The Palace of Illusions

Much as the name of the novel, the content too is deep, philosophical and makes one look into their own souls to agree to all the virtues and vices it talks so casually about.

Based on Draupadi's view of the turn of events in the Hindu mythology 'Mahabharata', it shows love, life, vengeance, war, hatred, remorse, faith in light that is remarkable.

Just keeping some quotes from the book, which I would wish to re-read time and again, here.


“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.
'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.” 


“Because ultimately only the witness -- and not the actors -- knows the truth (Vyasa to Draupadi)” 


“Love comes like lightning, and disappears the same way. If you are lucky, it strikes you right. If not, you'll spend your life yearning for a man you can't have.” 


“Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you.”


“There was an unexpected freedom in 
finding out that one wasn't as important as one had always assumed!” 


“For men, the softer emotions are always intertwined with power and pride."


“The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness.”


 "I saw something I hadn't realized before: words wasted energy.” 


“Aren't we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all?” 


“Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path—all they do is trip you up.” 


“The pleasures that arise from sense-objects are bound to end, and thus they are only sources of pain. Don’t get attached to them.”


“Even the wisest don't know what's hidden in the depths of their being”


Truth, like diamond, has many facets.

Stories changed with each telling. Or is that the nature of all stories, the reason for their power?


Doesn't the imagination always exaggerate or diminish truth?


Can our actions change our destiny? Or are they like sand piled against the breakage in a dam, merely delaying the inevitable.


Time is like a flower. It visualized a lotus opening, the way the outer petals fall away to reveal the inner ones. An inner petal would never know the older outer ones, even though it was shaped by them, and only the viewer who plucked the flower would see how each petal was connected to the others.


Is this desire for vengeance stronger than the longing to be loved? What evil magic does it possess to draw the human heart so powerfully to it?


A situation in itself is neither happy nor unhappy. It is only your response to it that causes sorrow.


A burning stick, in trying to burn you, is consuming itself. That's what happens to a burning heart.


When you share a man's pillow, his dreams seap into you.


Battle against the six inner enemies that plague us all - lust, anger, greed, ignorance, arrogance, and envy.


What is more numerous than the grass? The thoughts that rise in the mind of the man.
Who is truly wealthy? The man to whom agreeable and disagreeable, wealth and woe, past and future are the same.
What is the most wondrous thing on earth? Each day countless humans enter the Temple of Death, yet the ones left behind continue to love as though they were immortal.


Perhaps this is the miracle of stories, they make us realize we are not alone in our folly or in our suffering.


This is the nature of sorrow - often it fades with time, but once in a while it remains lodged below the surface of things, a stubborn thorn beneath a fingernail, making itself felt every time you brush against it.


Sometimes, one has to drop logic and go with the instinct of the heart, even if it contradicts law.


Krishna loved me even when I behaved in a most unlovable manner. And his love was totally different from every other love in my life. Unlike them, it didn't expect me to behave in a certain way. It didn't change into displeasure or even anger or even hatred if I didn't comply. It healed me. If what I felt for Karna was singeing fire, Krishna's love was a balm, moonlight over a parched landscape. 

....The book is an experience, and one can add a thousand more quotes from it.