Special Interview Edition

Vol. 2, Issue 1 November 2019 Theme: Retelling History and Mythology

“The only way that history can be “Every great changemaker was a “I don’t think I write books to make “I marvelled at the interpretation of meaningful is if we present several dreamer, someone who saw the them famous, I write books because the sequence by the writers because points of view and see the “truth” as world differently – saw potential and I like them.” there is not a single weak moment for something that lies between those pursued it.” Draupadi.” multiple perspectives.” Sharanya Manivannan Devdutt Pattanaik Pooja Sharma Ashwin Sanghi Page 7 Page 3 Page 5 Page 5

“Part of the delight, therefore, in reading renditions of Greek myth, both ancient and modern, lies not in labelling departures as “wrong,” but in comparing them with other versions and investigating why a particular detail was included or why a particular change was made” - Thomas D. Kohn, “Tartarus and the Curses of Percy Jackson”, 2015

Helen throughout history, purports we - or Priam - to disagree? She but thankfully the goal of feminism that between these polarized has conveniently put herself in her was never to rescue every woman. I positions – Helen or someone else place, so that they do not have to. to blame – is the Homer’s Iliad is the major site for concept of joint As Graver puts it, the analysis of Helen’s character. II culpability, as in The Helen’s character is Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was Though Homer blames her as the Odyssey when Helen “ennobled” by her “feminine in the highest sense of direct cause of the outbreak of says that Aphrodite acknowledgment of past that much-abused word” as Harriet the Trojan War, she plays only a “brought me to Troy misdeeds. This form of Monroe puts it. Her poems present secondary part in the epic and only “...the face that launch’d . . . and made me self-disempowerment the woman’s point of view as a few words are put in her mouth. forsake my daughter, fits right with the authentically, as sincerely, as those Man is considered the default while my bridal chamber, patriarchal structures of Shelley, Byron, Tennyson, any woman is the ‘Other’ (Beauvoir). and a husband who for women. “Few masculine lyrist of them all, present Helen’s agency is regularly lacked nothing”. things are as gratifying that of the man. Naturally, as her minimised by the characters and the Helen is both active as remorse to those modern apologist or some may call narrative as a whole. There is hardly and passive; she does a thousand ships...” in authority, since it her an encomiast for Helen, she lifts any development of her character, the forsaking but is affirms not only the her out from the ruins of antiquity and only a constant indecisiveness that passively “made” HELEN OF TROY IN HOMER & TEASDALE behavioural norms ‘retells’ her with a poetic expertise envelops her – whether or not she to and “brought.” they prescribe for that outdoes. She presents women in is to blame for the war. Katherine their inferiors, but a constructive light, with the power Duncan-Jones rightly notes that No woman in the epic is free from their original judgment of the to take charge of their lives and make “for the majority of writers, whether the unabashed reification that the transgressor’s weakness, which changes. Helen is displayed with a historical or literary, her appearance narrative forces. Athena successfully in turn allows them to claim the wealth of emotions and is portrayed is essentially a blank, to be filled Satvik Tandon spurs Odysseus into rallying the subordinate’s collusion in her as a strong, intelligent woman aware in – or not – by the imagination of army by urging him not to let Helen, subjugation” (Blondell). Her of people’s conceptions of her. aftercomers. And though she was for whom so many Achaeans have influential discourse, which celebrated for having triggered major already lost their lives, remain becomes the audible complement of For never woman born of man and military activity – her face launching as a “boast” – an object to glory her Aphrodite-gifted visible charms, maid those ‘thousand ships’, a phrase in - for Priam and the Trojans. of self-blame then becomes an Had wrought such havoc on the interestingly re-spun in modern times Helen, however, fiercely uses this “exercise of power”. Note how she earth as I, – she is herself essentially passive, a objectification to her own purposes. addresses it only to Hector and Priam Or troubled heaven with a sea of victim of rape and/or abduction.” and not Paris – only to men who can flame “Agency entails responsibility, and fortify her position and her life. However, it will be injustice to responsibility entails susceptibility Teasdale’s Helen sounds almost sideline her character with just to blame and, most importantly, Helen makes no attempt to overcome tongue-in-cheek – a little proud of these suppositions. With the vogue punishment. As long as the question the Trojan women’s disapproval by a beauty that was once the world’s of feminist criticism in the 20th is whether Paris stole her, or whether exercising her considerable personal most destructive force, of a face that century, various critics have used the Trojans should return her, then charm. That charm is, in its essence, had