The first book in the Ram Chandra Series, The Scion of
Ishvaku is a retelling of the Indian epic - Ramayana - by Amish Tripathi. An alumnus
of St. Xavier’s, Mumbai and IIM-C, Amish began his career in finance, working
his way up through a multitude of top-notch banks, for over 15 years, before he
chose writing as a career. The success of his books can be alluded not only to
his impeccably well researched and framed stories, but also to phrenic, adroit
and ingenious marketing schemes (characterizing the pedagogy of his alma
mater), which helped him publicize each book, ensuring its success. Amish
Tripathi is the recipient of numerous revered awards, such as the Raymond
Crossword Popular Fiction Award for this very book, the Dainik Bhaskar Readers
choice award.
The story begins with King Dasharatha, invincible till his
defeat at the hands of Raavan. On the same day, Ram is born, thus casting upon
his the grim shadow of misfortune. It follows with Ram and his brothers’
childhood and tutelage, surrounded by politics, him overcoming the dark shadow upon
him, and his accession to the throne. Ultimately, the book concludes with Ram’s
fourteen year exile and the kidnapping of Sita.
The salient feature of Amish’s books is that his elucidation
sets the epic in an ancient yet surprisingly modern world. All the magic and
mystique we’ve known as kids is adduced as science and technology. Case in
point is Raavan’s legendary Pushpak Vimaan that is his flying chariot, by which
Sita is kidnapped. We imagine it to be a horse carriage, driven by flying
horses (often ones with wings, like pegasi), as per our Grandma’s tales.
However, Tripathi’s version depicts it as a helicopter, simplifying the picture
with logic. Similarly, the famed Brahmastra, an egregious weapon that
devastates the target land and its surroundings for seven generations, is
basically a nuclear weapon. Our beloved Lord Ganesha, bestowed by Shiva with
the head of an elephant, and the talking vulture Jatayu, who lost his life attempting
to rescue Sita, are both Nagas, who are people born with genetic mutations and
possess cancerous outgrowths, making normal humans look like a mix of animal
and man.
The book makes us realize that all of our latest inventions
and discoveries, largely by foreign scientists and researchers, have been an
integral part of ancient Indian history. In a sense, it is a lost science, akin
to Ayurveda, lost beneath the folds of language and time, setting back the work
by millennia.
It is time for all Indians to jump onto the bandwagon that
is Amish’s books, forged in a furnace of knowledge, faith and logic. They’re a
reminder of what we have been and where we could be, inspiring us to develop
and reach India’s true potential.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete