The Oath of The Vayuputras - A Review

This is my first review, so don't be too harsh on the critic. You shall also find the same review on the new blog I work for - www.thesaltysardines.com

After ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ and ‘The Secret of the Nagas’, book lovers across the country have eagerly awaited Amish Tripathi’s ‘The Oath of The Vayuputras’. On reading the two books, many questions have been formulated in our minds. Decisions are yet to be taken and some paths are yet to be trotted upon. Amish Tripathi has promised to tie a knot to all loose ends in this book that completes the trilogy. Does he deliver as he says?

The Neelkanth is in search of the evil bothering the nation. In his quest, he joins hands with the Meluhans, the Swadeepans and the Nagas. These three races, which are known for their rivalry and enmity, put all differences aside and accept the different ways of life. The uptight and ‘true to their word’ Suryavanshis, and the passionate and follow their free will’ Chandravanshis mingle with each other and exchange their ideas to strengthen Shiva’s troop. The out casted Nagas also get accepted as mere humans who are good in intentions but left bitter by their own flaws. The Vasudevs lead Shiva in the quest of true evil, an evil that shocks everyone.

An evil which has always been there among them, unrecognized. An evil which has divided the races and caused hostility among people from the same mother land. It stirs chaos among families and loyalties are questioned. Love comes in between the goal, causing more complications and making it simpler. Some courageous characters fight still the last drop of blood, to protect their people and eradicate evil. Some give in to their cowardly vices and betray their cause. As a well-planned and organized war goes wrong, Shiva is left with just one option – The Vayuputras.

Amish Tripathi writes for the mind and the soul. While the philosophies stir the minds, the emotions touch the soul. He has portrayed different relations between characters well. Though Daksha wants to destroy Shiva, his protectiveness for his daughter Sati stops him from attacking the group. Bhagirath is constantly worried about his sister, Anandmayi and ensures that no harm falls upon her. Parvateshwar’s respect for Shiva is reciprocated well, though they choose different sides. Ganesh places trust on his younger brother, Karthik, to lead a fight.

Tripathi is an ace when it comes to description. The picturistic words used to describe intricate designs and architecture shows that he not only cares about the details, but savours it. The dialogues used are so powerful and thought incepting. He has given a scientific angle to many symbols and practices, which has some truth to it. Mythological elements are present in a different light. The parallelism drawn to the stories we have grown listening to is fascinating. One example I find very astonishing is how he explains about the plague in Branga, which could be related to a concentration of cancer cases in Bengal in a modern day world.

However, a lot more trees went down for this cause than should have. 600 pages were unnecessary; the story could have been shortened to 200-300 pages easily. At a point, the story just seemed to be dragged to no end. The details were too much; a little air of mystery could have been maintained. A story like this deserved a better ending than it got. I am not discouraging anyone from reading the book; you should read it anyway, especially if you have been bombarded with bed time stories on Shiva, Devi and Ganpati.

ACP Dhoble Is Just What Mumbai Needs

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

He is one party pooper we all hate, don't we? Obviously there is a lot to speak against the topic. Yet it was the proposition who won this one(and they went on to be the winners of Speaktacular 2013).

This time I will start with the opposition. They started with a quote from Spider-Man - "With great power comes great responsibility." And Dhoble is a man with power but misuses it. He acts as an extra constitutional authority. He is a dementor who sucks the life out of a party. He is against night life and closed minded. In 1989, he was suspended from duty for accepting bribes, while he was posted in Pune. Also in 1994, he was sentenced 7 years in prison to have tortured one of the inmates, Abdul Gaffer Khan, to death. He was fined Rs 1 lack for the same. He was also responsible for replacing 12 dossiers related to Dawood  Ibharim. He is a man who himself has records against him.

Also he was blamed for the death of a hawker while raiding the streets of Santacruz(E). The hawker succumbed to cardiac arrest. He couldn't bear the hockey stick of Dhoble. His livelihood was in question. If not a street vendor, how will he feed his family? How will he put a roof under them? Agreed that it is illegal, but what other options do they have? 

Dhoble was compared to the likes of Saddam Hussain, Adolf Hitler and Muammar Gaddafi. He is inclined to tyranny and takes up responsibilities he shouldn't be. 

The media has shown light on his negatives, leaving his positives in a shadow. We judge him only on what the newschannels and papers tell us.

Let us not forget the raid in a so called spa in Powai. He rescued 7 girls who were forced into flesh trade. Isn't it one of his good doings? He saved innocent girls from a fate so horrendous. He also shut down illegal hubs and parties causing nuisance to the neighborhood. We all know that many of these public services have skeletons in their closet. Corruption has seeped into the blood of us Mumbaikars. For our own convenience, we turn a blind eye to wrongs. 

