shwetha jadav

This book took me back in time, I was born in the same town as the author and like him, have been fascinated with the land and its history. Vijayanagara empire was said to be the golden era, very prosperous, rich and in the late 15th and early 16th century the world around that we knew wanted to be part of this richness and wanted a share in its prosperity and every one wanted to create wealth by coming here. It was also a time when Abrahamic religions were trying to claim their superiority over each other. While the religious leaders, kings and queens had their own selfish agendas, did the common people benefit from it? Did it bring them prosperity, wealth, happiness and more importantly love? Well, you must be wondering how is wealth and religion connected to love! But is it not? isn't it the basis on which families decide whether love is legit? That brings us to this beautiful story of land, culture, religion, kings and queens, the priest, rabbi, purohit and imam, tejo the river in Portugal and tungabhadra the river in Vijayanagara and Mandovi the river in Goa. The love story of common people. The religion of the common people. The author has brought forth the bare emotions that drives every human to the forefront. Love. Love for each person is different. Some are driven by love towards another person and some driven by love for adventure and some driven by love for religion and some for success and recognition and some for wealth and superiority. Ultimately we realise that it is ourselves that we love that drives us to do things. His book gives us a sneak peek in to the lives of common people during this time period and how religion influenced and motivated people in their everyday life. The small details like how eating habits and the food of the region can sometimes bring people together or drive them in opposite direction. At the end it brings us to a point of realisation that we can remain rigid in our ways and perish or accept that there are multiple perspectives and my truth is different from another person's truth but in the end every person is correct in their thoughts as per them. This is how our world has shaped and changed across centuries and the country that we know and live is influenced by many religions, culture, languages, food and we continue to change. This book is not a love story between two people but story of love towards everything and everyone. Read it and be transported to an era of adventures.

Saksham Garg has put together important and difficult aspects very simply in this book. It comes across as a very straightforward mythological fantasy fiction but deals with very important lessons that mankind will never learn, such as 1. God created living beings but Man created religion and further castes and communities to divide and rule for their own selfish motives 2. When i said god created living being, it includes nature in it's entirety. We share this earth with them but we have forgotten and will soon or already suffer it's consequences 3. Humans became superior because of their intelligence and they manipulated everything because of that 4. The only way to save ourselves and this world is by understanding that everything works when in balance and too much of anything or misuse of resources will soon destroy us Now coming to the spiritual and fantasy 1. The seven lives that each soul has and united consciousness is something that as Hindus we believe to be true and is matter of fact, at least for me. I believe our body is a dress and we chose our life and people in it to learn the lessons that we are meant to. 2. The Madhu or elixir of life and Pandayam tal is surely something that is there on this earth and yet to be discovered and I truly hope we don't otherwise we will be the agressors of Pandora in Avatar 3. The Atma Yog or Three eyed raven from GOT is something that our tantrics do on a regular basis and can also be metaphorically used to state that in deep meditation you can reach anywhere Finally for someone like me who loves fantasy, fiction and mythology, this book was an excellent amalgamation. It was a very easy and quick read and surely can't wait for the next one.