Book review: The Palace of Illusions

It's funny how one's perspectives on the same stories change as one grows up. Such is the case with the Mahabharata and me. What I regarded as a simple fairy tale of good vs. evil as a naive child, morphed, as I grew up, into one of the most complex and fascinating epics of all time where every character is an interesting web of many shades of gray, where circumstances drive good people to do terrible things and where ends often justify the means. My favorite character in the epic also changed with me: Yudhishthira: the upholder of truth when I was a child, Arjuna: the handsome warrior in my teens and eventually, Karna: also a great warrior, equal or better than Arjuna in fact, courageous, very generous and yet showered with one tragedy after another throughout his lifetime and finally cursed that he would be killed ruthlessly at his most helpless hour.

If you grew up in India, it is nearly impossible for one to not know at least the basic the story of the Mahabharata. Almost every other kid in my generation had at least read the Amar Chitra Katha version of this great epic. I had never given much thought to one of the central characters in the epic - Draupadi - until I picked up The Palace of Illusions on my trip to Peru last year. This book is a retelling of the Mahabharata from Draupadi's perspective, in first person.

The book portrays Draupadi as a multi-dimensional woman. She is intelligent, perceptive and yet flawed in very human ways: vengeful and proud all the same. She, the fire-born princess of Panchaal, was told of a prophecy when she emerged from the fire that she would change the course of history. However, she is forced into a lonely childhood by her circumstances and left to wonder whether the prophecy would ever come true. As destiny unfolds over the course of time, she finds herself facing difficult decisions time and again, often having to choose what "must be done" over her deepest desires.

I really liked the portrayal of the relationship between Draupadi and Krishna. At some level, Draupadi has an inkling that he is divine, but her rational, intelligent self questions this thought constantly and her conscious mind does not allow her to believe that readily. She returns to him for advice very often, though he never seems to give her a straightforward answer.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has done a brilliant job of capturing the essence of the Mahabharata through the eyes of Draupadi, albeit with some literary license. She's weaved in rather imaginative arcs of her own into the epic in very interesting ways. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't read it yet. So I won't mention any of it. Overall, I enjoyed the writing thoroughly. It's captivating. I couldn't put it down for the most part. Highly recommend it.

2010: A review

I've felt compelled to review 2010, especially because the year was not only mostly awesome but also significant in some ways. But every time I'd start writing something, five minutes later I'd just delete it all and go do something else. Some sort of writer's block....is what I would say if I was a.....writer! :-) So here goes, highlights of 2010.

Travel - We had an *EPIC* trip to Peru with friends. We hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu and I can confidently say that it was a trip of a lifetime. We started training for it a few months earlier, which led us to hike some very beautiful trails around the lovely PacNW. Our second week in Peru was spent at a rainforest. Not my most favorite thing in the world but came back with a lifetime of fun stories and memories. :-) Also took another Hawaii trip in December. It still is paradise. So travel and outdoor wise I'd say, the best year yet.

Fitness - I think I was probably in the best shape of my adult life in 2010. It was a combination of 3 things. First, the hikes. Second, I took personal training at the gym for a few weeks. Third, a lot of dancing. The combination of all three led to me getting in really good shape. I have slacked off since, but I know now that my body is capable of a lot more fitness than I thought earlier. Must pick up where I left off.

Life - Big changes on this front. I finally gave up my corporate career in the pursuit of my ideal life so to speak. A lot of different factors led to this - stress, passions, change in perspective/purpose, adopting minimalism and striving for it in my daily life (albeit in baby steps), wanting sanity in our daily lives. I think I've known this coming for a while subconsciously, but didn't have the courage to take the step earlier. I was also hacking together my exit strategy slowly and plans for the after(corporate)life. It was not very easy giving up a highly paid corporate career that I worked through 6 years of college for, believing corporate life to be my life's purpose. I struggled with this decision a lot, vacillated constantly and debated pros and cons endlessly. I was finally able to silence out the noise, prioritize what I really wanted and cross the bridge (with a little kick and a ton of support from my extremely awesome husband). Remains to be seen where I lead myself from here. But I'm happy. This opens up a world of possibilities.

Charity - Gave a lot of money to an organization in India that we believe does good work. This is the second time we've done this through Microsoft's Give Campaign. My husband's rationale is that if it doesn't visibly hurt your bank balance a little, it's not worth it. I agree. Sometime in the future, when I'm older, I would like to do more than just give money. But for now, this will have to do.

