Maxims from Mahabharata by Sridhar Potaraju (Book Review: 3.75*/5) !!!

  

31^st Book of 2022

 

Since last decade, the way Sanatan Dharma is being spoken and spread to its own people who didn’t even know that the Dharma they follow is called Sanatan and not Hinduism – the word we keep referring in religious context. I must have read more than 100 books which speaks about our ancient history which few people refer as mythology in either fiction or non-fiction formats which is great as people are getting to learn about our own religion in easier language. I recently completed one similar book sent to me by Indica Books called “Maxims from Mahabharata” written by Sridhar Potaraju.

 

This is a short-book not even of 100-pages with 12 different chapters. You must be wondering what is the meaning of the word “Maxim”. So, it basically means “few words that express a rule for good or sensible behavior”. Here, author has read Mahabharata and he feels that it’s an ocean of knowledge which talks not only about religion but a lot about human beings and their philosophy and psychology. He tried to pick few which he had noted down or highlighted while reading the same. The 12 Maxims that is discussed in this book chapter-wise are Dharma, Truth, Principles Governing Punishment, Karma, Hygiene as Good Conduct, Nature, Faith, Anger, Reputation, Eternal Values, Mental Health and Power of Words.

 

Each of these chapter consists of shlokas picked up from Mahabharata which are written in the Sanskrit text itself along with English text for English readers to help them pronounce it. It further has its one-liner translation and the exact chapter or parva in Mahabharata from where it’s picked up. Author also provides context before providing the shlokas so that the reader is able to understand who spoke it to whom and under what situation. This helps in avoiding misinterpretation of the shlokas and referring to it in wrong context – something that atheist or people not believing in our ancient history regularly do to disrespect it.

 

The book helps you understand how advanced our ancient texts are where they not only cover the then contemporary issues but also speaks in context that it sounds relevant in our modern time too. In the chapter of truth, there’s a mention that if a person is truthful, it’s a bigger good karma than reading all religious books. I evaluated and found it to be so true. If a human being restricts himself in being truthful always – the kind of image he’ll have in society plus the kind of people who’ll want him to be on their side or have him in their team will give him great fortune. Not only this, it also mentioned 13 forms of truth which are Impartiality, Self-control, forgiveness, modesty, endurance, goodness, renunciation, contemplation, dignity, fortitude, compassion and abstention from injury.

 

Similarly, I liked the way forgiveness has been explained where it is asked to forgive someone who has made mistake so that he/she can get a chance to improve in future. Punishment always is not the right solution. It also talks about punishing someone definitely if the mistake is repeatedly being committed knowingly. I felt this to be so relevant in our professional and corporate life these days. Some managers don’t have these basic skills of understanding when to punish and forgive due to which the career is affected of many employees.

 

In the Karma maxim, you will just get into the self-evaluation mode when you will read that it has been said – everyone knows their deed – if what they are doing is right or wrong. Still if one chose to go with it, the karma will definitely return back. I was wowed by this. We, as human beings, definitely know about the quality of our action if it’s good or bad still we do it thinking that we will never suffer by it. There are chapters which tells about the significance of protecting nature, maintaining good hygiene, concentrating on our reputation and managing our anger. All this talks about the variety of topics on which Mahabharata is able to guide us upon.

 

The chapter on mental health again open our eyes as we think this is a modern concept whereas our texts have given its challenges and remedy thousands of years ago. The book also teaches about humility – speaks on son and daughter equality – the consequences of having ego and how it takes everything away from you. Overall, the book is a good beginning for people trying to understand a little bit about the kind of lessons our epics deliver.

 

Now talking about the drawbacks- firstly, the same context is repeated multiple times which makes it boring and monotonous. Author could have someone arranged the chapters in a manner where for a single context, listing down all kind of lessons we can learn for different maxims. Secondly, the English text for Sanskrit is not appropriate. If you’ll read it, you’ll pronounce it completely different than what it is. Thirdly, I feel that the book could have consisted more shlokas with detailed explanation like a full-fledged book rather than a short read.

 

Overall, this is a fine attempt which must have taken lot of efforts to compile and put together. I would give the book 3.75* out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success by Meera Gandhi (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

30^th Book of 2022

 

I remember reading snippets from Ankur Warikoo’s first book “Do Epic Shit” all over on Instagram and LinkedIn. It is written with a very user-friendly strategy which allows reader to open any page and read it as every page is independent and insightful. Author, Meera Gandhi, has gone a little more creative with her style of writing in her latest book which I have just completed named “3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success”. As you can find that the title of the book describes the number “3” along with three words i.e. Peace, Joy and Success. Similarly, the book is divided into sections which again talks about three main aspects of life: Work, Life and Self. Further, drilling down into this, in every chapter that author has written to guide us about something, it begins with Three basic tips to deal with it. Hence, reading every chapter will make you feel as if you are watching an Instagram reel which is trying to guide or inspire you in as less words as possible.

 

Meera’s writing style is very easy-to-go which will allow every age group to read it easily without being lost in difficult words or unwanted jargons. The chapters are of just 1-2 pages which makes it easy for you to keep turning pages and finish the book within 2-3 hours itself. Though, I would suggest to read 2-3 chapters everyday and journal your thoughts about it before moving ahead as it will prove more insightful and effective in this manner.

 

I liked how Gandhi has mostly mentioned events and experiences from her own life in order to make the reader understand the concepts she wants to speak about. It all then sounds real and something you tend to believe in. Generally, self-help books only speak in bullet points or hypothetical situations but here, authoress’ attempt to speak to us as an elder sister who is sharing her own instances with us and how it made her learn the same, helps us adopt it immediately.