Recently, a fire erupted in a nightclub 'Kiss' in Santa Maria, Brazil. The nightclub served a regular hangout spot to the many students Santa Maria homed. The band performing in the club used some fireworks, which were to be used outdoor. They didn't have many exits. Many dies due to suffocation, some due to stampede. 300+ deaths were recorded. This could cause questioning to safety as Brazil is set to host the FIFA World Cup next year. The officials were blamed for this. The club's license had expired in August, the previous year. There were no proper exits for the victims to escape. Many harmless illegal activities put together fueled the fire.

Here we have someone who is actually trying to avoid the same in Mumbai. Someone who doesn't concede to corruption. And how do we react? By hating him. He is like a strict parent who just cares for our good. He has learnt a lesson from being suspended of accepting bribes. Once, my friend and I were walking down the road where we met a policeman. He told us how helpless they were against corruption. It's not bribes that tempt, it's the threat against their loved ones that compel them to turn their flashlights off to the happenings in the dark. And when someone stands up against fraud, we shun him instead of respecting him.

On the charges of the street hawker, he died of brain haemorrhage. He was externally untouched. It was an unfortunate incident, but not something you could blame Dhoble for. Congress MP Priya Dutt blamed him for the death, and we blindly believe her. She is not someone who has done great deeds to even be considered a say in the matter.

Good or bad, ACP Vasant Dhoble shall always create a stir with his loudness. But one must read the entire story before judging someone. 

Religion and Traditions Hold Us Back From A Fresh Perspective

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

I liked the debate on this for one reason. I was for this statement, but the opposition were convincing enough for me to question my stance. 

The proposition started with how religion hold us back. We are so stubborn to the words written in our religion that we don't accept something new. Sexism is a major product of these preachings. Christians, Jews and Muslims believe that a man is supposed to protect his woman and the woman to serve him. They define the roles for both the sexes, hence leaving no freedom for us to decide our own fate. These religions are against homosexuality. Many gays and lesbians faced problems as severe as death for being that way. It was considered a sin. Premarital sex was another sin, so was masturbation, which is a seemingly harmless act. One can understand rape being a sin, but why the others? Nicolas Copernicus and Galelio Galeli faced death to go against religious facts. They were right on the astronomical discoveries yet termed as sinners. By the time we started accepting science, it was too late.

Following traditions blindly cause in a great waste of money. The same money can be put in charity instead. I know families that will spend lacks or even crores for their beloved daughter's wedding. I know that we all want to celebrate, but spending so much? In my family, during funerals, we feed a few Brahmins one time meal. Back then, Brahmins did service for free and this was like a way to repay them. But now they earn a fortune on human stupidity. Each one of them have a tummy of the size of a bear. They own such stylish bikes. Wouldn't you rather spend the money feeding the poor?

Religion is an obstruction to free will. We have to follow the so called word of God rather than write our own words. Religion is greatly unfair to women. In Saudi Arabia, we still have to hide under a burkha. The Kashmiri girls band was issued a Fatwa; they couldn't express their musical talents. Feminists were claimed to be witches and burnt to death. Sati and unfair treatment to widows is not justified. Polygamy was observed by men, but a lady doing the same is a disgrace. 

We know that jihad is another ill effect of religion. Many Kasabs were picked on from the streets of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were told to kill and sacrifice in the name of God. Which God would want such worthless sacrifices? How is this any different from diabolism? Kasab and many others could have grown to achieve great heights in life. With the loyalty to the cause they showed, they could have made Pakistan proud, if well educated. The country would have come out of the great mess it is in. But they rather increased the mess by indulging in terrorism. Brain washed that it is the right thing to do, they had no chance of living a life every human has the right to.

But one man's poison is another man's food. Again it's you who make the choices. The opposition started the argument by saying how religion increases our morality. Like everything else, religion has also evolved over time. Due to Raja Ram Mohan Roy's interference, Sati and other unjust laws were abolished when its evils were brought out.

Great men like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were inspired by religion and dharma. Gandhi followed the path of non violence and truth because it was his morals which made him so. Morals imbibed by religion! He led the country to a free today. He even tried to unite both Hindus and Muslims. Martin Luther King also believed in the word of Jesus that one must love their neighbors and enemies. Hence he adapted the method of non-violence. Religion influenced them to avoid bloodshed and follow an alternate path.

We have been taught about the great emperor Ashoka in our schools. He was blinded by power to conquer places. His anger was fierce. He killed around 500 men because they were disloyal. He even tortured women by putting them in harem. He fought a war to add the kingdom of Kalinga to his. He won the war but lost to his own conscience. He saw the amount of blood shed and felt remorse. It was Buddism, a religion, that changed him. Gave him a fresh perspective in life. He gave up on all the worldly desires and went on to be one of the greatest emperors and human we have ever seen. He popularized it amongst his subjects.

Religion and mythology have given us great heroes to worship. Even female ones like Durga Maa. Durga Maa's legend taught us that of having a penis is not a reason to not fight evil. Her display of courage is an example to all those women who are subjected to torture on a daily basis, those who live under the fear of being tainted every moment. Jesus Christ taught us to be persistent and put others before oneself. 

Coming to the point of terrorism, the opposition raised an excellent point. Terrorism is a result of bullying kids to follow falsely interpreted religious prophecy. Rumour has it that many like Kasab were threatened to embrace terrorism. Their families lived on a gun point. It was religion that gave them hope. Belief in Allah that makes them all believe that a better tomorrow will arrive.

Religion plays an important role in our lives, whether we like it or not. To take the best out of it is in our disposition. 

Internet Pacifies the Urge to Explore

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

The proposition started the debate with defining the word 'explore' and the opposition started theirs by defining 'pacify'. Explore basically means to investigate and find out more on a matter. Pacify means to quell the excitement. Both the teams went along the same points and examples, showing how it justified their part of the argument. This topic and the debate attracted me for the simple reason that I have felt both ways about it.

The proposition agreed that the Internet is a medium with more control, simplified to users, interactive, free, verifiable and social. No denying either of the points. We get all information we need at our finger tip. Internet has curbed our will to get out of the house. We feel like watching a movie, there is torrents. Online shopping saves us the trouble to actually go to all the shops and find clothes for ourselves. Those treasured books on travel and cookery have lost meaning. Pranks have become more of a YouTube thing. Feel like having a pizza? Dominos is now online for us. All those budding Sheakspeares open a blog to display their talent(guilty). What happened to submitting articles in the newspapers and waiting for it to get published? Photos and videos are intended to be posted on Facebook, not laugh about, 10 years down the line. 

The proposition mentioned about the time when Columbus set out to discover India, but ended up in America. He had an adventure worth of a lifetime. Now we have all we need on Google. Also the time is dead when sitting in the library for hours searching for an information was a trend for all the Hermoines out there. We spend the whole day on the net rather than getting out there and interacting with the world.

Well there is another side to the argument as well. The opposition claimed that Internet instigates and not pacifies the urge to explore. We go searching for one little detail on the Internet. Before we know it, we jump from one link to another, saturating ourselves with information. If you follow the right kind of accounts on Twitter, you get news all around the world. It urges you to go about finding out more about the matter in hand. The information is also upto date, unlike in books which are out of date.

Internet being cheap, except for the wifi you pay for, it doesn't restrict the amount of knowledge you can obtain. Be it from some free online guitar classes to content for your debates. We can learn so many recipes and experiments on YouTube. We get exposed to music which channels like MTV and VH1 don't show. We get more options when it comes to shopping, without sweating it out in the sun. Many YouTube celebrities like Ryan Higa and Chester See have got recognisition thanks to the Internet. Howstuffworks is one of the best sites to explore science and technology. You also get to interact with people from different countries and get to know their culture first hand. You don't have to go anywhere to search for anything, so it doesn't discourage the lazy bones to go about exploring.

For quiztacular, being in the club team, we had to google up good questions. I remember spending hours on the Internet learning new stuff, and trivia about my favorite artists, actors and athletes. I learned so much about happenings around the world. I actually discovered the story behind many songs of The Beatles. I would deviate often into mythology and history of a lot of stuff. 

Also the opposition mentioned a personal example. He said that he had a RAM problem once. So he went on the Internet and searched for shops or people who could repair it. After hours of exploring, he actually figured out the way to do it himself. It saved him some money and he learnt something new.

In the end it all sums down to how you use it. You can copy paste your assignments from Wikipedia or go to 10 different sites and engross yourself in the topic in hand. 

Break the Defeat

Nothing inspires a poet like their favorite team winning after all odds against them. Here is a poem dedicated to FC Barcelona, which taught me how never to give up.

We made it through the wind,

We made it through the fire;

We broke down all walls,

Raised ourselves even higher.

When times seemed so dark,

Hopes seemed so dull;

We fought back again,

We came back for the run.

All passion seemed lost,

The spirit to battle died;

We believed in ourselves,

Through the spell we would glide.

Those failures left us shattered,

Fallen and scared deep within;

We picked ourselves up,

And grabbed us the win.

The Blue Throated Hero

Here is someone, whose magnificence cannot be described in mere words. However this is my feeble attempt to do so. Mine is a character review on Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy; of which 'The Immortals of Meluha' and 'The Secret of The Nagas' has been released and 'The Oath of The Vayuputras' will be in no time. For someone who hasn't read them yet, there are spoilers in my review. So do read the book before reading this post. 

