Book Review : The Palace of Illusions, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Having loved and sped-read the The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra, The Palace of Illusions was one of my impulsive purchases in the book genre.

BOOK : The Palace of Illusions

AUTHOR : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

PUBLISHER : Picador
RELEASE DATE:  JANUARY 2008
MY RATING:  3.5/5

PROBABLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

MY THOUGHTS:

The "The Palace of Illusions", is a rendition of the age old epic "MahaBharat" rather it would be apt to say, an individualistic take on the saga by Panchali.

It is definitely grappling - yet i am partially biased towards Chitra's first book : "The Forest of Enchantments". 🙈

For starters, I found heavy resemblance in the narration style between the two. I am not condemning it, but the truth be told, it was the style of her writing that had gotten me excited to buy this copy, but unfortunately the same, couldn't keep me grooved till the end.

I must admit, I did struggle to finish!

Draupadi's character was surprisingly a vociferous yet an alluring one - the story of Draupadi as narrated by her : the fire born princess, born to alter the paths of history, a plus one who appeared with her brother Dhristadyumna from the sacrificial fire.

What follows is a notable transformation from a curious and rebellion child to being a fine queen and finally an ardent wife who accompanies her husbands in their ultimate, final adventure - Mahaprasthan : the path of great departure.

What I loved in both her books is how poignantly, she portrays the desire for love by the female protagonist making it a cathartic read - the plethora of emotions, is sure to take you on an emotional whirlwind.

Draupadi's strange empathy for Karna throughout the story telling is infectious - how she thought about him time and again, how the mere memory of Karna agitated her, how gratified she felt when she secretly found that Karna desired her - this despite, knowing it was a form of betrayal for a wife and Karna was the forbidden one.

The story revolves around Love, one which was gotten and the other which was desired yet unfulfilled - this was the dichotomy of Draupdi's life.

If what she felt for Karna was incineration, Krishna's love was like a balm, a gift which was with her throughout her difficult journey.

Her protective bond with her brother was also something worth a mention - right from the time when they stepped out the ceremonial fire and he didn't let go of her even as she stumped - Dhri had her back till his last!

The story revolving around these four characters in various phases of her life, kept me secretly wishing for more, especially her incomprehensible equation with Krishna.

You had rather be forced to think - was she wrong in pursuing her urge for vengeance for all the humiliation she faced, her hardships time and again?

"A situation in itself is neither happy nor unhappy. It's only your response to it that causes your sorrow."

With each of the events happening in her life, she would try to comprehend if in some way, was she changing history?! The prophecy of her meant to change history was deep rooted in her, that many a times - her decisions, her actions were tending to give away the gusto of the story line.

Despite her husbands taking other wives - her loyalty, faithfulness, devotion, companionship to her husbands was extolling. She had to forgo a lot in the process, my question remained as to why was she the only wife who stood behind them like a rock till the Mahaprasthan - the story alluded on the fact she wanted to keep her authority over her five husbands or maybe it was to satisfy some unknown selfish ulterior motive?

Chitra, successfully pulls off the narration of the eighteen day long war - quite some content there, although I wished Chitra would have covered more nuances from Arjun-Krishna gyaan sessions. Despite having waited for this day of vindication - Draupadi with each passing day unearthed the horror of the war which by no means was less than an avalanche - every single person who she cared was part of it and was present on the field.

With a lot at stake and even more to loose - Draupadi realised the nerve-wrecking havoc!

At the end, I still wonder, if the war was worth it - had the roots of this war been sowed from the time Pandavas and Kauravas were just children? Or did all the sequence of events happen because somewhere, someone had already written the screenplay and all these people were just the mere pawns to the director - everyone playing their part to perfection?

As Krishna said, he was the doer and Draupadi the instrument.

"The life that you're living today is only a bubble in the cosmic stream, shaped by the karma of other lifetimes."

The sequence and the flow of the events is good, Chitra sticks to the original plot, but the unimaginable twist of Karna : Draupadi - makes the story riveting. It does help in gaining a lighter perspective into this remarkable era. 

"Time is life a flower."

The book without a doubt strikes a chord - deemed as one of Chitra's best-sellers- if you are looking for some zinger in mythology - do give this book a read!! 

My suggestion - try one of the below books:

The Forest of Enchantments

Read my review below:

The Forest of Enchantments

The Palace of Illusions

The review is not in any way plagiarised from any other source, it is solely my hard work put into creating the content - except few excerpts from the book picked for citation. It is a narrative of my views - folks are more than welcome to agree or disagree with the above review.