I got to know about Tigana(by Guy Gavriel Kay) this year from a YouTube channel that reviews books. It’s a mix of fantasy and historical fiction. For those unversed, historical fiction is mostly based on real world history with some details changed and fantastical elements added to it. Tigana primarily takes place on The Palm, a country that is modelled on Renaissance Italy. In this period, Italy wasn’t united as a country. Just some city states who were always at war with each other. It’s a particularly fascinating period of history because art and music flourished during this time and yet war was so commonplace, with a lot of tragic deaths. None of the city states had any notion of working together which paved the way for France and Spain to control this region, often at the behest of one or the other city state, to ruin another one. This period is fascinating and I could go on and on, but we’re here to talk about Tigana.

Now The Palm is modelled on Renaissance Italy with 9 provinces who are always at war with each other. Now to make the historical accuracy complete there must be 2 powers to conquer this region and this is provided to us as 2 wizards, one a king in the country of Ygrath and the other a minor lord of the country Barbador. These 2 wizards with the help of their armies have come to The Palm for it’s rich resources and found a land with such infighting that they easily took control. Each wizard ruling 4 provinces and the ninth province left unconquered. The reasons as to why will be explained in the book and I don’t wish to spoil it. This is merely the backstory and it is here that the story of Tigana starts.

It is now 20 years after The Palm has been conquered. We follow Devin, a talented musician who has joined a troupe travelling throughout the country, performing for lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses. We follow him as he falls unknowingly into a conspiracy. A bunch of people intent on killing the two tyrants who have taken over their country. And it is here the story really starts. A tale of revenge, tragedy and woe as these people fight for their country’s freedom. The main draw of this book is the writing. The prose. It’s so beautiful and pulls you right into the story. Into the heads of all these characters as they try to right a terrible wrong. In the beginning, the villain Brandin, king of Ygrath is just a shadowy figure who is completely evil and must be overthrown. But as the story progresses we are granted a look into his head and see the person inside. Which makes it all the more confusing to us readers. Who do we support: the rebels or the king? As the story progresses, our heroes take disturbing decisions, an end justifies the means approach.

It was a delight to read all these characters, their struggles as they tried to do the right thing, the ruthless methods they engaged to ensure they won and on the other end, the king, a supposed tyrant who has taken over a country. But by no means some evil figurehead, he is a person who cares for the common people and wants to do right by them. It explores how much these characters are affected by their aim. How much they hurt themselves and others, both physically and mentally in service of their goal. It shows how one can go too far even for a right cause. I again, praise the prose here for pulling me right into the characters head, to cheer for them even when logically their actions can be considered wrong. But these never come into your mind when you’re rooting for your favourite characters. For some people I discussed this with, it was a little overdramatic. But I disagree, it showed how much the people hurt when their freedom was taken away from them. It’s always a good sign when I start to think of characters as real people and it happened in this book. The main characters, Devin, Catriana, Alessan, Baerd, Dianora, Brandin and Sandre all stayed with me, even after I finished reading the book and I wish I got to spend more time with them.

This book places importance on memory and music, how they will help keep alive the hope of freedom in a land conquered. Those who know me, know how indifferent I am to music. But this book… the way it expresses music, how characters react to songs, all this brought up a lot of emotions in me and I absolutely loved every moment of it.

Obviously this is not some completely perfect book and it does have it’s flaws. Devin and Catriana are the 2 characters we first meet. In the beginning, they just feel like a bunch of ideals rather than a person, but around halfway through the book, we understand them and their choices and what they have sacrificed for their goal. Another thing, was that some actions do not make sense, it felt like they were there for the plot to move forward and not something an intelligent person would do. But this happens only a handful of times and weren’t an issue in the overall enjoyment of the book.

Another good point, is the ending. It just gutted me. So tragic for some characters and the absolutely worst thing. No one knows. The secrets throughout the book, all come together at the end and while we, as the reader, knows the whole story, so many characters don’t know everything that happened there. How each person in their own way helped each other. How close people got to knowing secrets they were searching for throughout the book. And in the end, it is all kept secret from them. It was just so sad, but at the same time, knowing if the characters actually knew all these secrets, the would just break apart from that knowledge. Kay did an absolutely wonderful job with that ending. And then we have the final line, which is just...I don’t know what to feel about that one. I finished reading Tigana at night and I just lay there awake, thinking about the ending, thinking about all those characters, secrets so close to being revealed yet so far away. It was only seeing the sun rise up through my window that I realised I spent the whole night thinking about the book and all these characters.

