The wordkeepers by Jash Sen

"The wordkeepers" debut novel by Jash Sen. This book is published by duckbill in 2013 and has 248 pages. This book is Book 1 of the trilogy.

The story is set in 2028. Anya, a 14 year old girl, gets a cryptic message from her mom asking her not to trust her father of even her mom. Ashwathama and Bibhishan, the immortals, are involved. A great responsibility lies on young Anya's shoulders. Bilal can do tricks no one can. One day his friend is murdered and he is taken to a special camp by a stranger for training.

Is the legend of Chiranjeevi true? Who is the avtar of Vishnu? What is the connection between Anya and Bilal? Who is the villain? What is the red planet?

Here Kali is the villain. He wants to rule the world. There are young boys and girls with powers who are trained in a camp by Chiranjeevi. There is a prophecy of one particular child killing Kali. He is hunting for it and the wordkeepers are protecting it till it becomes capable of fulfilling the destiny. Does it remind you of Percy Jackson? Well there definitely are parallels.

The story has immortals Ashwathama, Bibhishan, Parshuram and avtars of Vishnu and Balram along with a couple of Gods. Anya is the wordkeeper and so are others. Their amulets are powerful.

Kali has his own force of bad guys that includes conjoined twins, shape shifters, non human entities etc.

The story is aptly narrated. It contains magic, flying, shape shifting, intergalactic travel, immortals etc. The last section of the book seems to be written in hurry. It's devoid of necessary details. Story ends with start of new adventure. What will happen next? Although it's author's debut novel, she has done well.

India's answer to Percy Jackson. Recommend reading.

Nal Damayanti (नल दमयंती) by Jayant Joglekar

"Nal Damayanti (नल दमयंती)" a Marathi book by Jayant Joglekar. The book is published in 2011 by Vihang Prakashan and has about 140 pages.

As the name suggests, this book is the story of Nal and Damayanti. We all know their story of how they fell in love without ever seeing each other, how a swan acted as their messenger and how Damayanti choose Nal over Gods in swayamvar(स्वयंवर). However many do not know what happened after their marriage. This book starts before their marriage and tells story of their life after marriage.

Kali (कली), is livid that Damayanti rejected him. He enters Nal's body. Pushkar, jealous cousin of Nal, wins his kingdom and money in gamble, with Kali's help, and asks him and Damayanti to go away with only one cloth. They start living happily in the jungle, when Nal loses his only cloth while trying to catch a swan. He takes half cloth from Damayanti while she is asleep and leaves her.

Where will Damayanti go? Can she survive? Will any hunter force himself on her? Will wild animals eat her? Will any king make her his bhogdasi (भोगदासी)? Can she see her children? Where has Nal gone? Why did he  abandon his beloved wife? Can he come out of Kali's influence? Can he see her again? Can they reunite?

This is a love story alright. The story takes us on the roller coaster ride of love between Nal and Damayanti. The ride includes smitten feeling, the joy, the anticipation, happiness, differences, sorrow, suffering, abandonment, difficulties, sacrifices and reunion.

It is said that this is one of the first ever love stories written. Although the names are well known, the story is not. Hence the writer decided to pen it for the benefit of readers. I would say he was mostly successful. Author could have made the story much more spicy but chose to let the opportunity go. However what he wrote is decent. The language used for the book is"period" language. Author had succeeded in creating the atmosphere of yester years.

Special mention should go to the fabulous cover of this book. Two reasons for purchasing the book were the fame of the story and the cover. And I was not disappointed.

A good book. Recommend reading.

A short life of Shri Ramakrishna by Swami Tejasanand

"A short life of Shri Ramakrishna" by Swami Tejasanand. Actually this book is the life of Shri Ramakrishna in short, not his short life.

Author has covered life of Gadadhar and then his transformation to Shri Ramakrishna in 132 pages.

Born in brahmin family, he started taking steps to break rules of casteism in 1845, at the age of 9. Ramakrishna, as you all know, was a yogi and tantrik of highest order. He was a supreme bhakt of Kali and Ram.

The book gives details of his attaining samadhi on number of occasions, how he used to talk to mother Kali, people he  encountered, people he learned from, his male disciples (this includes Narendra Nath alias Swami Vivekanand), his female disciples etc.. Actually the book gets boring later on.

It is obvious from the writing that the author is in awe of Shri Ramakrishna. It is also apperent that the author is more a disciple than a writer. Writing does not follow timeline. Author goes back and forth on a couple of occasions.

Although this book has very little literary value, one may read it to understand the life of great yogi, his philosophy and his teachings.

Wikipedia may give a crash course on life of Ramakrishna in fewer words. Avoid this book.