Bali and the Ocean of Milk

by Nilanjan P. Choudhury

Saucy apsaras, paranoid asuras, scheming devas...
caught in a tangled web of murder, myth and mirth...

Something is rotten in the state of Amravati. A mysterious ailment afflicts Indrah, reducing the omnipotent king of the gods to, well, not quite the man he used to be. To add to his woes, the Holy Trinity threaten to fire him for dereliction of duty. But Indrah’s troubles wilt in comparison to those of his asura counterpart, Bali, ruler of Tripura.

Even as Indrah sits fretting over his delicate health, an assassination attempt on Bali leaves the asura on the brink of death.There is only one thing that can save both these men from certain doom: amrit, the mythical nectar. But to secure it, the gods and the asuras will have to cooperate and churn the Ocean of Milk together… Will Indrah and Bali be able to set aside their ancient enmity, or will old rivalries keep them from pulling off this epic feat?

Genres: Indian Literature

320 pages, Paperback

Published December 30, 2011

About the author

Nilanjan P. Choudhury’s most recent novel is Song of the Golden Sparrow: A Novel History of Free India His earlier novel Shillong Times: A Story of Friendship And Fear
is a coming- of-age story set against the ethnic conflict in Shillong in the 1980s and has been widely praised as a significant contribution to North-east literature.

His debut novel, a mythological thriller entitled Bali and the Ocean of Milk, was a best-seller. His subsequent writings include The Case of the Secretive Sister, a contemporary detective caper set in Bangalore and two plays on science history—The Square Root of a Sonnet and The Trial of Abdus Salam, which received wide critical acclaim and have been staged across multiple cities in India and the US.

Nilanjan confesses to having studied at IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Kanpur and hopes that this will not be held against him. He grew up in Shillong and now lives in Bangalore with his family.

Reviews

[Arun Divakar · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a new rage in the book trade in India : Mythology. Every Indian debut author wants to try their hand at remolding the gods, demons and their tales. For a person who grew up reading the myths and watching TV where the gods are pristinely pure as fresh snow and the demons dark as pitch, these are seemingly welcome winds of change. Unfortunately as a lot of authors ( many of them first timers) rush into the fray, rotten apples are bound to turn up. This book is an opportunity lost in a bout of bad writing.

There is an instance in Hindu mythology where the gods and the demons have to work together to get to nectar and what issues thereafter. The author takes this instance and weaves a story about it. First up, I must say that the writing & especially the dialogs are exceptionally sloppy at places that it reminded me of an extremely bad B-movie. I read this book when I was travelling in a bus and I practically cringed on reading a love making scene. The girl sitting opposite me gave me a raised eyebrow and I grinned like an idiot in response ! Such is the language used here. The author's efforts feel like he bit off more than he could chew. Here are a few things he tries to handle in the book : the effects of globalization on an agrarian society, women empowerment, the age old debate between orthodoxy and liberalism, a recreation of the Nazi concentration camps etc..To me as a reader, the author appears to have failed in recreating the effects of any of these in the flow of his story. I did enjoy the playful bantering that the author did with the gods of Hinduism through a few situations but the dialog used is hopelessly melodramatic and cliche ridden !

In short : Completely Forgettable !

[Shantanu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still reading this book but after 10 pages, I am amazingly disgusted with the casual manner in which the book is written. And the language. Ah. Makes Chetan Bhagat look like a literary genius. (So far)


(I have a feeling I won't be able to complete this book)

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Turns out I did finish this book. The language is laughable at places and outright disgusting at others. The only thing I liked about this book was the author's introduction - He lives in Bangalore with a wife, some kids and a home loan'. I am pretty sure he didn't write it.

[Saiswaroopa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this is about Devas and Asuras churning the ocean of milk. Wait, the plot churned out by Nilanjan is more than the sagar mathan story told by grand mom. The richness of Hindu puranas comes with the myriad of interpretations different people can draw from the same story. Nilanjan has drawn out an innovative message. He attempts to draw parallels between the characters and present day 'equivalents'. It is this clarity of the message that has drawn me to this book.

I would not spoil the excitement by revealing more. The sprinkling of humor across the story is an added beauty!

