Like
all young children of my generation, I grew up on stories from the
Ramayana and Mahabharata – the two major epics of India. I always
loved the stories, but ever since I could think for myself and
question right and wrong, I have always been critical of Rama whom I
could never forgive for banishing Sita simply because of an ignorant
dhobi questioning her chastity. I could never accept the explanation
that as a king he was morally obliged to give up his personal rights
in the interests of his “praja” or subjects. I could not help but
ask “was Sita not a part of this same 'praja'? Did she not have
rights as a subject/as a wife? One might argue that as a queen she
was equally morally bound by the strict code for an upright human
being. Well, we can keep arguing to and fro on this matter. However,
this was the very reason I was really excited when I came across the
title of this book “I Rama” which was announced on Blogadda. I
was really curious now to know what Rama would have had to say on
this matter.
The
prologue talks of storm clouds brewing over the island of Lanka,
which was surrounded by the sea and islands which “looked like
pearl clusters in a necklace, linked with each other by backwaters”.
This description heralds the kind of word imagery one comes across
throughout the story.
The
author (Ravi Venugopal) starts off by introducing the background of
the story – about how the sages (beings who embodied all the
positive energy of the universe) and the rakshasas or asuras (who
represented the negative energies of the universe and were trying to
stop the sages from achieving their goals) were at constant logger
heads. The sages had to think of a way to fight Ravana who had become
very powerful and arrogant. He controlled various galaxies and the
cosmos and was virtually invincible and his demons were killing human
beings and making life for the sages very difficult. The birth of
Rama “a human blessed with the entire power of the cosmos” was
the very event the sages were waiting for.
The
story then takes off in the words of an aged Rama, as he sits on a
rock along the Sarayu in reflective mood. He is met at sunset by his
brother and faithful, loyal friend Hanuman. Hanuman expresses his
desire to hear about Rama's story about his childhood. Rama has been
waiting to tell his children this story and willingly decides to
narrate it to Hanuman. It starts with the time when he was in his
7th year of training.
Rama
narrates the stories of various sages like Gautama, Vashishta,
Vishwamatra, Agastya, his father Dashratha's childhood and life,
Kaikeyi's background as well as his own early life. While most
of these are familiar to us, what is different is that the story is
presented in a way as to show how a certain preordained cascade of
events are inevitable if a specific event has to happen. To name just
one example: Dashratha shooting an arrow blindfolded at a
target thinking it was a deer, lead to Sravan being killed. His
bereaved, heart broken father cursed Dashratha and set the stage for
the successive events of Dashratha being separated from his son.
Or
for that matter Kaikeyi being offered two boons by Dashratha and her
telling him that she would redeem the promise at a later date set the
stage for Rama being sent to the forest, which led to other events
which eventually culminated in the destruction of Ravana at the hands
of Rama.
The
other noteworthy point in this book is the way Rama's narration has
been presented in terms of contemporary concepts – inter-galactic
travel, portals from other galaxies opening up for travel to earth,
energy conversions, ..... the very stuff sci-fi is made of. A very rational and credible approach to the epic - well within the realms of possibility.
The
author has also added an original touch - Sita is presented as an
articulate young lady who knew the art of warfare, was well-read, was
a cook par excellence, had a vision about the future, involved
herself with schemes involving social welfare, ..... in other words
Sita could very well have been a modern day woman placed in the
context of those times.
The
one interesting revelation by Rama is that Kaikeyi's drama just
before the coronation was not coincidental. She had appraised him
about what she was going to do, why, when and how. This was necessary
to ensure that Rama got an opportunity at fulfilling his destiny
which may not have been possible if he had been coronated as planned
by Dashratha.
On
the whole, a very well researched, gripping narration with elements
of the contemporary and some imaginary characters. The word
imagery used by the author in describing various events, the beauty
of Sita, the resplendence of Sage Vishwamitra (to name a few
examples) is simply wonderful. In three words: “An un-put-downable
book”. Looking forward to the sequels.
Here is the link to the website: http://www.i-rama.com/age-of-seers.html
ISBN 978-0615582504
This
review is a
part
of the http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews at
http://www.blogadda.com/.
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