The Secret Of The Nagas (Spoiler Alert!)

I finished reading the book yesterday. No, “finished” is not the right word. 'Devoured' is more like it. If I could, I would have loved to finish it in one sitting. It was that good.

It's not about just the characters – even though the author manages to make us see familiar characters from the mythology e.g. Shiva, Sati or Daksha, in a new light or makes fictional ones, like Ayurvati and Anandmayi, seem so believable that you actually forget that they are not part of the scriptures. It's also not about just the way he fuses well-known storylines with new twists. It's about the whole package. You know that a part of it is mythology and part is fiction. But the author has combined it so effortlessly that one cannot help but wonder 'could it have happened like this?'. If I remember right, the book's foreword does mention such being author's intention.

Now about the plot. Though it was not hard to figure out the Naga's relation to Sati, it came as a pleasant surprise when he turned out to be none other than the favorite Hindu deity – Ganesha. Wow! I didn't really see that one coming. So obviously, it was a surprise to find that the Naga Queen was Kali – who, as per Hinduism, is considered one of the many forms of Aadi Shakti. Cool!

That said, I have not grown fond of Anandmayi with her in-your-face display of her sexuality, totally uncalled-for. Somehow or other it has reminded me of the item numbers that the Hindi movies have taken to in order to spice up the offering. This trilogy could have done without her.

And my suspicions after reading the 1^st novel have come true – Brahaspati is very much alive. Okay, that one wasn't hard to figure out for anyone who has watched even a handful of Hindi movies. If you don't see the dead body, the bloke ain't dead :-)

Waiting to get my hands on the last part of the trilogy.....and hoping that the author gets inspired to start a similar project on the life of another favorite Hindu God. Yep, you guessed it! Krishna! :-)