Book Review: The Ivory Throne

There has been a dearth of good readable Indian history books and The Ivory Throne helps fill that void. (Other eminently readable and lesser known Indian history books: 1857 by Vishnu Bhatt, Do and Die by Manini Chatterjee). Manu S. Pillai’s Ivory Throne is a fantastic book that chronicles the history of the kingdom of Travancore. To be frank, I only picked the book

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Book Review: Blood Red Sari

Part of South Asian Challenge 2013 Title: Blood Red Sari Author: Ashok Banker Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers ISBN: 978-93-5029-321-8 Pages: 283 Genre: Fiction Rating: 4 of 5 Reviewed for: Mysmartprice.com Ashok Banker is a name I have always associated with mythological re-tellings having read his Slayer of Kamsa, The Forest of Stories and The Seeds of War, finding a women centered thriller

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Of Serpents, Sacredness and Stories

This post is honored to be ‘The Spicy Pick of the Week’ at Blogadda.com My recent backpacking trip to Kerala turned out to be a religious, temple-visiting endeavor, mostly. The roving mind, story-seeking freak in yours truly noticed a very peculiar commonness in all the temples visited. Be it the temple of Krishna, Shiva, Ganesha, Kartikeya or Devi, two five

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