Cowherd. Visionary. Immortal..maybe not.

Book Review: Govinda by Krishna Udayasankar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We always seem to think that stories that are passed on from one generation to the next, are all the same. But in reality, each story teller adds or substracts certain things to the story, giving it individuality, making it new and yet retaining the age old essence.

This book I think, is just that. A rendition of the age old story of Krishna and Mahabharata in a new dimension that would suit the temperament of the young generation. The generation that has easy access to all the information in the world but are seldom served the history of their own land in a logical way. It is for those who want to question everything around them, even things that are passed on as myths and mythology in our society and therefore above reasoning.

Govinda is not a book for those who believe Krisha to be the Immortal God. It is a story of a mortal cowherd with an extra-ordinary intellect. A visionary.

Being the debut novel of Krishna Udaysankar, traditionally, one would give leverage to certain flaws. But that is where the reader might make a wrong presumption.

When I read the book, I too began keeping in mind that this was after all written by a first timer. But surprise awaited me at every turn of the page. The book does not come across as the first-time attempts of a novice at all. It is the work of a researcher, a scholar who surely seems to have rigourously sifted through buried ancient manuscripts, some legible, some difficult to decipher, and presented to us the readers, a very thorough and precise glimpse of the times of Aryavarta. She is a master story teller, because she has her facts correct, which unquestionably have been gathered after much toil and perseverence.I eagerly look forward to what she puts on our plate with her next work.

This book is history, myth, fiction, thriller, and all in all a very logical and consistent narrative. Read if you want to know the what and why of the tale we know as Mahabharata.



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