The title is obvious to any Hindu grown up listening to various stories about an endless list of Gods and heroes. I grew up on Amar Chitra Kathas and stories by my grandmother. She would always tell me stories of Krishna, Murugan, Ganapati and many others, which intrigued me and born within me was a fascination for Indian mythology. Though I went from a God-worshipping childhood, to an agnostic adolescence and ended up starting my adulthood as an atheist, my interest in these heroes never faded. If anything, I became more curious about them.

I belong to a Vaishnavite family; I was particularly inspired by Lord Shiva. His character is one of immense passion, valour and beauty. He has a focus of a Hawk, strength of a Bull, courage of a Lion, glamour of a Peacock and the grace of a Swan. He can be calm as the sea; furious as the fire and excited as a butterfly. His name by itself means pure. He plays the role of the destroyer in the holy trinity. He destroys all things, evil and good to make place for new. While Brahma is white and Vishnu is shades of grey, Shiva is black. He observes all the evil hence cleansing the universe.

Amish Tripathi illustrates the Neelkanth in a more humane form in his Shiva Trilogy. His portrayal has added a touch of charm and elegance to our beloved Lord. He shows him as an ordinary human with an extraordinary journey of life. ‘Har Har Mahadev’ or ‘Har Ek Hai Mahadev’ is used often in the story, implying that in each one of us, there is a God. With the right amount of courage, enthusiasm and determination, we can accomplish great feats in life. The Shiva Trilogy is a story of the expedition of the Lord, passed on from generations, seen by a contemporary eye.

Shiva is shown as a tribal Lord, born in an environment so raw and innocent to civilized way of life. He has grown up on the mountains, which makes him closer to the skies as well as Mother Earth, and hence the universe. This is the reason he is always down to Earth and in one with the nature. The needs and rules were basic on the Himalayas and all people cared about was survival. As he takes his subjects to Meluha, he mixes his raw intelligence with their established system to further improve the picture perfect kingdom. We often forget the creative side of Shiva. He blends creativity and logic in a perfect way to make himself one of the most efficiently intelligent personalities. He stands for raw and untamed energy.

Shiva is someone who cares for all his loved ones. He will sacrifice his own life for the safety of theirs. Anyone who harms the one he loves shall face his wrath. He does not give up on Sati, even when she virtually lives under the shadows of death. On losing Brihaspati, he gets enraged on the Nagas. He also holds Nandi and Veerbadra as important people and trusts their advice. Shiva’s love for Sati is intense; he does not give up on the hope of marrying her. She is his strength and his weakness.

Another attribute to the Neelkanth is his passion. He is ardent about dancing. He prays before his dance, a tribute to Lord Nataraja and a way to absorb all the energy around. While he dances, he gets lost in the art. The steps come to him effortlessly. He doesn’t do dance, he feels it. His entire body is synchronized to the rhythm of the universe. His hands and legs find their own movements. His mudras are perfect and posture is balanced. Being a Bharatnatyam dancer, I have always visualized him doing the Anand Tandav and Rudra Tandav. Whenever we were taught a dance based on Shiva and Parvati, it’s a total class act, upbeat, energetic and graceful. This is the reason I started admiring Shiva before Amish Tripathi decided to reveal him in a different light.

He is a person of strong morals and principles and anyone with the same attracts him. He thinks high of Parvateshwar who shuns him at first, for his loyalty to Lord Ram. Sati’s strong character and headstrong virtue attracts him. He also loses admiration for Daksha, who is shown to be timid and of weak mind. He gets angry with Daksha and Nandi when they feed him and his folks the Som, without their consent. He is against lying and someone who will not entertain cowardice.

The trait that earned my absolute respect is something else though. It was the way he treated everyone, as an equal. His eyes were the most just. He is against the vikarma law. He touches the feet of a certain vikarma and takes his blessing, creating a bit of blasphemy in Meluha. However, he uses his power and influence over the king to remove the law. He believes in fair play and equality. He shows confidence in Sati, Ayurvati and other women; something which men often fail to do. Rather than discouraging Sati from fighting, he admires her for standing up to herself and her principles. As the first book ends, he comes in terms with the fact that the Chandravanshi way of living is as fair and right as the Suryavanshi way. He sees feminity as a force complementary to masculinity, neither inferior nor superior. He is open to a new perspective, and opens up the public’s mind to a new way of thinking. He is ready to listen to the other side of the story before passing a judgment on a person. Despite of all people said about Parshurama, he listened to his reasons of acting the way he did, and sympathized with him. His open mind is the reason he can communicate with the Vasudevs as well.

We all have fictional characters who have inspired and shaped our own thoughts and beliefs. Reading about the Neelkanth found me a role model. I aspire to be like him. If I can even be a percent like him, I will be have consider my life well lived and worth. Also a cue to all the boys, I would love to find a soul mate with qualities possessed by the Blue Throated Hero.