The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

My earliest knowledge of the epic ~ Mahabharata comes what I saw on TV as a child. Come Sunday morning and every body in the house would be glued to their television sets watching the epic tale. I was too young to understand it all, the complexity of the plots and characters, the philosophy, the wisdom yet, I was always awe struck by what ever I could grasp and even today, if I think of Mahabharata, glimpses from the TV series comes flashing in my mind.

I am so glad that I could relive that experience in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Palace of Illusions though not in its entirety or fully, but in a new way, in a new perspective that added a multitude of dimensions to the legendary tale. Divakaruni chooses Draupadi also known as Panchali, to narrate the epic saga and that is the charm of the book. It is in fact a feminist interpretation of Mahabharata. Vibha had recommended me this book when I had set out a list of to read books and I am glad to have picked this up. Thanks a lot Vibha!

The novel traces Panchaali’s life, beginning with her magical birth in fire as the daughter of king Drupad before following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright. As she endures a fierce civil war, domestic power struggles, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, her love for her brother and the perils of attraction to elusive men, who also the most hated enemy of her husbands, Panchaali brings a feminine sensibility to her male-dominated world.


The novel is named after the palace which was built by the asura Maya for the Pandavas and Panchaali . Panchaali loved her palace and was proud of it.  It disintegrated when Duryodhana tried to claim it after the Pandavas had lost it in a game of dice to him. 


Though most of the story narrated comes from the legend tale, Divakaruni adds her imaginations and explores the mind of Panchaali. She gives insights to how she felt when she was born and was prophesied to be one to change the course of history, to bring about the greatest and the bloodiest war of all times. She tells us through this book, how she felt when she was humiliated in the Kaurava court and how the incident filled her heart with revenge and the vow she made at that time lead to the battle that wiped of the whole Kaurava clan and all those who supported them. Panchaali also reflects on her own actions, good or bad and even justifies them. I could sympathize with the character the author had painted of Panchaali and even could relate to her at some points. Divakaruni has very skillfully retold the story from the viewpoint of Panchaali adding her own twists and turns which made it even more enjoyable, refreshing and enlightening read. 


I would recommend it to anyone interested or not interested in Indian mythology. I am sure it will change the way you think about the epic ~Mahabharata.

Wordless Wednesday - Flowers

#11 Teaser Tuesday ~ The Palace of Illusions & Dear John

I have 2 teasers to share today. One is from The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and other one from Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. I have almost finished the first one and have started off with the later.

Here are the teasers:

From "The Palace of Illusions".

"Some people," she continued," thought he was going to die, but I had no such fears. Anyone who wanted revenge as badly as your royal father did wouldn't let go of body and breath so easily."

Page: 3

From "Dear John"

"I need that purse! Its got all my money in there!"

Page: 25

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Quotable Quotes from an old diary and Hobbies!

Did you persue different hobbies as a child? Have your hobbies changed over the years?

Mine has.

Some of interest have remained the same, some have developed further and some are quite forgotten. Reading is one of my many hobbies that has developed over the years and others have changed a lot with time. Apart from reading books, drawing and sketching is another thing I still do sometimes even today. One of my first serious hobbies was gardening, but it was gone by the time I reached 10th standard. I was neck deep into my studies and did not even realise when I had stopped tendering my little terrace garden. I still desire to do a bit of gardening but now I don't  have the space in my apartment.

Then, I took interest in stamp collection. I was inspired from younger brother and maternal uncle. But, soon there were competition and quarrels! What can you expect when kids in the same house are after the same thing. Well, I gave up and my brother inherited what ever little I had.

Listening to music was also an interest and is still there. But, I never call it a hobby.These days I have taken to cooking and baking, it was something I had never dreamt I would be interested in.  Another of my unsusal hobby was to collect quotations. That, I think was more prominent when I was in college. I loved collected quotes on different subjects - inspirational ones topped the list. When ever I found one either in a book or a magazine, I would just jot it down in my diary. But, this interest was also short lived.

Well! You must be thinking why am I talking about all this now. Actually, I happened to open my old diary today and found so many nice quotes, that I thought of sharing it here. Some are profound and some are plain 'gyaan ki baatien'.

Here are a few ~

" I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives in. I like to see a man so live that his place is proud of him".

-Abraham Lincoln

"To err is human, but to repeat the same mistake is foolishness."

- Unknown

" I am not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for Perfection is God's business"

- Micheal J Fox.

" Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labours is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatality in being able to fail in so many different ways."

-Samuel McChord Crothers.

This one I have always found my intriguing, but I think I have never been able to actually understand what it means!

" The knowledge that you can have is inexhaustible... The knowledge that you cannot have is of the riddles of birth and death, of our future destiny and the purpose of God. Here there is no knowledge, but illusions that restricts freedom and limit hope. Accept the mystery behind knowledge; it is not darkness but shadow."

- N FRYE

Do share your thoughts and your hobbies and if they have chaged over the years. It will be fun to know how things change with time.

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

I am sure those who have read 'The Curious Case of the dog at the night time' by Mark Haddon must have added 'A Spot of Bother' by the author in their TBR list. I too had and that's why I picked it up from the library as soon as I spotted it.

The story starts with George Hall, a rather quiet man who has retired from his work and is looking forward to a comfortable, quiet life. But, things does not go as per his wishes and expectations. George is hypochondriac and hence when he notices a leison on his hip while trying out a suit in a shop, he is certain that it is a symptom of the onset of cancer. He ignores the doctor's diagnosis of eczema and get sets to put things right himself by doing a self surgery, by cutting the flesh with a pair of scissors! Well, things are bound not to go his way and he nearly acts like a mad man.
But, that is not the only thing going wrong in George's life. His wife, Jean is courting his ex- colleague and is contemplating on leaving George. Also, his divorced daughter is going to tie the knot with his boy friend, Ray, who is not very much liked by her family. On top of all this, his son Jamie who is a gay is deciding on going public about his sexual orientation, much to the embarrassment of the the family. All this adds to the trauma of the old man and he has panic attacks every now and then.

There are so many plots in the novel but it all culminates to a rather long and monotonous story. Why? Because, the characters are so poorly sketched, they seem very unreasonable, unnatural, absurd at times and even selfish. Through out the novel, George seemed to be having a pathetic time, yet I could not bring myself to empathise with him, coz the whole act seemed very fake and artificial. The writing style lacked poise and warmth. There are 140+ chapters in this 592 paged book, some of them as short as one page. I could not understand why the book was formatted in that why, it didn't make it an easy read for me. There were some points when, things seemed amusing and funny, but soon you would get something equally nonsensical and absurd that things will be squared off. I particularly did not like the way the novel ended.  I was expecting something more sensible, more reasonable after going through the 592 pages (skipping a few pages in between), but was dissappointed with a rather rushed upon end. The characters did not seem to have learnt a lesson from the turn of events in their life and still, as fate might have it, things worked out smoothly for everybody finally. I could not figure out the reason behind that. After giving the story such a slow and rather detailed build up, Haddon could have ended the story more pragmatically

After having enjoyed Haddon's The Curious Case of the dog at the Night Time', I was looking forward to a similar experience in 'A Spot of Bother'. But it turned out to be a big let down for me.