author: anand prakash
reading time: wasnt read in the metro but should be about 5-6 metro rides
valmiki ramayana is yes.. valmiki ramayana.. nothing new.. the same old story.. have heard and read the story umpteen times so there was not much new.. except that valmiki ramayana has a lot less hero worshipping… though it is still there… the author could not help himself looking at rama as god, although does not quite give him that status till the last page.. well a few discoveries was the absence of the lakshman rekha, sita’s everlasting suspicions of everyone’s ill intent towards her.. the obsessive sexual attraction being the root cause of everything wrong anyone has ever done in the ramayana, hanumana’s lifting and carrying a small part of the hill and not the whole hill etc etc… the already established fact that rama was self obsessed, proud, arrogant and absolutely not the ideal man has been reconfirmed… only in much more human terms…
favourite quote: none
final analysis: boring if you have read the story before… if you havent, you’ll find it similar to a history textbook.