✨Book : Menaka’s Choice
✨Author : Kavita Kané
✨Genre : Indian Mythological fiction
✨Pages : 290
✨Publication: 2016, Rupa

Content 5 /5
Cover Design 5 /5

Blogpost by Dhanu

We know who is Vishwamitra and who is Menaka. What happened between them! But do we really know what would have happened between two of them as lovers? This is what this story picturizes about the past, present and future of them with the mesmerizing narration by Kavita Kané.

Heaven may not feel so when it does not sustain with the thing you love dearly. Menaka has been portrayed as the warrior of her vulnerable fate in heaven who finds her heaven on Earth. The story sets in Indralok, Amaravati (Heaven) as well as in Pritvilok, that is Earth, where the story of an alluring apsara, Menaka and Kaushik who yearned his title from Lord Brahma himself as Vishwamitra through his penance. History has interpreted that Menaka as a seductress send by Indra to disturb the penance of Vishwamitra and fall for her enchanting beauty. But Kané has reanalyzed and revisioned those events and brought the lively incidents through her writing.

The book can be sectioned into three. The first section tells about the early life of both Menaka in Heaven and Vishwamitra in Earth as Kaushik with the parallel story of each character’s life. The second section can be taken as the love life between Menaka and Vishwamitra. The last section can be sectioned as the sacrifice of Menaka and their separation. The story begins with the narration of Menaka and Vishwamitra’s story by their daughter, Shakuntala.
The plot is described with minute details with the spellbound narration. It is structured to comprehend the struggles, pains and dejection faced by Menaka which equivalently portrayed the victories, sacrifices and heartbreaks of Kaushik as well. No one would have described the pain of a man as Kané did.

The language is marvelling which meticulously detailed the historical incidents to the modern readers. Kané knew the knack of handling the emotions of her readers along with her character. This gives the positive impact on each of her writing. The characters’ development are also vividly presented with the equal presence of each side characters without any clumsiness. Tilotamma, another celestial nymph, steals the presence through her friendly and calming nature whereas Indra annoys each time with his presence. Such things are fabulously picturized through the writing style of Kané which engulfs her readers with the storyline.

I have buddy read this fantabulous work with @book.it.up who supported me like my Tilotamma and made this read an unforgettable one.

✨Fav Lines

Everything was shared in Heaven; you could not possess anything in this land of plenty. You could have everything, but own nothing.

‘I broke the boundaries set up by this world and favoured one man over others. I did it. I seduced him, because I wanted him!’

They were alike; love was a conquest. So was making love.

Both of us have our past. We can’t change it. But I love you. I want you to like I have never desired anyone else. And I need you. I want to marry you; be my wife, my partner in our love, our friendship, our companionship. Is it too much to ask for, this marriage of ours?’ he asked, his eyes burning intensely with hope.

She was marrying him today, marrying his love, his trust which she was betraying each day she lived with him.

Menaka sighed deeply, she was home, here in in his arms. Suddenly she felt no fear, no dread, no relentless doubt. There was a strange calm, soothing and blissful. She closed her eyes and inhaled him, savouring their togetherness.

‘You said it, Menaka. Man makes his own Heaven. This one with you is now mine. The one I created was out of my ego, my arrogance, my thirst for power. The one which I own now, is out of love, our love, Menaka. And I prefer this one!’

I have been a father before but Menaka, you make me realise the true essence.

He was a lost man. And it was only she who had to find his way back for him. Even if it cost losing him forever.

Theirs was not a love story or story of passion, it was a tale of hate. But Vishwamitra was not convinced of that either. Perhaps his hatred was as deficient as his love.

It was like stumbling and falling blindly in a desert, both seeking each other, both lost, both searching for their oasis. But it would be a mirage if they were together.

‘That there are certain episodes in our lives that give you so much happiness, but which go bad for some reason or the other and yet we don’t get over them,’ she said, her eyes smudged with memory. ‘Possibly that’s why we tend to obsess over unfinished relationships!’

Highly recommended.

Happy Reading!