Chanakya's Chant - Ashwin Sanghi

The front cover boasts of Shashi Tharoor's praise about the book - ''A delighlightfully interesting and gripping read.''  Allow me to disagree.

The novel is composed of 20 chapters. 10 of them retells the life of Chanakya and the rest reviews the modern political guru Gangasagar Mishra. Though violent n crafty, Chanakya chants with a mission - to unite Bharat under one supreme king Chandragupta Maurya and he succeeds. Mishra's aim is to secure supreme power at any cost and he too attains it through his prodigy Chandini Gupta. I prefer Chanakya. 

I'm a sucker for spiced up historical  and mythological characters n novels. Howbeit, if you have viewed the TV serial Chanakya and watched politrix movies, better avoid this novel, it has nothing new to offer.

Hey, who is your favorite  manipulator? Mine is Krishna ◕‿↼

The Walled City - Esther David

Patroness of Ahmedabadi Jews

Esther David the authoress, artist, sculptor, art critic, columnist, historian and Sahitya Akademi Award winner is the supreme living authority on the history and culture of the Bene Israel Jews of Ahmadabad. As you know the biblical heroine Queen Esther of Persia saves Jewish people from genocide and she personifies beauty, wisdom and valor. Esther David of Ahmedabad lives n stands up to her name. Amen.

The Walled City is Esther's first book and my first Esther book. Also my first Jewish novel without the grim n chilling shadows of the holocaust. Good. The story details the life, customs n conflicts of the secluded Jewish community in Ahmedabad esp that of the womenfolk. It's an emotional n touching tale, a bit depressing. 

Let the walls crumble n the doors open.....

Magic Seeds - Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul

Long time ago, I tried Naipaul's The enigma Of Arrival  but did not reach anywhere. I was hoping better luck with this book - currently the last of his looong literary career. Magic Seeds is a sequel to Half A Life. I was not aware of that. That's fine. You won't miss anything. The novel is not an easy or pleasant read. Of course I can relate to Willie Chandran the drifter, who floats through many a countries, his acute passivity towards life n people and the way he lets events unfold around him perfunctorily. I liked Willie's guerrilla life in India and his monologues but the conclusion of the novel dodged my thick skull.

Naipaul writes 2 novels to remind us that there are no magic seeds to wipe out our troubles ! That's so uncool !! The brute.