[Book Review] I, Rama: Age of Seers (Book – 1) by Ravi Venu

Ramayana has been the epic the story of which has been told and retold and is still being told. There is an enchanting literary colour that has been liked by many and is still being liked and loved.

“I, Rama” – is an unique first person account of how the famed Hero-monarch would narrate his tale, as seen by him, his point of view of the spectacular events that unfold, chronicling the path which immortalized his name, from a mere prince to the very epitome of manliness. The first volume of the series starts with Rama in his late years, narrating his tale to his sons and close friends. The characterization models itself on how an evolved human who has been transformed into a super hero guided by imbibing the distilled essence of the supreme spiritual masters. The story has been told and re-told several times that I will not mention it here. Nevertheless, there are certain things about the book that are worth mentioning over here. (ref)

We all know that character and personality of Rama is synonymous to that of the perfect being, the ideal person. Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The ideal portrayed by the character of Rama has been unfathomable by a common being, a common man can hardly think of himself to be a Rama but he always wants to be him. Throughout the book, Ravi Venu has projected Rama experiencing human emotions and vulnerability that every human faces whether when he is talking about his father Dashrath, or talking about his stepmother Kaikeyi or Sita or anyone else.

Ravi Venu has also tried to portray some of the main characters of Ramayana in a different light by bringing a new twist in the story. We all know that Kaikeyi was responsible for sending Rama into exile to put her son on the throne. She is portrayed as an intelligent warrior queen who was responsible to make Rama choose to go for exile and thus end Ravana and his misdeeds. I liked this portrayal of Kaikeyi’s character.  This is something unique and I liked howRavi has presented this in his story of Rama. Moreover, all the female characters have been presented as having strong character and virtues, which is a good thing to be seen in the literature and a welcome change from the regular portrayal of female characters. Hope this trend grows further.

The significant portion of the book is devoted to Seers and Sages and details the lives of some seers and sages among which story of Vishwamitra and Meneka has been told again. Also, a significant portion of the  novel is devoted to Raja Dashrath, father of Rama and the relationship of Rama with him.

I know that some people are definitely not going to like the portrayal of different characters that the author has taken the liberty to sketch differently. However, there is bound to be different understanding of epics by different people and I am all open to accept this liberty. Even the epic Ramayana as it currently stands and attributed to Valimiki has been the work of thousands of years and has added to the original story and is the work of understanding, thought and visualization of numerous authors.

A quote from the book that I liked,

…nobility is defined by the way one conducts his life…

I really liked reading the book and hope and appreciate the wayRavihas tried to redefine the epic. This is the first part of the trilogy and eager to read the next two books lined up in the series.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Related articles

• I, Rama or Ayyo, Rama ! (thatandthisinmumbai.wordpress.com)
• The Most Epic Narrative of Ramayana on the Internet (beautifulpixels.com)
• Review: I, Rama Age of Seers Book 1 – Ravi Venu (mychocolethandbag.wordpress.com)
• Watch this: the interactive story of Ramayana in Google Chrome (theverge.com)
• Rama, the Stitaprajna (thehindu.com)

[Book Review] The Asocial Networking by Dhiraj Kumar

Man is a social animal. This has been taught to us since we were a child and we firmly believe in it not only because it was taught but also because we appreciate the phrase from our experience. Man cannot live alone. He needs a community to take care of him, a group of people always surrounding him, helping him, talking and supporting him. A society is a reason for very existence. Solitude is something we all hate. We always want to be with someone to enjoy the journey called life.

Over time, it has been observed that people have become busy with their own lives. They do not seem to have time for anyone not even for their immediate families. They are lonely but cannot do anything about it. Leveraging the tendency of man to be social and the lacuna that they have no time to socialize, many Social networking sites like Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, etc have mushroomed, which claim to offer a virtual society to all persons who are part of these social networking sites. Our current book for review, The Asocial Networking is about such social networking sites.

Most of us are members of these social networking sites and tend to think that we know in and out about social network and are competent enough to let alone comment but write a book on the same subject. Dhiraj Kumar is one such person who has taken all his strengths and wisdom together to come out with a book on this subject.

The Asocial Network is a collection of 150 short articles which talks about the virtual world created on these social networking sites specially Facebook. It will not be wrong to say that Dhiraj Kumar has tried to give impetus to debate about Real vs Virtual world. Few years ago, I came across a social networking site, viz., Second Life, which had started such a debate among the various thinkers. At that time, my opinion was that it is a useless discussion as it depends on personal choice of someone. After reading this book, the same opinion remains and holds the ground.

I found it difficult to have belief and faith in the convictions of the author that he has presented through his articles in the book. After reading through first few chapters, I was seriously disillusioned to go ahead and read the book. Therefore, I moved to the last few chapters. Surprisingly, I found the disclaimer by the author where he says that this book might not satisfy the need for an intellectual or informed read.  The author was himself sure that he might not be taken seriously and his book might not be liked. For me, this disclaimer certainly came true.

I took around a month to read the book as there was nothing that interested me in the book. The book could have been a wonderful read if it would have been a bit more than just some futile generalizations. There is no continuity of flow from one article to another that at points I started thinking that it would have been better that these 150 articles would have been a part of a blog rather than a book.

The only thing that I liked about the author (keeping aside the thoughts, convictions, beliefs, etc. of author aside) was to use lucid writing style and more importantly having courage enough to come out with a book on this subject. It would have been great if the book was divided into sections and each sections catering to a particular conviction. Inclusion of few articles on other social networking site other than FB and removal of few others would have definitely made the book worth enough to be called a good commentary on social networking sites.

Having said this, I do not deny what Dhiraj has said. I believe that whatever he said may happen and some of it is happening in reality in the virtual world. But as far as book is concerned, it failed to impress me as a whole.

My rating 1/5.

Note: Author has sent the book as a gift in return of review of this book on my blog.