எண்ணங்கள்

 Author: M.S Udayamurthy

Genre: Self Help, Thoughts

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: An inspirational book for every day life and dealing with its challenges.

My father is a big fan of Dr. M.S Udayamurthy and his writings. We had 2 books at my home when I was growing up and I have heard my father talk about Udayamurthy a lot. When I watched the tamil movie "Unnal mudiyum thambi" and its hero is named after this author, I became more interested in reading his books. Unnal Mudiyum thambi is one of my all time favorite tamil movies. Most of Udayamurthy's books are about self improvement and character/personality development. This book provides a good insight into how our thoughts shape and affect our lives. The power of positive thinking, visualizing victories, how to remove fears from our minds and increase self confidence are all things we deal with on a day to day basis and it is a good reinforcement of "what we think we become". A very short one written in simple Tamil which makes it a quick read. 

China - Vilagum Thirai

Author: Pallavi Iyer

Genre: NonFiction, Cultural

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: The book has good content but the chapters felt disconnected and failed to keep up my interest. (May be the original English version might have been better)

I got this book from a friend during my last trip to India. I picked up this book for all the reasons except reading or knowing more about China as a country :) Yes, I didn't even read the foreword. I love short books, the color red and reading in Tamizh. This one checked off all those boxes. 

The book was written by Pallavi Iyer, a journalist who stayed in China for 5 years, travelled through all different parts of China and met with people from all classes of the society. The Tamil version was translated in Tamil by Raman Raja. The book documents Pallavi's experiences in China and provides insights into the country from an entirely different perspective. I love books that are not the usual travellogue types describing just the touristy places and take an entirely different approach to give interesting facts about the little known things that are unique to a country. Although I did not like the translated version as much, I enjoyed reading about the fact that there is no caste system, how the Marxist approach works and how the government operates. The chapter about SARS outbreak in China kept me hooked especially now when the world is battling Covid-19. At every chapter, I could not help but compare China against India.

Overall the book has great content but the translation didnt work well for me. I might have given this a higher rating if I had read the original one in English. 

Book: Parthiban Kanavu

Author: Kalki Krishnamurthy
Genre: Tamil historical fiction, classics
Verdict: A beautiful imagination and fast-paced classic by Kalki!

My fondness for the Tamizh language and anything and everything in Tamizh started from my childhood. All thanks to my father. Whenever I read anything in Tamizh, I recall with a heavy dose of nostalgia my childhood days learning thirukkural, bharathiyar kavidhaigal and loads of other tamil books. Sadly, I have lost touch with it ever since I went to college. This year I am making an honest attempt to read as many Tamizh classics I can. My introduction to that was Parthiban kanavu. I am not going to review it here as I don't think its justice in any form to review this fantastic novel written by Kalki.

It was pure joy reading this book. Time just flies in this book - right from page 1. It makes you travel to the Chola-Pallava dynasty, you see the kings/queens through their birth, adolescence, love life and their ruling of the kingdom and the people. Though this is a fictional story, attributing the resurgence of the Cholas to a king's dreams who lived 300 years ago is exceptionally creative. Kalki's writing was so simple but the description of the scenes - be it war between the Cholas and the Pallavas or the romance between Vikrama Chozhan and Kundhavai - I could visualize every single scene and it made it so much more enjoyable. Now my urge to visit Mahabalipuram is even more stronger.  A true masterpiece by Kalki and a complete package. I can't wait to re-read this again!