“time is the great eraser, both of sorrow and of joy”

The Palace Of Illusions

CHITRA  BANERJEE  DIVAKARUNI

"Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.

'It's difficult,' he said.'There's so little in life that's worth it."

-Draupadi & Krishna

    Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "The Palace Of Illusions" is based on the "Mahabharata".

The verse is very familiar to us since a long time , But this book changes our whole point of view. We have always read historical stories which were written by men based on their point of view, but in this book we see the story through the eyes of a woman who is considered the root of the war which consumed several Indian dynasties and erased the Kauravas : Draupadi. So basically, the book is Draupadi's POV of the Mahabharata and its background. From her secret attraction to a mysterious man , who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy to being insulted by him , from being Krishna's friend to becoming his devotee ; we follow Draupadi from her birth till her end and evaluate her as she transforms from a naive girl to a women with a ferocious fire burning within herself. The book has gotten worldwide acclaim for giving a woman's take on the timeless tale of Mahabharata.I would rate this book a 9.5/10 and recommend it to anyone who is familiar with the original version.    

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book :

"Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path-all they do is trip you up."

"Aren't we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all?"

"The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness."

"Above us our palace waits, the only one I've ever needed. Its walls are space, floor is sky, its center everywhere. We rise; the shapes cluster around us in welcome, dissolving and forming again like fireflies in a summer evening."

"There was an unexpected freedom in finding out that one wasn't as important as one had always assumed!"

Thank you !!