[Soumyabrata Sarkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic slap! Full of irony and slick-wit humour!
Most of the reviews/reviewers, here are disgusted with the twisted story that the author jot downs with the handful of characters at his disposal. I, however, found this quite amazing and enjoyable. With all the puns, and the other-side of what may have happened between the Devas and Asuras of Hindu mythology. Parallel to contemporary times, similarities are traced and shown with a wacky juxtaposition of facts and fiction, that draws the reader’s mind to make two plus two to a four.
The language used is top-notch, be it putting up an environment, illustrating a character, or emoting a feeling. Nowhere, I felt it too-much or too-little. Just the amount, you need to get lost in this wonderful world.

Waiting for more, from the author!
A must read, if you are on the humor wagon!

[Readers Cosmos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters are very well portrayed and the first half of the story till the ocean churning is amazing. Excellent flow that matches the pace and excitement exactly at the amplitude the reader wants. However the later part is a little slower and looses the initial crisp. The language is good.

As this book falls into the Mythological fiction category, which is hot now a days owing the best seller "The Immortals of Meluha", I would like to congratulate the author for not giving the language a high degree of unnecessary urban touch that kills the feel of the story and never imports the person into the scene. I loved the book for the way in which it was written. Had the book been crisp throughout, would have put it on the alter with The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. However the author has tremendous scope of going to the heights never explored in Indian fiction and especially the mythological fiction category that more often fails to do justice to the Gods/ legendary figures it aims to address. The author surely is the bright ray of hope in this dark tunnel.

A must read. An exemplary book for budding writers in the mythological fiction category!!! 4 stars on 5. Grab a copy now!

[Prashant Jain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super read! This very cool and racy novel makes Amish Tripathi's positively infantile and unreadable Meluha books seem like the literary equivalent of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan.

I had bought the book after reading Jug Suraiya's review in the Times of India here: http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/s...

It took me a while to start reading it - but once I started I couldn't put it down with its zany humour, satire, politics, and plenty of twists and turns in a mythological setting. Haven't read anything as entertaining and quirky as this in contemporary Indian writing. Highly recommended for anyone who can take the Hindu gods and their derring-do with a pinch of salt. The only weakness is the breathless pace at the end and a middle which sags a bit.

Bali and the Ocean of Milk

[Rajasekhar Reddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel is well narrated. But the story is not related to original story of churning of ocean milk. Even if we take it from the story of Bali, as per our epics, to kill Bali, Vishnu has made his Vamana Avathar, where as in the novel, Bali was killed by his own fellow asuras.

So the novel took only names and inspiration of some of the events from our epics. In such a case, Author might have considered some different names. But when we consider the novel as just any other political drama but all the characters are named from our epics, it is a good political thriller. Author has succeded in keeping the reader's interest.

Bali, hero of this novel is very kind, and Indrah is cunning just like in our epics. Role of Avani is designed very elegantly. A good read with note of not to confuse with our epics.

[Divyam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was interesting... Considering tht this genre is some wat still in its younger stages .. The one thing i cud see right through the book is the situations reminds me of present day incidents like Nazi holocaust or the political back stabbing or the Taliban rules. Blended in the story of indian mythological beings. Being a die hard romantic i hated the end ... But worth a good read if u r interested in indian mythology

[Ashish Jaituni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why the author wrote it! It doesn't make any sense. It's not boring but at the same time it's not interesting. I feel the author would have done much better if he had not messed up with the mythology and the characters. It's not a good book to read.

[Anjali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ....

[Shwetar · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is available at: http://muddledup.wordpress.com/for-th...

[Nehal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and tale well told.

[Ashwini · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing piece of work! Messaging interwoven beautifully through the interplay of mythical characters yet it resonates with most of the issues we face in Indian society today.

[Kritika · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's one of the most beautiful. lyrical literary works on our Indian Gods and Goddesses- captures their essence in a way very few texts have.

[Aishwariya Laxmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the cover says the book “re-imagines the eternal conflict between the gods and the asuras in a whacky thriller littered with bad jokes and corpses.” Describes the book to a T. Found it quite a page-turner!

[Ankit Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is readable and deals with the Amrit Manthan that is a very popular and known event in Hindu Mythology. Bali, the asura king of Tripura here is shown alongwith King Indra of Amravati.
This book is nice and gets better with every page you leaf.

[Nirmal Palaparthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is hilarious. I had to hold onto my chair when I read Urvashi saying Indy baby...
And under all that humor is a story well told...
I would read anything else written by this author.

