The Immortal India - Book Review

The book was released on 28th August 2017 and I had it in my hand the next day. That's the impact of his books on me. And even this is a non-fiction book, I cannot resist myself from ordering it on Amazon.

This book basically contains articles and speeches by Amish that were published in newspapers and journals. It also contains debates and talks that he gave in various lit festivals which he keeps on attending as he likes having interaction with readers. We met too, Amish Sir !! Perhaps you won't remember. But we did when you came here with Sanjiv Sanyal for the book launch event. It was in the last year.

Before I start discussing the book, let's have a look at the trailer.

Now, the book is divided into four parts

Religion & Mythology
Social Issues
History
Musings

1. Religion & Mythology

This section is my favourite. In this section, Amish starts with Lord Shiva - The God of contradiction.
Explores questions like Why people think He is cool? Or why some call Him dude of Gods. Then he discussed Lord Ram's path and also the reason behind writing the Ram Chandra series before Mahabharat. How there are different aspects of His life and how He struggled with His personal life in making the kingdom an ideal one. I'm not yet good with terms like liberalism, extremism and such others. So whenever such topics come in the book I don't read it much in the depth and quickly move on to the next page. Anyway, some more articles cover Indian mythology, The purpose of God, and some great lines from Bhagvadgeeta. Also, the way society should view women today by reinterpreting deeply held religious beliefs. Now, if you ask me what my favourite article was, I would say it's The masculine/feminine way & other questions. Whenever he talks about the two different ways of living I love it. It's 4 years since I read about this first time in Immortals of Meluha and since then I have been fascinated by his idea of the same. The final articles cover the ending of the Shiva trilogy and the reason why he chose that ending. He had another ending in his mind and maybe sometime in the future, he'll release that ending. I hope it's soon.

Umm, about social issues, I'm not sure whether I should write that. I better leave that part.

3. History

The section starts with The Myth of Aryan invasion theory and then Amish starts describing where youngsters are actually heading or are rebellious (rebellious!! sounds like a spell from harry potter ) nature of theirs good for India?
Then he quickly shifts to the history of Mumbai. Discussion on British Bombay and today's Bombay and what needs to be improved in today's Mumbai. Then he goes on encouraging the youth of today in May Shakti be with you before finishing the section on his thoughts on Vedic Learning and Wajid Ali Shah-The Virtuoso.

4. Musings

This covers more of his personal life, like what motivated him to write and what problems he faced before finally accepting a full time writing as a career. Nevertheless, there are important lessons ahead. There are 4 articles -
1. Why I write
2. Science, spirituality & my son Neel
3. The three wise women
4. A patriotic manifesto.

The first part is his talk in Jaipur which I watched a year ago. You can watch it here - Why I write.
The second article talks about his son's influence on him.

The three wise women are his mother,his sister and his wife who guided him in his life . Important lesson -

Never hesitate to try something. Why let the fear of failure prevent you from attempting something new? And most importantly,if you are doing something for yourself,who the hell cares what the world thinks?

The final topic of the book is Swadharma - purpose. At its simplest, the concept is this: that you must discover your purpose, your swadharma, and live it; for only then will you find the true achievement and personal happiness. Overall we saw a different side of Amish in his first non-fiction book. Of course not as exciting as his other books but still worth reading. Looking forward to Raavan - The orphan of Aryavarta now.

Check all the books by Amish using the links below.

(Disclosure - Below mentioned links are affiliated links. It means that if you decide to buy using one of these links, I get a small commission. Rest assured, I only recommend products that I believe in and have personally tried.)

Shiva Trilogy Books

Immortals of Meluha - https://amzn.to/3cAqCTo

The Secret of Nagas - https://amzn.to/2Q5CVje

The Oath of the Vauputras - https://amzn.to/3viMnjg

Ram Chandra Series Books

Scion of Ikshvaku - https://amzn.to/3qKXyxB

Sita - Warrior of Mithila - https://amzn.to/3tmJlsK

Raavan - Enemy of Aryavarta - https://amzn.to/2NhaLRa

Indic Chronicles

Legend of Suheldev: The King who saved India - https://amzn.to/3elr6wn

Non-fiction

Dharma: Decoding the Epics for a meaningful life - https://amzn.to/37EdTg8