Bali and the ocean of milk by Nilanjan P. Choudhury

"Bali and the ocean of milk" by Nilanjan P. Choudhury. This book is published by HarperCollins Publishers India in 2011 and has 307 pages.

This story has Asura King Bali. Kind of Devas Indrah. The holy Trinity Jai, Viru and Sambha. They collaborate to churn the ocean of milk to obtain nectar of life. But there is a traitor who not only double crosses the opposition but his own too.

How do Devas convince Asuras? What is Indrah's secret? What will come out of churning? Who will get the nectar? Who is the traitor?

If you think this is the story from mythology, you are mistaken. Author has used mythological original to concoct a new story all together.

The story in Amravati is more comedy than real story. Don't know why author decided to name the holy Trinity after characters from movie Sholey. The Devas look more like jokers. On the other hand the story at Asura end is very intense.

Author has given a few twists to the story. Some are good, some though good lack justification and appear unrealistic. Bali's transformation. His alliance. His death. All seem unreal.

Author has used fundamentalism and progressiveness in the Asura context intelligently. He has touched a number of social issues.

But it appears that author was a bit confused about the tone that he wanted to set for the book. The comedy was a spoiler. In my opinion if he had done away with the comedy and instead maintained intense tone, the book would have become much more readable.

Author also had rushed through the climax and the end. Would have liked it to be more dramatic. Book cover is not very impressive.

Read if you have time.