Mayurkhund, a name which evokes the feeling of mysteries and secrets under the royal garb!
Mayurkhund, a name which reeks of screaming voices under a façade of silence!
Mayurkhund, a word which makes me visualize peacocks and royalty, but above all, riddles waiting to be solved.
Written by Sadiqa Peerbhoy and published by Readomania publishers, Mayurkund is described as ‘a tale of royal passion, secrets, and lies’. The storyline follows Amaari, a smart, independent girl working in Mumbai having a strained childhood. For years she is in search of her mother who left her one night in Mayurkhund, never to return again. Often here and there Amaari suffers from the feeling of seeing a shadow of her mother from the corners of her eye, but every time they are too real to be true.
With a troublesome past during her growing up years in Mayurkhund and a forbidden relationship with the royal prince, Amaari has much attached to Mayurkhund that contributes to her pains. But as fate would have it, when she is summoned by the Royal Mother for a task that only she can accomplish and can be trusted with, she is torn between her past and the shining future. But maybe it is the hunger to know the truth about her mother that makes her take the decision to go back to Mayurkhund.
Essentially filled with extremely strong female characters, the narration not only traces Amaari’s journey but also tells the story of her mother in a parallel sub-plot. A simple woman living with her family in Mumbai during the 1960s who falls in love with an upcoming lyricist and elopes with him. It is interesting to see her struggles as a young woman and then a mother. The nuances of changing times have been well traced through generation dynamics in the narrative.
Throughout the story, we meet suspicious characters like the all-knowing Elder Queen, the lavish and liberal Younger Queen, the flamboyant younger Prince of Mayurkhund, and a host of maids and servants who walk across the corridors of the large Mahal. What attracts me the most to each of the characters is that their personalities are never woven in pristine white or black. Thus one can never know whether they are friends or enemies till the end of the story. Each having their over-powering persona is just the right fit in the storyline to make it more mysterious and engaging.
Mayurkhund is a story of digging up your past and perhaps a fulfilling of the statement ‘forgiving and forgetting’ the past for a better future. The aura of a high ceiling palace, with numerous rooms, corridors, legends, and hauntings, all make the story come alive in the eyes of the reader marking it as a must-read book of all times.
Mayurkhund can be purchased via Amazon.
Publisher: Readomania
Total No. of pages: 284
Rating: 4/5
*I would like to thank Readomania Publishers for giving me a review copy in return of an honest review.
by Subhadrika Sen 