Tigana is now my favourite book and I recommend it to anyone who likes reading. There is a question all fantasy fans ask: Given the choice of going to any world you want, which one would you choose? I have finally found my answer. The Palm.

Slowly it started affecting my life. I wasted time doing absolutely nothing. I felt like an outsider in my own friends' circle. I was literally spiralling out of control. Staying at home was its own personal brand of hell. I wanted to stay with my friends. But the thought of spending time with other people made me feel drained. These opposing thoughts fought for control in my head with the result of a massive headache. I literally wanted to claw my brains out.

The culmination? I messed up my exams with not a thought in my head as to the results. Nothing productive done for months. Just sitting in a corner moping that fate had decided to shit on my life. I was a blackhole sucking the joy out of myself. Viciously.

And then. A sudden change. I started talking with other people. I started being..dare I say it? happy. A fun glorious feeling. I felt so light like I was floating. I was actually able to smile - without faking it. I couldn't believe this was how people usually felt. How I used to feel before. I started loving my life.

So what changed? What told my brain to come out of its shell?

I sat and thought for a long time. What did I do different? Well, it was one simple thought. Why are others happy? A small seed that slowly grew with time. I forced myself to tear off the 'out of order' label. I asked the so called "happy" people what they were doing. It opened up my life. Everyone has ups and downs. My question evolved. Why are others mostly happy? I talked to people outside my friends circle. People I barely knew. One simple answer: forget your sadness. There is something that made you sad in the first place. And you haven't left it in your past. You're dragging it along with you. The proverbial "emotional baggage". Find it and destroy it. Trust me your life will be a lot better. That incident or incidents is acid slowly burning your brain out. But only because you are letting it. Show everyone who's in control and LIVE!

This small thought changed my life. I have found the light at the end of the tunnel. The brain dead zombie version is out of my life and I have no intention of letting it control me again.

You are the master of your life and you control it. No one else and don’t let anyone tell you different.

The Google DSC club was newly minted in our college about a week back. We started the journey with our mentor and guide Felix Josemon- The winner of the prestigious Google Venkat scholarship. So we started with a two-day workshop on learning to make apps with the software Android Studio. Just a few minutes into the workshop we were all amazed. We were like “creating apps cannot be this easy!!”. Well…it is. Anyways, we got through the workshop creating a basic counting app. After that we all thought it was over and things were getting back into the hectic schedule of college life. We didn’t know how wrong we were. At first we met up casually. Felix told us all about his journey for getting the Google Venkat Scholarship and told us to achieve something. The usual inspirational speech with a touch of friendliness. Then he dropped the bombshell. We had to interview all kinds of local businesses and understand their troubles. Then we had to create an app to combat the problem.

We went out and had some coffee together. Building up new friendships and getting to know more of each other. After that Felix showed us an example of how to interact with the shopkeepers. Abhay V Ashokan, Abhilash Sajeev, Ajay Ravindran, Harikrishnan G and me formed team.

Four of us went to a clothes shop to talk. It was kind of a last minute decision and Hari couldn’t come with us. Sorry man! We had a talk with the manager. He was really friendly and listened to us. Our basic idea was an app to store all details of a transaction as it is calculated. The records can be taken daily,monthly or weekly according to our choice. To be fair, he didn’t exactly jump at the idea. We had to convince him. He then agreed to try the app if and when we made it. So we’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us. We met the next day to visit more shops. Hari joined us this time. We then went to a number of shops. Most of them were less than enthusiastic-to say the least. We couldn’t even convince them to try at least. Then we got to a shop “S S Mills Kochi”. We started talking with the owner. Our first impression was that this one was also a flop. But when we said it was part of our learning. He was so enthusiastic that our flagging excitement perked up. We felt ready to make the app.

Well… so we have a challenging journey now. Making an app that is agreeable to all. We hope to create an awesome one that everyone likes. We can help each other reach new heights with this project.