The Tara Trilogy is a
brand new series which is a combination of Hindu mythology, a modern
plot and spooky stuff. The leading protagonist is Tara, a girl of age
unknown to us, and Suraj, Tara's brother. The story begins on the
night of Diwali. Their
evil step-mother Kali slaps Tara for stealing ladoos
to
feed a starving Suraj. Basically the background of this story is that
Tara's mother Parvati and grandfather Prabala (healer of the village)
leave the village because of some unruly rumors, leaving Tara and
Suraj alone. Their father, Shiv marries Kali (now their step-mother).
Kali tortures Tara and Suraj, beats them up and starves them. Tara
has half a mind to run away from home.
This
book is really interesting and every chapter is equally exciting. The
sentences are easy to understand and each sentence is a small burst
of excitement which makes you want to read on.
One
day a man named Zarku shows up; he wears a black robe and has a
spooky third eye. Zarku persuades the village Panchayat
and
takes the place of the village healer. Zarku calls himself the best
healer in all of India, but Tara can see through this healer and she
can see evil. While roaming the village market Tara can see a huge
crowd gathered around a dead Vetala. This book is really scary in the
chapters including the Vetalas and fights with them. Vetalas are
monsters that have appeared in the Kelsar forest, they are bodies of
decaying green flesh, have a gash in their forehead which oozes black
liquid and their insides are black, and their feet turn at a 180
degree angle.
One
night Tara, on the way to the temple alone, overhears her step-mother
Kali and another unknown person talking about murdering her and
Suraj! Tara makes up her mind to escape at dawn with Suraj to the
Kelsar forest despite the grave danger. They are not aware that a
black cobra is following them. One night Suraj falls ill and Tara
prepares a medicine for him but it does not help, and the next
morning Suraj is gone, presumed dead. Tara walks on searching for
Suraj when she reaches a temple.
If
you thought the book was interesting so far, this is the part where
it starts getting really exciting. The problem is that the middle of
the book is so exciting that the climax seems boring compared to
these middle chapters. I am not going to give away the plot but I
will lead you up to it.
Tara
quickly hides when she sees a sobbing Zarku holding a silver anklet
and talking about his mother! As soon as Zarku talks about finding
and killing Prabala, Tara shouts out to Zarku. When Zarku grabs Tara
and slams her against a tree, the silver anklet falls into Tara's
kurta pocket. Zarku tries to open his third eye to burn Tara but
cannot as she now has the protective silver anklet. Tara manages to
escape and later runs into Ananth, a boy whose father is dead and
mother was eaten by a tiger when she was going to perform Sati.
Together they embark
upon their journey once again. They need to find the water of life
and Prabala to save Morni (thier village) from Zarku's evil clutches.
The most exciting
chapter in the book is yet to come: the one including lord Yama and
the water of life. In some places it gets so scary that a shiver runs
down my spine. There are a lot of surprises and the book is filled
with adventure and chills.
Mahatab Narsimhan has
done a really good job giving mythology an engrossing modern plot.
Read it for a quick adventurous read. The only problem is that this
book answers all the questions, and by that I mean to say that if
this was a single book then it would have made no difference, as it
leaves no loose ends. Therefore, it doesn't really make you lunge for
the 2nd or 3rd book, which I am reading now by
the way. I am not sure if I feel like reviewing them.
There are a lot of Indian
references so you will need to already be familiar with Indian mythology to understand it.
