Frin-Ed

We’ll talk about the book later, let me first tell you how big of a fan I am of Amish! And the reason is the amount of efforts that is visible in his stories. His stories happen in their own universe, which carry both breadth and depth in them, with mysteries that give goosebumps when they are unfolded. I am always amazed by how much imagination this guy must have put while writing such big stories in such fine details!! And he also puts his philosophical ideas in them. If you’ve seen any interview of Amish, you’ll know that he has a scholarly knowledge in Indian mythologies. And I believe the philosophies he embeds in the his stories are a result of that long standing knowledge that comes from ancient Indian scriptures, which a lot of times deal with complex moral questions. I get a lot of new angles to view the contemporary world, every-time I go through Amish’s books.

Coming to the book itself, as you’ve already guessed, it’s the story of Raavan. It’s the 3rd book in the “Ram Chandra Series”, and in this series, for the first three books, Amish has taken an approach of a multi-linear narrative, which means telling independent stories about many characters and then defining a moment where all the characters come together. The first 2 books, “Ram” and “Sita” have been written in the same way, depicting the story of both the character from their childhood till the kidnapping of Sita by Raavan. “Raavan” also goes in a similar way, starting from his childhood, which very well defines his way seeing the world, till the kidnapping of Sita by Raavan.

While reading this book, there are instances where it caught my attention so much that I had to force myself to sleep because it was too late at night, and couldn’t wait to get up again in the morning to read things ahead. The events that occur, the plot twists, the mysteries that link the events and characters, all appeared like a TV series, with finer details to them. The story, of-course, takes place in fictional world of ancient India.

Talking about the characters, I was in love with both Raavan and his brother Kumbhakarna. The character of Raavan here is one of my favourite lead characters till date. There are a lot of stories where we see that people are good at first, but the something bad happens, and they become evil later on. What’s different I found in this book was that Raavan’s character was shown to be quite pragmatic, and towards evil from the start. And I really liked it being so, it didn’t sound cliche and gave me a feeling that he did what he liked.

I have already heard this before, and have felt it myself, that Amish’s books lack the character developments that we generally witness in stories. But, I believe while painting such a vast world with so many things happening in parallel, the character development angle can be overlooked a little. But yes, had it been there, stories would’ve felt a bit more realistic and relatable.

Talking about whether you should read the Ramchandra series in chronological order or independently, I believe you can read “Ram”, “Sita” and “Raavan” separately, and still understand most of the story. But to get a more immersive experience of multiple suspense building up and later on merging at a point, I’d recommend reading them in chronological order.