 

In the Work-related section, author has not been unreal like many articles these days which only talks about how work should be done casually prioritizing only yourself. She has ensured that she covers important aspects to be professionally or entrepreneurially successful by emphasizing upon academics, hard work, leadership, ownership, entrepreneurship, goals creation, conflict resolutions etc. Starting book with such aggressive content makes you feel over-charged and motivated to give your best in whichever field you are. This has been a good approach over starting the book with other two topics which are mainly on calmness.

 

The chapters in Life and Self sections are almost of the same kind hence there’s nothing prominent about isolating this into two separate parts but yet Meera has tried to focus on few pointers in each of these bifurcated categories to make it easily graspable. She speaks about how we can keep our life positive, radiant, balanced, abundant and active. She gives tips on how we can deal with problems and difficult situations in life. The importance of friendship and holding onto these special people is given prominence in one of the chapters.

 

Further, in the last section, author takes bit of a spiritual turn and repetitively tries to bring light upon the importance of yoga, meditation and mindfulness. I loved how she tries to speak on these topics without getting into depth but how she felt after participating in it is elaborated which will make the people wanting to get into this side of activities give it a try. This section basically covers two of the major topics mentioned in the title of the book – Peace and Joy. The closing thoughts – which is the last chapter in the book explains a concept with the example of an acorn. It was such a great way to finish this book. It gives you sense of positivity that we are limitless and powerful enough to bring big changes through us. Author’s way of talking in the book also teaches how to remain grounded and humble even after achieving success in life.

 

Overall, this is a short book which you can easily finish in hours and learn a lot from it. I would basically recommend it for students as they need these insights early in their life to understand the priorities well. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

The Protectors of Kavaach by Pranay (Book Review: 4.25*/5) !!!

  

29^th Book of 2022

Long time since I have been away from books and wanted to get back to reading as I am still around 7 books behind my yearly target and a week has already passed for the last month of the year. I needed a book which could generate interest within me not only to finish but enjoy it too. Knowing that I love books based on mythology, epic and ancient history, I picked Pranay Bhalerao’s latest release named “The Protectors of Kavaach” which is also the first book in Kavaach trilogy. The book is published by the author himself in around 309 pages which seems to be a lengthy book but once you’ll start reading it, the surprise elements and the thrilling aspect keeps you glued. You’ll be able to finish it before the estimated time for sure.

 

The book speaks of three different timelines- 600 BCE, 570 BCE and the present times. The characters from the 600-570 BCE are the same whereas the ones in the present day are another set of people trying to understand the super-natural activities happening with and around them. While reading the ancient history, you will get the references of Mahabharat and you’ll love relating those parts with the epic characters. The present-day section has characters which makes you relate them to the ones you read in the ancient history section and this fight keeps the reader within you excited and curious. It’s mainly about safeguarding Kavaach which is being secured by someone in every generation and the ritual should continue.

 

Talking about the writing style, Pranay’s command over the language is impressive. The way he has been able to explain the action scenes between the characters – mostly the fighting scene of Kaal in the jungle is something which tells about his calibre. Similarly, as he is a technology professional, the implementation of cyborgs in the present-day story gives an amazing thrilling angle. His choice of separating the ancient story in two different parallel sections of 600 BCE and 570 BCE has been such a perfect implementation that more than present day, I wanted to just keep reading about these two sections and know why the relationship dynamics have changed between the same characters within the time span of 30 years. The way Pranay defines the whole aesthetics of mine, kavaach, coals, Trishula tells us about his creative and imaginative prowess. His creativity is embedded in almost every segment.

 

The characters are treated beautifully. The emphasis given on Aryana and Kaal is commendable. The way their camaraderie and growing maturity of their relationship is portrayed makes you imagine the whole segment as the one we saw in the recent RRR movie. Similarly, the present-day section makes you relate many scenes with the Brahmashtra movie. Saharshee’s character and the whole ambience of ashram is again done justice with. His views towards Kaal and the kind of treatment given to Kaal by him is an interesting section to read. It reminds us of Dronacharya-Eklavya scene or the whole Karna section in Mahabharat. Similarly, Rudra and all the characters along with him are given an emotional touch which makes you cheer for them whenever they are involved in a fighting or action scene. Rudra’s relationship with his grandfather is applaudable. I just feel that more coverage could have been given to the team of Shaurya, Teena and Shaksheet too. They sound like an isolated gang in the story. Haha!

 

Initially, the book might be a slow-read as you are trying to understand the three different timelines plus the multiple characters where each of them are being given certain importance in the story. But the moment you start understanding the characters and their persona, the story starts getting on you. The blend of fiction, fantasy, mythology, religion, history, science and super-natural elements make this book an outstanding attempt of making the reader visualize everything in their brain. Author has been successful enough in making you see the world he has created. I was very skeptic in the pre-climax section of the book as things were being narrated very slowly so I thought if there would be an amazing set-up with which the book will be ended - Thankfully, the climax has been such an astounding experience that I just can’t wondering how the story would proceed in the second book of this series.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that the book could have been edited well – atleast by making it shorter by 30-40 pages. I felt that the story had lots of scope of adding philosophical element which has been missed out by the author. Adding that would have given many great insights about human minds and life in general. As I mentioned above, I found few characters little ignored – giving equal weightage to them could have made it more actionable. The whole section where a story is written in the italic form which a character reads sounded quite underwhelming as it didn’t have a very strong bond with the current plot. Lastly, I felt that the author wrote the book from pitching it to movie-makers for adaptation hence many scenes sound more like reading a movie screenplay than book.

 

Overall, this is an interesting read and one of the fresh stories I have read this year from this genre. I would give this attempt 4.25* out of 5. Looking out to read the 2^nd part of the story soon. Hope Pranay releases it by 2023.

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Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA