Blurb (from the jacket):
Shattered Dreams is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series Ramayana - The Game of Life. Twelve joyful years have passed in Ayodhya since the wedding of Rama and Sita at the end of Book 1.
Now, in Shattered Dreams, Shubha Vilas narrates the riveting drama of Rama’s exile. Through tales of Rama’s unwavering and enigmatic persona, the book teaches us how to handle reversals positively; through Bharata’s actions, it teaches us to handle temptation; and through Sita’s courage, to explore beyond our comfort zone. This complicated family drama provides deep insights on how human relationships work and how they fail.
With Valmiki’s Ramayana as its guiding light, Shattered Dreams deftly entwines poetic beauty from the Kamba Ramayana and Ramacharitramanas, as well as folk philosophy from the Loka Pramana tales, to demonstrate how the ancient epic holds immediate relevance to modern life. Experience the ancient saga of the Ramayana like never before.
My take on the book:
Last year, somewhere around April, we had received Rise of the Sun Prince, the predecessor of this book in The Game of Life series, from Jaico Books. We loved it. It was like no other Ramayana book.
The cover of this book reminds me of a cartoon movie when I was very young. In fact, it is a shot from the same Cartoon movie, Ramayana. It was aired on television almost every Diwali. It was the only version of Ramayana I, whose grandparents never narrated the epic during bedtimes, ever knew.
Later when I started reading books, there are loads of versions of the epic. Every author got a newer and a more innovative version to say. Every version had its own advantages. So does this one.
This narrates the epic, yes. But not just that. Observe the title of the Series the books are released under: The Game of Life. The author try to grasp the lessons in the story in metaphorical sense, trying to solve the moral dilemma of the reader. The author delves in deep to bring out the core philosophy of the epic.
After reading the book, I must say, I have read many versions of the Epic, heard a few, seen some, but never had seen the story in a philosophical view. I never thought it was possible. I enjoyed it like a story. A Fantasy, perhaps. But the author is a real eye-opener.
The narration is good. The language is pretty fine. Just like the Jaico standard. It is very informative, too. But at some point it becomes very lagging. Stretching an epic to this scale needs a lot of detailing, references, parallel tales and, with that, a lot of unwanted information. I understand that each book in the series is an individual kanda, I rather it was a bit smaller and not all the way 380-pages.
Off the note, I liked the depiction of foot steps at the bottom of pages on the left. It is nothing much, but I liked it. If you ruffle the pages to the left, you will see an animation of footsteps walking rightwards. Left, right; left, right.
Off the note, I liked the depiction of foot steps at the bottom of pages on the left. It is nothing much, but I liked it. If you ruffle the pages to the left, you will see an animation of footsteps walking rightwards. Left, right; left, right.
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Title: Shattered Dreams
Author: Shubha Vilas
ISBN (edition I've read): 9788184955316
Rating:
Read between: 09-02-2015 to 12-02-2015
Reviewed for: Blogadda
Publishers: Jaico Books
Pages: 389
MRP: ₹ 350
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