The Book is provided by Arudhaa Club in exchange for a genuine review.

BOOK REVIEW OF- The Aravan Head

By- Arvind Narsima


•       Paperback: 220 pages
•       Publisher: Inspire India; First Edition (2017)
•       ISBN-10: 9385783882
•       ISBN-13: 978-9385783883



THE Plot IN BRIEF-
A politically driven criminal syndicate tries to steal a valuable
ancient artifact, The Aravan Head, from a very old temple of the
transgenders in Hijravan. Police officer Arya foils the well planned
attempt. The incident unfolds a deadly secret that connects to a
series of mind-boggling crimes which points to an unlikely person of
tremendous authority in the political & business circles of Mumbai.
With his friends kidnapped, his own people involved with the criminals
and himself facing departmental enquiry, Arya is strangulated from all
sides. Meanwhile in Delhi, 4 college girls, fed-up with the canteen
food, hire a cook. While they expect an old, typically professional
person, they are in for a great surprise that leaves them sweetly
shocked. But the surprise is short lived after a beautiful transgender
arrives at their bungalow revealing secrets that baffle them.
Unfortunately the lives of the 4 girls become a nightmare along with
that of the transgender. Did Arya arrest the main perpetrator behind
all the crimes? What dangers did the Transgender bring to the girls?
Did they survive the deadly situation they were pushed into? What
price did Arya pay to win?
THE TITLE-
Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It
has been well said that mythology is the penultimate
truth–penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It
is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the
Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that
rim, to what can be known but not told. The Aravan head itself
beautifully brings the atmosphere of mythology into the plot. To cut
it short one describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The
way one describes a story, to oneself or to the world, is by telling
the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate
the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map
possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate
and perfectly useless. The tale is the map that is the territory. I
loved the illustration and the cover. Policemen are often confronted
with situations which baffle them at first. A certain crime scene may
seem meaningless, but they have to derive some meaning out of it. They
have to connect the dots, find the links, delve into its history, look
for evidence, come up with a zillion theories and arrive at truth. The
thing is, truth is always stranger than fiction.
REVIEW OF THE BOOK-
We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be
good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier
assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even
for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal
pride and greed the standard of our behaviour toward the world – to
the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in
it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has
become clear. It is not only our own creativity – our own capacity for
life – that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself
is stifled. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it
will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good
for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the
effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must
learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But
even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is
full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon
arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty
of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. Arya s
character keeping the plot in mind was brilliant. Although the major
plot remains as a crime thriller, the author beautifully portrays the
image of love, hatred, revenge and courage together.
I loved the narration of the plot and the way it has been presented.
It often seems to me that’s all detective work is, wiping out your
false starts and beginning again. Yes, it is very true, that. And it
is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory,
and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will
not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will
not fit in that are significant. For passion, like crime does not sit
well with the sure order and even course of everyday life. It welcomes
every loosening of the social fabric, every confusion and affliction
visited upon the world, for passion sees in such a disorder a vague
hope of finding advantage for itself.
Yes it is true that Life is a revolving mystery, sometimes terrifying,
sometimes maddening. But always provocative. Interesting. And although
its meaning seemed beyond my grasp, it never seemed meaningless. This
book is really a unique fiction. In the good mystery there is nothing
wasted, no sentence, no word that is not significant. And even if it
is not significant, it has the potential to be so – which amounts to
the same thing. The world of the book comes to life, seething with
possibilities, with secrets and contradictions. Since everything seen
or said, even the slightest, most trivial thing, can bear a connection
to the outcome of the story, nothing must be overlooked. Everything
becomes essence; the centre of the book shifts with each event that
propels it forward. The centre, then, is everywhere, and no
circumference can be drawn until the book has come to its end.
YOU SHOULD READ THIS BECAUSE-

1.      THE BEAUTIFUL AMALGAMATION OF CRIME WITH MYTHOLOGY.

2.      THE UNIQUE AND A COMPLETELY FRESH PLOT
3.      THE NARRATION AND THE STYLE OF WRITING.
4.      THE CHARECTERIZATION OF ARYA.



RATINGS-
Overall I would like to rate the book 45 on a scale of 50.
4 stars out of 5
1.      Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/10
2.      Net emotions in the story- 9/10
3.      Usage of words and phrases-8/10
4.      The title, cover and the illustration-10/10
5.      The net impact on the readers- 9/10