Other - The husband and I wrote a Windows 7 Phone application and actually shipped it. For a while we believed that we're not going to ever ship it, due to our work etc. taking priority at the time and slacking off from time to time. But we finally did it. This was a perfect segway for me into the non-corporate life, outside of my dance related pursuits. I loved working on the app. And I'm happy to say that as of writing this, we're very close to hitting about 900 downloads worldwide and have gotten a lot of feedback and feature requests. I hope we can make the time to keep updating it.

On another note, I completely slacked off on painting and piano in 2010. Will have to do something about this in 2011, even if it means learning just one new song or a single painting. On the positive side, I took up photography a little more seriously but have a long way to go. Plan to work on it some more this year.

Health - DEFINITELY tops the did-not-go-well list. I've been sick more times in 2010 than probably in the last ten years. Gotta do something about this.

So there it is. 2011 did not get off to a very good start for me. I was sick again for about a week and a half. But I'm slowly regaining my strength back. So I decided that my new year will start in Feb this year. :-) 

Contentment

I find that we humans are increasingly complaining more and more about pretty much everything. My computer doesn't do this.....my phone sucks at that....or something along the lines of  - what I really need is a laptop that can transform into a jet pack and transport me to the moon if I so wished.....and instantly get me some ice cream too! Why the hell wont my laptop do this NOW??! You get the idea...

I am guilty of this too but now that I am self aware, I'm making a very conscious effort to try and keep my complaining about what more I need to a minimum. We live in the age of instant gratification. Everything is a click away and there are infinite choices for pretty much any product. Consumers today feel more entitled than ever before. Companies naturally exploit that to the max. I don't blame them at all though, that's business for you, you have to make money somehow. Today's market is a million times more competitive than before and it only keeps getting worse with rampant consumerism. It's a chicken and egg thing after all. There's nothing right or wrong about it but it's tiring, very tiring when you take a step back and observe it from outside the circle.

Whatever happened to contentment? I understand there's a fine line between contentment and inaction. I once read a fortune cookie which made a lot of sense to me - "Discontentment is the first step in the progress of man". Of course, progress as we have come to define it. Given that we've evolved these huge ass brains, we just cannot say this is good enough forever with everything. We would die of boredom. I get that. But sometimes it really IS enough. Every once in a while it's good to draw a line and say, "I'm happy", then sit back and enjoy a cup of tea and watch the sun go down.

My devious immune system :-)

So I'm sick....for like the 3rd or 4th time in the last several months. Each time it's hit me hard too over these recent months. I got a bad case of the flu in 2009 for the first time in years (even though I had never taken a flu shot before that in my life), and had several pharyngitis/cold attacks and one laryngitis attack (which was not fun I tell ya, especially right before the Peru trip). And it's not been like a light cough/cold that goes away within 3 days of tried and tested natural grandma remedies like it used to be before. Now, my husband comes from a family of doctors, and really good ones too. So naturally our conversations go something like this:

Husband: Let's get you started on meds right away. It's a light cough right now but you're gonna get fever if you let it be for another day.

Me: No way. I've had this before and not made such a big deal about it. It will go away in two days. Just you watch.

[If you knew me well, this would make more sense to you. I run away from medicines like the plague ....unless I feel like I'm about to die. This doesn't bode very well for my (ahem) stubborn self, you know, since I'm married into a family of doctors. :-)]

Husband: I'm telling ya, better kill it now than suffering for more days.

Me: No...just let me be. It will go away. Trust me.

[Two days later, with my condition worsened and me feeling extremely weak]

Husband: I TOLD YOU DIDN'T I? LISTEN TO A DOCTOR'S SON! You're taking meds right away whether you like it or not.

Me: Hmph. This hasn't happened to me in the last ten years.

Husband: Sure it has. Just happened 4 months ago and we had the same conversation! It only went away after you took the meds.

Me: [Grudgingly] Fine.

I swear, my immune system is having way too much fun picking sides with my husband these days. :) I wonder whether I simply need to do more to stay healthy as I grow older or that my higher stress levels at work got to my health over the last year and a half? I've also been in contact with a lot more sick kids over the last year and a half. Dunno. We'll see. Meanwhile, I'm gonna try to eat as healthy as I possibly can.