Bankers Ramayana - More than just a story

Ashok Bankers Ramayana is much much more than a retelling of an age old tale. All the books do exactly what the Ramayana is meant to do, teach the reader the path of dharma. Banker has done a great job of creating situations where the choice to path of righteousness is a hard one, and shown the reader that the choice is almost never the easy one, but Rama, a true soldier of dharma, will choose it nonetheless.

A couple of other things come across more saliently as I read Bridge of Rama. 

Firstly, the author uses the character of Lakshman to differentiate good from great. Lakshmans frustrations, anger and despondance depicted through this book are but natural for even the best of men in that situation. Lakshman is not a weak man, nor a bad one (Black and white are the colors of the Ramayana, for grey, we need to wait for Mba), but he is not a perfect man, he is not Rama. And this is the tale of Rama. Differences between the evil Ravana and Rama are not hard to find even in the childish depictions of the Ramayana that we are accustomed to. Although I am glad that Banker's Ramayana presents Ravana, lanka and rakshasas as truly evil, rather than the standard "Oh Ravana, the pious, the meditative, the ten-headed super-worshipper who just happened to kidnap Sita and even then, treated her nice, because he was all of the above". But I digress, showing a difference of opinion, and the high road choices of Rama as against Lakshman,  highlights to the reader how virtuous a man Rama truly was. 

Secondly, Rama's acts in the book can be interpreted in the context that one is presently in. Me, being the businessman, and thanks to Rajendra Upadhyay's wonderful class on lessons in leadership from world literature while at ISB, find learnings to be applied to everyday business life. I could state all the things that I see as key learnings from the books, but then, you might not read the books.

GO BUY THE BOOKS NOW!