Monday, February 18, 2013

Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi - review

Two stories almost 2300 years apart depicted side by side.

The book is about the father of Economics Chanakya who existed in India around 300 BC and a modern man - GangaSagar Mishra in the not so known Kanpur town of India. 



Chanakya  vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire. History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied-and a little bored-by his success as a kingmaker through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write Arthashastra, the science of wealth.

Gangasagar Mishra on the other hand takes up the challenge of making the slum dog a corporator. He manages to get the daughter of his guru to be brought up by this slum dog so that some time in future this will prove to be a political advantage. He grooms her to be the most powerful woman of the modern India. 

The book is too much of a description and almost predictable. But it is a little bit educative too. So read this at your own risk. 

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