[Abhinav Agarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read one mythology-based fiction bestseller some time back, I had sworn off the entire genre. When I found myself reading Bali and the Ocean of Milk, I had at least one trusted recommendation to go on. I had also promised myself that I would read this book, cover-to-cover, as the trite cliche goes. The delightful surprise was that I could not stop turning the pages of this very, very good thriller.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that Indra (spelled Indrah in the book), the King of gods, is out of shape and out of form, and cannot perform, err... his duties as a king. It is the result of the dying Asura Vritra's curse, killed by Indra by deceit. Viru, or Lord Vishnu, promises to reverse the effects of the curse, and the sin of killing a brahmana, if the devas and asuras can come together to churn the ocean of milk to retrieve a jar of nectar. So far, so good. But will the asura king Bali, son of Vritra, want to have any truck with the killer of his father? Furthermore, can Indra be trusted to keep his word and share the nectar with the asuras? Yes, yes, we all know that he did not, but even then there is a twist in this tale also. Will the Mahakali priests in Bali's kingdom of Tripura, who have seen their power cut to the bone, rise in revolt against Bali, if only to reclaim power and reimpose their puritanical way of life? And who exactly are behind the assassination attempt on Bali?

While the book does not strictly following the Puranic mythological canon, nor does it claim to, it still reveals an admirable amount of knowledge on the part of the author. To modify intelligently, you also need to know what you are changing, and from what.

The language and the style of writing are confident and assured. Yes, there are words that made me wish I remembered my GRE and CAT word-lists, but they add to the texture of the narrative, not detract or distract.

Some of the tongue-in-cheek dialog between the gods is hilarious. Whether it is Viru, as Lord Vishnu is referred to, and there is a Jai and Sambha also, in case you were wondering where some members of the other cast of Sholay were lurking (sadly, no Basanti, no Thakur, no Ramlal, and no Gabbar), or referring to Indra's not so omnipotent problem, or Indra's gloriously desperate attempts to extricate himself from the clutches of Urvashi, the effect has the desired effect of puncturing any feeling of celestial awe the reader may have.

There are two sub-plots running in the book. They intersect at times, as when Indra and the bumbling celestial physicians visit Bali's court. More than two sub-plots and it can become a challenge for both the writer and reader to stay fully informed and engaged. Switching between the sub-plots also keeps monotony away.

The story takes a decidedly dark turn after the first half or so. The puns taper off, almost completely, and the narrative turns uncomfortably dark. There is talk of fundamentalism, and such that it can evoke memories of the Holocaust, Stasi-style civilian spying, ethnic cleansing, and of religious intolerance - take your pick of religions. That it does not fall into the messy morass of preachiness is achieved by not moralizing, and by weaving all this into the plot, making it an inextricable part of the plot at that, and by resisting the temptation to dive into a sermon in the middle of the book.

One quibble that I do have is with the dialogue. At times, in a few places, not many, the dialogue seems somewhat stilted and not proportional, so to say, with the emotions running in the scene.

In all, a very satisfying read.

Disclosure: Nilanjan, the author, provided me with a copy, ex-gratis, on the recommendation of Dr. Bibek Debroy, economist and author. I am grateful to both.

[Sayan Acharjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book in this year's Bangalore literature festival and also got it signed by the author. :)
I don't know why this book has been rated so low, I didn't think it was that bad. Well, may be the writing style is not something the author can brag about but it's not that bad either.
Remember that childhood story we grew up with where asuras and devas shake hands to get the Amrit from the ocean to be immortal? The story is based on that with some new elements, new characters, politics, twists and some terrible attempts for the story to be funny at times. So overall, I liked it and it was fun read for me.
3 out of 5 stars.

[Vineeta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another writer that's jumped on the band-wagon of using mythological characters to make is story appealing! While I'm in no way against it, in fact I love how Amish used them in his Shiva Trilogy and Ashwin Sanghi in Chanakya's Chant.. But this is plain boring... Switching on a halo?? Jay and Viru?????? It seemed like a boring Bollywood movie! Weak plot and sad use of characters.

[Kamesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this as it was written by NPC. Its a decent one time read. I loved the tangential references at several places. There were times, I felt that an NPC skit was unfolding at the inter-hall Galaxy competition. The exchanges between key characters, jai-viru, viru-indrah, indrah-bali were funny.

[Sharanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste time reading this. Why can't gods be gods ... Without sounding like a new age kids?

[Amitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hated the language in the first chapter! but interesting read..
Did not find it on par with the meluha trilogy.

[Ranjita Thangjam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mythology with a modern political twist,retaining the essence of mythology, the story of how the asura king Bali was betrayed by the people whom he trust the most...

[Aruna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good time pass read... Interesting twists n turns in the tale keep u hooked till you complete the book.