Book Review - Ramayana - The Game of Life - Conquer Change by Shubha Vilas

I have seen Ramayana by Ramanand Sagar multiple times. I have also seen and felt disappointed by another version of Ramayana. I have always taken Ramayana as mythological epic with the epitome of idealness. Personally, I have never tried to understand why/what/how things happened and rarely today's generation will try to know these fats. Shubha Villas has completely repainted book in his fashion.

Book Blurb

Shattered Dreams is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series Ramayana - The Game of Life. Twelve joyful years have passed in Ayodhya since the wedding of Rama and Sita at the end of Book 1.

Now, in Shattered Dreams, Shubha Vilas narrates the riveting drama of Rama’s exile. Through tales of Rama’s unwavering and enigmatic persona, the book teaches us how to handle reversals positively; through Bharata’s actions, it teaches us to handle temptation; and through Sita’s courage, to explore beyond our comfort zone. This complicated family drama provides deep insights on how human relationships work and how they fail.

With Valmiki’s Ramayana as its guiding light, Shattered Dreams deftly entwines poetic beauty from the Kamba Ramayana and Ramacharitramanas, as well as folk philosophy from the Loka Pramana tales, to demonstrate how the ancient epic holds immediate relevance to modern life. Experience the ancient saga of the Ramayana like never before.

The book is divided into two parts. The story part which is 2/3rd portion and learning part given as footnotes which are the 1/3rd portion.

Talking about the story, this part started with the announcement of Rama's coronation by Dasharatha. It covers how Kaikeyi under influence of Manthara forced Rama to step back from coronation and go to the forest for 14 years of exile. Dasharatha's death and Bharata's renunciation fo crown for his brother followed after Rama left for the exile. The book has also introduced Dasagreeva/Ravana's character. How a sagacious personality fo Ravana changed after claiming Lanka. This part ended with Rama-Bharata Milan in Chitrakuta, where Rama showed his firmness towards his words for exile.

The tone of the first part was jolly and things were going happily. But the general tone of this part is sad due to events around exile. The tone of the volume matches the title - 'Shattered Dreams"

Talking about management lessons of this book

• Through Rama, the author has given various methods, practicalities, and tests for an ideal leader and hero
• Through Lakshmana, Bharata, Sumantra the author has given an understanding of the roles of servitude and subordinate.
• Through Vashishta and Bhardwaj we were given the characteristics of an ideal teacher

Short narrations (footnotes) are the most important part of this series, otherwise, it would be another English translation of Ramayana. That narration tells us why did each character does something. I am glad that I have the whole series with me to revisit books anytime I needed. The author has recently changed the cover and title of the first three books. The new look is more prominent towards a learning book look rather than normal mythological look.

Talking about ratings

1. Cover - 4/5
2. Content - 4.5/5
3. Concept - 5/5
4. Overall - 4.5/5

Book can be found at Amazon

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads Old Edition and New Edition