The book shows two stories—one happening in modern world, while the other already happened in the past. Mrinalini, an art restoration expert, goes to Sumangarh for her work, and fells for the charm of the ruins and history of the place. During one of her exploratory walks in the ruins, she discovers a skeleton and Daniel’s diary, the account of a Portugese artist who lived during the reign of Akbar. The story then moves through Mrinalini’s search for relationship, and Daniel’s search for passion penned in his diary.

people who like to glimpse the Mughal History.

1) Mughal Era’s story- Let me confess you that I love that era. If you ever gave me a time machine, I’d like to go and see how those people lived. I think I have a love-hate relation with Jodha-Akbar’s story. I never could understand how an immortal love could thrive between them when he had so many wives. But then, that’s what reels me in. I have devoured literature about them to understand this concept, and this book was no different. I’m not very sure about the history portrayed is correct or not; I read it like another story, like any other fiction.

2) Diary entries- My second fascination in literature is diary entries and letters. This book was no exception to it. I absolutely loved Mahamaya and Chhimiya in it. Pity they appeared in the last and few pages! My favorite scene was the moth scene in which the romance rises to a crescendo.

1) Head-hopping telling style of the story- I can see why this style was necessary to condense the story in 359 pages, but I didn’t enjoy the way Mrinalini’s present day story was told. I felt distanced as the sentences jumped from one character to another, without showing any dialogue. This style was once quite famous, but it robs all the joy of even a strong story for me.

2) Diary Entries- I know I mentioned that I liked them above, but I can like and unlike the same thing, right? My love for diary entries means that my expectations with them are quite high. I loved the way author showed slow wooing and anguish of Jodha-Akbar in these entries, but missed seeing more of Daniel. Although it was a diary of Daniel, much of its beginning entries revolved only around the Mughal Emperor’s story. I’d have loved them more if they’d been like the later entries which I read twice or thrice.

3) Incredible Present story incidents- There were a few incredible story scenes with Mrinalini which actually made me laugh. I could see the reason why they were introduced, but they were so filmy that I couldn’t help myself but laugh.

call the author and ask her to check her historical facts.

bored. Too much telling grated on my nerve.

needs to understand that dialogues are important too. Only story cannot involve the readers.

it has Mughall love story in it. Even though not entirely correct, it's interesting.

it has a narrative style which goes on and on for pages.

I wonder if it was me, or the book really. I liked the story that was in the book, but not the present which was telling the book. As I said above, I felt distanced from the present story characters like Mrinalini and Surajsinh. It left me with an odd dissatisfaction that something more should have been shown in the story.

But, my views aside, Ketan Mehta, a veteran filmmaker, has actually appreciated the novel. It does show the glimpses of that bygone era. Probably it’s my taste for more active novels, or maybe my high expectations, which left me thirsting for something more. Who knows maybe we’d see its narrative turned into a movie.

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Created Mar 31, 2014 at 9:18pm • Submit your own review...