Monday 30 July 2012

More reasons to love ‘Immortals of Meluha’

‘There is no “your god” or “my god”. All godliness comes from the same source. It’s just the manifestations that are different.’ ~ the Pandit of the Brahma temple.


Shiva stared at [Sati] like a parched piece of earth mesmerised by a passing rain cloud.

Sati      : Thank you for your help, foreigner. I owe you my life and you will not find me ungrateful. If you ever need my help, do call on me.
Shiva   : Can I call on you even if I don’t need your help?
(Sati: !!!
me: Laugh out loud!!!)

Sunday 29 July 2012

The Immortals of Meluha: totally recommended!



For quite some time now, I been searching for and collecting books on Shiva. I have Kramsrisch's 'The Presence of Shiva', Suzanne Fisher Staples' 'Shiva's Fire', Mohapatra's 'The Book of Shiva'... I like those books, tho Mohapatra's depiction of Shiva was the closest one to my liking. But something was lacking in that book of Shiva in the comic format. Shiva wasn't really smiling. Too serious. He was romantic alright, just the way I pictured Him to be. But he wasn't so cheerful. At least, please give him a bit smile. Shiva isn't Krishna, but at least some smiles would not hurt.

The Immortals of Meluha, the first book of The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi, gave me the Shiva I identified with the most. He did swear too much to my taste (tho I don't mind a bit of swearing, I think it’s natural for a tribal chief), but since the premise was human-turned-to-god anyway, it's not a big deal for me. Other than the swearing, I really like this Shiva. He was so humane and approachable. He made mistakes and learned from them. He became humble because of them, and rose above them. He seriously defended humanity, but he still enjoyed life and made jokes around as well, while he could. He had his demons in the past... and I hope he eventually made peace with them.

Monday 2 July 2012

The Shiva Trilogy: Immortals of Meluha

I browsed YouTube last Saturday and found this beautiful trailer of a novel about Lord Shiva.



The book is titled The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi and was a big hit in India last year. I have ordered it yesterday, pronto, and the book is being shipped to me now. Yay! I have pre-ordered thesecond book (The Secret of the Nagas), but it won't be shipped until early August! Bummer, grumble, brumble... Oh well, at least I will receive the first book soon enough. Will make a post about it when I have finished reading it.

By the way, The Immortals of Meluha will be made into a movie, I guess this year (?) by Director Karan Johar. Lord Shiva will be played by Hritik Roshan, and Lady Sati by Vidya Balan. I am excited! See the trailers above (which is for the book, actually, not the movie) and decide for yourself!