Ajaya: Rise of Kali by Anand Neelakanthan

"Ajaya: Rise of Kali" by Anand Neelakanthan. This book is published by Platinum Press in 2015 and has 530 pages. This book is Book 2 of Ajaya series.

Anand's story of Mahabharata continues, from Suyodhana's point of view, from where the first book ended i.e. with Draupadi Vastraharan. The war starts at around 60% of the book and ends at around 90%.

Dhaumya is the fanatic. Kripa is a maverick. Kirishna is the ultimate manipulator. Samba was the loutish son of Krishna, who Krishna had no control over. Shakuni is a schemer. Ashwathama craves for recognition as warrior and wants to be Suyodhana's best friend, better than Karna. Karna and Eklavya are emotional brave hearts. Suyodhana is a well meaning, righteous, emotional fool.

This book is the struggle between two philosophies. Pandav, Krishna and Parshuram are proponents of cast and class system, followers of scriptures for stable society whereas Duryodhana, Eklavya and Takshak favour merit based system. It's a fight between orthodoxy (Pandav) and liberals (Kaurav).

Author States that Pandav's portrayed themselves as epitome of Dharma and Kaurav's as evil whereas it was the other way round. Pandav used all illegal means to win war and Kaurav abided by the rules. He says Pandav used propaganda to depict themselves as torchbearers Dharma. But he does not say why Suyodhana did not do anything to counter this?

Author has given spin and twist to the known incidents from Mahabharata to put forth his point of view. Some interesting twists: Bhishma and Vidur's retirement. Eklavya taught weaponory to Ghatotkach and Iravan. It was Eklavya, not Lord Shiv, who defeated Arjun in the jungle. Samba, son of Krishna, raped Lakshamana, daughter of Suyodhana. Krishna killed Eklavya in a shameful fashion. Sarpasatra happened when Janmejay was a baby.

The first book was the story of Suyodhana. It tried to put forth the other side of coin. Second book though told interestingly, becomes story of Mahabharata instead of Suyodhana. Suddenly Suyodhana takes back stage and story moves on. There is no justification of Vastraharan, no second side to it. Suyodhana's point of view goes missing. From being a hero in first book, he becomes a supporting actor and an 'also ran' in this book. Mind you, the story is good but author has lost the soul of his story. End of the book is over stretched. He could have stopped at the end of war. But no. He continues and narrates death of Vidur, Kunti, Dhritarashtra & Gandhari, then narrates deaths of Pandav, then narrates death of Parikshit and ends with Sarpasatra with baby Janmejay as the puppet of Dhaumya and Yuyutsu.

You read a good book but it is not what you bargained for. You feel disappointed. A good story that strays from its objective.

If you have read the first one, you have to read this. If you haven't read the first one, well, read that then!

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