" As long as Man continues to walk upon Earth, the story of Rama shall be chanted..."
This statement hold true as there has been various interpretations of the great epic like Amish Tripathi's Scion of Ishvaku and Devdutt Pattanaik's Sita. Reenita Malhotra Hora follows the same path and retells Ramayana is a new perspective through When Arya Fell Through Fault. The story is about an Indian family settled in San Francisco. The protagonist is Arya, a 12 year old buy who is subjected to bullies by his peers for his ethnicity. Through the beautiful relationship between Arya and his Ma, Ramayana is introduced as the bed time story narrated to Arya by his mom. Arya's Ma, a true devotee and follower of Indian traditions believes in upholding our moral and cultural values without forgetting our roots. The story takes a turn when one of Arya's mischievous act pushes his Ma to a state of coma. with no hopes let for her recovery, Arya is left devastated and an earthquake in San Francisco results in Arya falling in a fault where he has to relive the epic Ramayana once again, as Rama. While Lord Rama had to fight the demon king Ravana for Sita with the help of Hanuman and the vanarasena or ape army, Arya fights the demon king for the copy of Ramayana which Ravana steals to destroy and wipe off the epic forever. What happens next forms the rest of the story.
This book starts off as a normal one and takes a drastic turn once the protagonist falls through the fault. A new fantasy world is introduced to us where Arya takes up the super hero role, the chosen one (too filmy, as it reminded of many Tamil and Telugu super hero films) to fight the demon king for safeguarding the vanaras. The fight turns personal after a stage where Ravana steals his Ramayana to destroy it once and forever. This battle guided by Guruji and aided by the vanaras turnout to be a self realisation process for Arya - a life changer indeed.
The end was not as I expected it to be and I am glad for that. This is a light bed time read which can be finished in one go.
