Mahabharatha is one of those compilations which you never get tired of reading. I loved watching the popular eponymous TV serial during my school days. Of late, I have taken to reading different interpretations of this epic. I enjoyed the narration from Draupadi's perspective and liked the way the author has weaved figments of her imagination with the original without compromising on the essence in the book "The palace of illusions" by Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee. She is now on my favorite author list. Anyway, I digress.
I took to reading the "Bhimsen" late into the third trimester of my pregnancy and loved every bit of it. I remember I was worried that I may go into labor before I got done with this book, it was that juicy.
While the prior versions I had read were interpretations of the story itself, the version which really brings out the philosophical aspect, in my opinion, is "Jaya" by Devdutt Patnaik. Thanks to my cousin Arati for this wonderful gift and thanks to her and my SIL Vinutha for recommending this to me. Easily one of my best reads of all times. Such unpretentious, candid, gripping narration. I loved the illustrations and footnotes, especially the ones about the regional interpretations and the folklores centered around the epic characters. They make the reading that much more interesting. Every chapter is linked with the relevant tenet(s) of Vedic philosphy. The Bhagavad Gita interpretation in this book is laudable. Very clear, lucid and very simple. The best part of the book is the manner in which it seamlessly mixes the exotic tales with the learnings. No part of the book feels like you are reading a moral-science textbook, yet it is thought provoking and invites you to reflect on the lines of moral shades of the characters, on what was right and what was wrong. Highly recommend this to folks even if they are not into mythological or spiritual books.
As an aside, one common take-away from these books is that the Vedic, Dharmic philosophy must be one of the mis-understood philosophies in the world wrongly ridiculed in the name of polytheism, caste-system and what not. Sadly, Indians are among the major contributors to this - in the name of Hinduism. Hinduism is not a religion, it is a culture, a philosophy. But few Hindus even realize this.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday, July 9, 2010
Kindled!
I have re-discovered my craze for reading after my son's birth. Since then, I have bought a lot of books from Amazon and am almost done with them. Now I find that we have no more space left for books. This was around the time Amazon slashed the price for Kindle from 250 to 189. I thought why not! But my husband was more inclined to get a iPad. After a lot of arguments and deliberation, I convinced my husband to go for Kindle.
a) I don't really need a fancy browsing device - all I need is a reader which is exactly what Kindle is!
b) Cost! Kindle wins big time here
We got our Kindle yesterday and boy am I already in love with it! It is all I imagined it to be and more. I have already bought around 5 books since yesterday, so need to keep a tab on my spending here. I mean, who can resist buying a book when it is so easy, right!
pros:
- There is this "try sample" feature when you browse for books which lets you peek into few pages of the book . I am a big fan of this. It's akin to walking into a book-store and browsing a few pages before you decide to buy the book. How cool is that!
- You can adjust the font, you can flip/rotate the screen to your liking.
- The black and white screen! No better substitute for a book.
cons:
- The "enter" button is on the slower side. By pressing this multiple times, I accidentally bought more books. But the cool thing is, they have an option to cancel the purchase immediately if it was a not-intended purchase.
I will add more to this space in future.
I had always imagined that there is no substitute for reading an actual book. I am glad my fears have not come true. I am actually loving the experience. I especially don't miss having to hold a heavy paper back. With Kindle, I can easily hold it in one hand while I rock my son to sleep. You don't have to worry about waking him up because of the light on the screen or when you need to flip a page. Now that is priceless!
a) I don't really need a fancy browsing device - all I need is a reader which is exactly what Kindle is!
b) Cost! Kindle wins big time here
We got our Kindle yesterday and boy am I already in love with it! It is all I imagined it to be and more. I have already bought around 5 books since yesterday, so need to keep a tab on my spending here. I mean, who can resist buying a book when it is so easy, right!
pros:
- There is this "try sample" feature when you browse for books which lets you peek into few pages of the book . I am a big fan of this. It's akin to walking into a book-store and browsing a few pages before you decide to buy the book. How cool is that!
- You can adjust the font, you can flip/rotate the screen to your liking.
- The black and white screen! No better substitute for a book.
cons:
- The "enter" button is on the slower side. By pressing this multiple times, I accidentally bought more books. But the cool thing is, they have an option to cancel the purchase immediately if it was a not-intended purchase.
I will add more to this space in future.
I had always imagined that there is no substitute for reading an actual book. I am glad my fears have not come true. I am actually loving the experience. I especially don't miss having to hold a heavy paper back. With Kindle, I can easily hold it in one hand while I rock my son to sleep. You don't have to worry about waking him up because of the light on the screen or when you need to flip a page. Now that is priceless!
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