richa mittal

As I held The Crown of Seven Stars, its striking black jacket depicting a glamorous golden royal turban embellished with an aigrette set with seven gleaming green emeralds, I did wonder who wears this crown in the story. The thought spurred me to quickly unravel the answer. My first greedy big bite sent a hurried message to my brain that this was not to be read quickly but savored slowly because the descriptions of situations and scenes were languorously lucid and very aesthetically enjoyable. Gitanjali painted stunning scenery stroke by stroke with words. She chose her adjectives creatively – as “diaphanous mist” “burnished autumn”. The fights were so actively relayed that I could witness each blow to the man and his mount. The hero warrior’s love, respect, craving and care for his weapon established the inseparable intimate bond between the two. The changing terrains and weathers were communicated such that the reader traversed along. The antagonist is tough and leaves no vile vicious venom unused in her vendetta. The inter and intra, the within and without wars and struggles that loveable, inspiring, democratic, idealist, unassuming protagonist - Saahas fights are the ones most of us can associate with and that is how Gitanjali connects and holds the reader. The symbolism, the philosophical intonations conveyed through the names of characters raise the genre of the simple story to a philosophical exposition. The characters are well rounded, robust, and well fleshed out having both vices and virtues and how destiny makes puppets out of them is interesting to read. The story is a journey through life with dramatic ups and downs. The topography rings in ecological consciousness and the ingenious knowledge of tribals living in harmony with elements of nature – forests, soil, rivers and brooks and animals is lauded throughout. How greed and craving become the cause for downfall and how sacrifice, welfare of all and doing one’s duty selflessly can vanquish even destiny, is the leitmotif. After closing the book and keeping it back on the bookshelf I recall Gitanjali’s deft writing style, her incredibly detailed commentary of combat scenes and the way she builds up a battered broken woman to become an adroit agile warrior instead of wallowing in her sorrow. She has shown that women possess power and can achieve whatever they set out to achieve. Her woman is strong and not dependent on man, she, in fact, helps and supports the man. She has shown women power in both negative and positive roles. She leaves the reader with hope – men like Saahas – the virtue of courage can cruise across a deluge of sorrow, despair, hate, destruction, treachery and deceit successfully.