conversation about women not being allowed inside certain temples, which might be coming from the huge Sabarimala controversy some months ago. The names of certain new characters also seemed to be inspired from other movie and show characters.
It's obviously natural for authors to be influenced by world events in their writing but the fact that I could actually recognize the influence was new!

Anyway, I cannot think of much without giving away the story, and although it's not very unprecedented, it is definitely engaging!

Jai Shri Rudra!
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