Skip to main content

A New Romance

 


Book Review

Title: The Himadripuram Adventure

Author: Sitharaam Jayakumar

Goodness should win in the end of all conflicts. That classical notion has been illustrated brilliantly and imaginatively once more in this rather short novel by a good friend of mine.

Himadripuram is an imaginary kingdom that existed in a time when there was no electricity, no motor vehicles, and not even a postal system. That is a kind of romantic world. I mean the romance in the second of the meanings below. 

There is a fairly good king in Himadripuram. But his tenure is coming to an end. His son will take charge soon. However, that son, Veer Narayan, is an immature teenager who is a “combination of stupidity, greed and ambition.” The King, Devdutt Narayan, tries his best to drive some sense into the head of the crown prince, but to no avail. The King has to deal with another challenge too: an emerging rebellion led by people who are deviously powerful.

What if you have enemies within your family, within your close circles?  Even if you are the best administrator, you are likely to be doomed in such a situation. Political administration is not all about collecting taxes and managing the day-to-day affairs of the country. Relationships matter a lot even in political administration.

Relationships save Himadripuram in the end. How? You should read this novel to understand that. What I like most is how the hero of this novel [I’m using the word ‘hero’ instead of ‘protagonist’ because that’s how ancient this novel’s setting is] has a romantic relationship which is intricately woven into the complex fabric of the plot without ever dominating the plot. The politics and the complex mystery that drives it with the smoldering rebellion which the rebels call a Revolution keeps the love-romance subdued. The mystery-romance keeps us hooked better.

The book keeps you hooked, turning pages with immense curiosity. That is the author’s real success. He keeps you with him even though the world he presents belongs to some distant past.

There are some very striking twists in the end of this short novel. Let me leave those twists to your reading delight. The book is available at Amazon.

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Thank you so much Tom for this very constructive and balanced review. As usual there is plenty to learn from what you have to say about my books. Thanks once again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A very balanced and mature review. I Am currently reading this book and am thoroughly enjoying the portions you have referred to.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

The Call of Islamic State

A year ago, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) reported that about 4000 people from the West left their homes and countries to join the Islamic State (IS).  Many of them are women.  The reporters had made a special study of the women who joined the terrorist outfit and found that it was difficult to categorise which type of women were particularly drawn to IS. “While most of the girls are young, some as young as fifteen,” says the report,  “there are also mothers with young children who make the trip. Some of the girls have difficulties in school and are said to have an IQ below average,  but there are also women who are highly educated. It also appears that even though a relatively large portion of the girls had (or still have) a troubled childhood, there are some who come from families with no known problems with the authorities. Most of the girls come from religiously moderate Muslim families,  yet some converted to Islam a...

The Plague

When the world today is struggling with the pandemic of Covid-19, Albert Camus’s novel The Plague can offer some stimulating lessons. When a plague breaks out in the city of Oran, initially the political authorities fail to deal with it as a serious problem. The ordinary people also don’t view it as an epidemic that requires public action rather than as individual annoyances. The people of Oran are obsessed with their personal sufferings and inconveniences. Finally the authorities are forced to put Oran in quarantine. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring the epidemic as God’s punishment for Oran’s sins. Months of suffering make people rise above their selfish notions and obsessions and join anti-plague efforts being carried out by people like Dr Rieux. Dr Rieux is an atheist but committed to service of humanity. He questions Father Paneloux’s religious views when a small boy is killed by the epidemic. The priest delivers another sermon on the necess...

Farewell to a Friend

This is a season of farewells for me.  I have lost count of the persons who have already left or are being hauled up before the firing line by the Orwellian Big Brother in the last quarter of the year.  The person, to whom we bid farewell today, however, had chosen to leave on his own.  He is going as the Principal of R K International School , Sarkaghat, Himachal Pradesh. Mr S K Sharma was a colleague and friend.  He belongs to the species of human beings whose company enriches you and whose departure creates a vacuum, notwithstanding the fact that Nature which abhors vacuum will fill it in its own unique ways.  Administration is an art for Mr Sharma, though he calls it a skill.  Management lessons, strategies and heuristics are only guidelines.  No one can manage people merely with the help of these guidelines.  People are not machines which can be controlled mechanically.  Machines work according to rules.  People do not d...

Jatayu: The Winged Warrior

Image by Gemini AI Jatayu is a vulture in Valmiki Ramayana. The choice of a vulture for a very noble mission on behalf of Rama is powerful poetic and moral decision. Vultures are scavengers, associated with death and decay. Yet Valmiki assigns to it one of the noblest tasks of sacrificing itself in defence of Sita. Your true worth lies in what you do, in your character, and not in your caste or even species. [In some versions, Jatayu is an eagle.] Jatayu is given a noble funeral after his death. Rama treats Jatayu like a noble kshatriya who sacrificed his life fighting for dharma against an evil force like Ravana. “You are blessed, O Jatayu!” Rama tells the dying bird. “Even in your last moments, you upheld dharma. You fought to save a woman in distress. Your sacrifice will not go in vain.” Jatayu sacrificed himself to save Sita from Ravana. He flew up into the clouds to stop Ravana’s flight with Sita. Jatayu was a friend of Dasharatha, Rama’s father. Now Rama calls him equal to ...