Book Review: The World’s Oldest, Most Powerful Secret Society by Anand Arungundram Mohan

The World’s Oldest, Most Powerful Secret Society by Anand Arungundram Mohan is a riveting fantasy novel that shuttles between two timelines. At the beginning of the novel, the story visits the King Ashoka’s kingdom. The author has re-instated that the king was inspired by the kingdom of Rama, hence he selected and sent nine men in search of great discoveries on communications, anti-gravity, time travel and much more. However, the startling truth is that those books were yet to be discovered or even if they got to be discovered well then it has to be done by very special and deserving class of people. Thus, all nine men took one another’s books and moved to hide those books in different parts of the world. From the same time, one man named Raza travels extensively to hide a book based on anti-gravity and he hides it somewhere in South India. This time is around BC era.

Fast forward, in 2006, nine children born in the same city – Hyderabad. They play and grow together. Unlike decent kids, they are rebels and love breaking the rules. Well one day, while playing cricket one of their friends Gopal dies instantly after being hit in the groin. Things change here after, the novel picks up speed and totally turns into an incredible fantasy, brims with missed adventure and magic and gossiping and children rivalry. After Gopal, eight children are left and they decide to bring back their friend. How and why… fills the rest of the narration. Pick up this book to know how did children get to a hidden book of anti-gravity and what next they have to grab to bring back Gopal and why were they so desperate to bring him back…is there any possibly back story or some dark secret.

As the story chugs ahead, the children take up the charge of the plot and it becomes unputdownable when they struggle for something amidst the new and unknown land of Pakistan. Will they be able to come back safely? Or what was the need arose that they had to go Pakistan without having permission and proper visas. How did they go there?

Keeping all the reins of narration lose, the novel turns out to be a great read without overlapping into each other’s sphere. The language is lucid with witty dialogues – overall it makes the story like a movie is going on before the eyes of readers. Despite some pitfalls the novel sounds so surreal yet fantastical in tone. It is a good effort by the author.

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog