I just finished reading Ashok Banker's Prince of Ayodhya, and it was absolutely awesome. As some american dude mentioned in a letter to him here, J.R.R. Tolkein's work is childs play compared to this.
An unfair comparison since the Ramayana is a story that was in existence before, and Ashok is retelling it in a contemporary way, whereas Lord of the Rings was an original piece of work. However, having read the first piece of his work, I have to read the rest.
Perhaps in some strange, late attempt for me to connect with my hindu roots, (albeit in a pop way), I also bought the Mahabharata TV series when I was in India. The Mahabharata was badly produced then, and it looks terrible now, but I'm skimming past the quality of the production to absorb the story in a quick way (as I said - this is 21st century pop hinduism at its worst).
I can only hope Ashok Banker writes the Mahabharata soon....
I still have a question for Ashok and all other well versed folks. If we say and write राम and not रामा in Hindi, then why is it Rama everywhere? Same question for all the hindi other words that have an "a" at the end when written in English?
