BOOK REVIEW: THE FOREST OF ENCHANTMENTS by CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI

Ramayana: A fantastic Hindu mythological tale about the journey of the righteous king Rama from being the crown prince of Ayodhya to being banished into the forest for 14years, and then waging a war against the demon king Ravan ensuring that justice prevails and spread the message of the victory of goodness over evil.

There have been innumerable stories written on the virtuous life of Shri Ram extolling his achievements and the pious way he lived his life setting an example for leaders and kings for centuries to follow.

The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is yet one more retelling of this great tale. However, this time the story is written from the perspective of none other than Lady Sita, daughter of King Janaka and wife of Ram.

Although Sita has always occupied the space of great importance in the Ramayana, this book is unique in the sense that here, Sita is the main protagonist and we get to understand the Ramayana from her outlook. The most distinctive feature of this book is the manner that Divakaruni uses Sita's story to explain the startling and diverse forms of LOVE and our actions-reactions to this most-desired yet the most-complicated emotion!

We all believe love to be an all-encompassing feeling that alone can make our lives picture-perfect. How wrong are we in this thought process and even Sita realized it through her trials. One gem on this emotion that caught my eye in the story is, "Love, no matter how deep wasn't enough to transform another person: how they thought, what they believed. at best, we could only change ourselves."

Divakaruni has a divine gift wherein she has the ability to beautifully portray the varied gamut of emotions faced by Sita in her tumultuous journey of life bringing alive her decisions, her judgments, her feeling of despair, her joys, her loneliness, her fear, and the deep and true love for her husband.
Being a woman, a wife, and a mother, I could relate to Sita's feeling of helplessness and her righteous anger or should I say hurt on some of her husband's decisions that may be correct from the point of view of an honest and fair leader but are biased and unfair for the wife.

Why is it that the family of a conscientious man should always be the one to pay the heaviest price? Why can a just ruler not be able to balance duty and love?
Why should be always the female who has to be the one standing beside her husband in all his decisions irrespective of whether she approves it or not?
Why is the woman who has to make sacrifices in the name of duty towards her husband?
Why is it always the woman who has to prove her innocence time and again, just for the satisfaction of the male ego?

As Sita rightly said before she leaves her life on Earth to join the otherworld that when life tests us, we women should be able to stand steadfast and think carefully with our hearts and head when to compromise and when to say NO MORE.

Through this hauntingly soulful story, Divakaruni has given a place of prominence and a voice to the otherwise silent female characters who have been unceremoniously pushed to the edges of the Ramayana: Queen Kaikeyi, Queen Kaushalya, Ahilya, Surpanakha, Queen Mandodari, and last but not the least Urmila.

This book is a true feast for all book lovers and a must-read. Pick your own copy by clicking on the link below:
https://amzn.to/2EotgMp

I want to end this post using another of Divakaruni's definition of Love that says that love is like an ocean: unfathomable, astonishing, measureless, and of course, forgiving!

BOOK REVIEW : SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN by LISA SEE

CHINA: a country with the highest population( at one point of time), the country with the fastest moving economy( till recently), a country that cannot claim to be best friends with India, a country which is jinxed for Niraj( he fell sick both the times he went there...:)) ...So at least my family has no plans ever to visit China... Not that not being able to go to China ever bothered me... But now after reading The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, I want to go there once and visit the places See talks about in her story and meet the natives who would share with me their experiences and their long lost stories about those forgotten times....
See has written a beautifully poignant story of a young girl and how her life moves ahead with the changing times and situations....
Lily is a third child born into a family of farmers... She is an unwanted child as girls were considered worthless during that time by the Chinese...It was only boys who were desired and were supposed to seal a woman's fate in her husband's house and life. She craves for her mother's love and attention... This was the age of the acutely painful Foot Binding ( statistics claim that one out of every 10 girls died as a result of this inhuman practice) and Lily happily jumped into it, hoping to win her mother's love!! But it was not to be so as her mother was driven by her own demons and had her own motives and reasons for being the way she was!!!
She gets married and goes to live with her husband and his parents. Here, she learns how the other better half live and she quickly learns all the tricks and manners of the rich and soon becomes famous and admired and looked upon as Lady Lee...The mistress of the Lee household. But between her marriage and the fame and modesty and maturity she acquires is a journey full of doubts, jealousy, love, insecurity, ego, pain, suffering and regrets...
Lily and her laotong Snow flower...LAOTONG  meaning soul mates...Friends for life...One who is always there for the other...In deeds, in actions, in prayers, in laughter, in joy!!! And the secret women's language NU SHU... A language meant only for women.. an interesting method through which Chinese women shared their thoughts among themselves away from the prying eyes of men...
How interesting...I wish we had something like this too...We do have friends - some casual, some really close - our besties...Though we share everything with our besties it's nothing like the LAOTONG of that era. And imagine a secret language which only we women could understand and use...I am sure it would lead to a major revolution and an overhaul of power between men and women.. What say...Atta girls!!!!
Another thing which really attracted me and I found very different are the terms See uses to describe the various chapters in Lilly's life...like the Daughter Days which talks about Lily's childhood,Hair -Pinning Days which talk about her betrothal and her marriage, Rice and Salt Days to talk about Lily becoming a mother and her mommy days, and finally Sitting Quietly that talks about Lily in her last years when she has nothing but to look back into her life and remember all that took place in her life- shaping it the way it is now...
I loved the story and could relate to certain incidents so well that I literally got tears in my eyes.....
I would say yes to this book because it gave me a beautiful chance to have a rare glimpse into a life so far fetched from ours, yet so similar in many ways...
Awesome!!!