The Big Book Blog

            Every land has a story to tell. Everybody is a story by themselves and it takes a good observer to ponder the less explored magnificent secrets of the lives we have seen. Author Manu S. Pillai, on that account, has succeeded in giving a very intense and descriptive narration of the history of Kerala, the lesser-known secrets of Travancore royal family, and the women who owned the throne.  The book Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore begins by introducing the history when Vasco da Gama set foot in Kerala. Travancore as the principal subject in the book begins with the rise of Martanda Varma. There is a brief narration of Ravi Varma’s growth as an artist, followed by the journey of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and her cousin Sethu Parvathi Bayi (granddaughters of Raja Ravi Varma), who were adopted by the royal family to become senior and junior maharanis respectively, in order to continue the royal lineage as per Kerala’s matrilin...

  We say time is the only resource that is distributed equally to everyone. Time does not show any partiality or discrimination. History can be said to be the time our world has once gone through. Around 13.5 billion years ago the big bang happened and the universe started expanding. That must be history.   The evolution of homo sapiens and ancient civilisations are also history.   But, what about a year or a month ago? What about yesterday or each passing moments of our life? Is that history or mere past? When history and fiction are mixed in the right proportion, great things happen. It could be a book, a movie, a poem or even a painting. We spent an evening discussing about these things. Our session started with the discussion on ‘Caging Skies’ by Christine Leunens. The novel tells the story of a boy who is a member of ‘Hitler Youth’ during World War II and has Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend. The film ‘Jojo Rabbit’ was adapted from this book. Then ...