Saturday, September 18, 2010

Sea of poppies

front cover image

The current state of our nation being as it i now-a-days, This particular book is really a throwback to the forgotten era which marked sprouting of a concept  of modern Indian nation.File:British Indian Empire 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India.jpg

I was really mesmerized by “The Glass House”. Another novel where the action happens across multiple continents and the backdrop is the intertwined histories of Brahmadesh and India. In the ” Sea of Poppies” though the scale is comparatively smaller, Amitav puts the same amount of efforts and research  and brings out yet another fascinating facet of Indian seamanship as well as the whole movement of indentured labor from India flowing across the then British globe.

The tale unravels slowly and takes us through a journey of Afim trade with China, fertile Gangetic planes lying waste because of the cash crop of poppies. It talks about the Laskar: the Hindustani sailors. But in the end, it is a simple story about simple people, told simply. And that is one of the reasons it leaves a mark.

I am following this with another Dan Brown novel,The Lost Symbol. Though it is as captivating and even more thrilling as this one; “Sea of poppies” will always be closer to my heart.

 

Images: Wikpedia,internet, sea of poppies site

further readings :): http://seaofpoppies.com/

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