burnt the topless towers of Ilium. feminist theories to scrutinise she cannot be held accountable: “both erotic and heterosexual, so it and rescue Helen’s character. he is to blame for starting the has no leverage with the women and Yet she is so much more than visual war, and they for allowing it to gives them no incentive to exonerate beauty, a beauty she so knows will The most common argument against continue. It is Paris who takes the her by viewing her as a passive not be seen again – “she withers it”. her is her “running” away with Paris blame, from Achaeans and Trojans object… She is outing herself as a Her blame game starts from “the high that triggered a violent chain reaction alike, in acknowledgment of the Pandora, a beautiful woman with gods” to Leda and ends at the swan that lasted ten years. Ruby Blondell larger scope for agency assigned an evil interior, who that was Zeus. In the middle of the observes that Helen's elopement is to the male. In the Iliad itself no uses her power poem, however, there is a complete presented in The Iliad as an assertion one directly challenges Helen’s of agency in reversal of mood and tone, the not of her own desire, but of Paris's worth as a casus belli.” (Blondell). ways that modus operandi of Teasdale. Helen or Aphrodite's. A variety of speakers cause has decided she cannot ask for death - Menelaus, Hector, Helen herself, The objectification of misery when there are so many more springs and the narrator - speak of Paris Helen serves a different to men” to witness and when the “strong "taking" her to Troy and Helen uses purpose for the (Blondell). sweet scent” of the sea holds her here. the same verb with Aphrodite as men on the other subject. This verb does not exclude side of the fight. O’Gorman has “Helen ponders how to save her volition in a person who is "taken" As Blondell argued that Helen’s life as she contemplates Menelaus’ but it can also be used, among other writes, “the self-blame suggests a punitive uxoricide. Her decision things, for dragging a resistant theft of an object questioning, from a female is to do with more than mere self- animal and for the outright abduction is more easily rectified point of view, of the value of preservation, or self-preservation as of women and children in warfare. than the seduction of a wife”. the apparently futile masculine an end in itself. She wants to live military enterprise, unsettling its so that she can make Greece love Building on the apology by Hector and Priam cannot seem to very premise. If she considers her again, rehabilitate if not her Gorgias (483 – 375 BC), four blame Helen throughout the epic over herself loathsome and contemptible, reputation, her ability to cause a Pan- main reasons are deducible for her but this is only rightly so. Any such the how can she possibly believe that the Hellenic reaction: “I shall go back to elopement – unavoidable (divine) The admission would make the Trojan men war fought over her is worthwhile? Sparta on his breast. / I shall live on to agency, abduction by force, Paris’s refusal to return Helen inexplicable, who dif- conquer Greece again!”. The breast manipulative power of speech fer- since it is the retention of Helen - as come In the famous scene of Book 3 changes from Helen’s mammary (which was considered reverent) or ence opposed to the original elopement - face to face where Helen is asked to bed Paris, to Menelaus’ pectorals” (Maguire). her passion/lust. In context of the is made that is the cause of the continuing war. with her both she argues with a goddess but, only But the image is odd: how does last reason, a manifestation of their clear by Paris, As long as the Trojan leaders remain explains and naturally, loses. Helen’s poignancy one return on one’s spouse’s breast (physical) love is in the presence of when he declares in solidarity with Paris, who refuses justifies the war as a character derives in part from the rather than the expected – if clichéd Aphrodite during their copulation that he is willing to return her, they cannot afford to in masculine fact that, unlike many of Aphrodite’s – arm? According to Maguire, in Book 3 of The Iliad (gods are but to return the question her value. “Her beauty is terms. It also victims, she remains fully conscious perhaps the phrase is an (awkward) abstract concepts). However, this latter but not such that it blinds men to ethical guarantees of the conflict between her desires externalization of “in his heart.” reason seems far feebler when more Helen herself. concerns - a typical consequence her future and the resistance of her better complex love is put vis-à-vis, say, If Helen is not of the influence of Aphrodite. The survival. judgment. In this regard, “she is Paradoxically, the qualities of Andromache and Hector - the charm an object, then men mesmerized by that beauty Menelaus shall more successful than most male Helen in Homer of a domesticated of their narrative lies beyond the she can surely be need to believe in her innocence, drop his sword characters in resisting Aphrodite’s woman of beauty and virtue are corporal. The assumption that Helen held accountable even when they are fully aware of when he sees power” (Blondell). But why should what that hold women. Famously left her home afflicted with madness for the war, or at the damage such beauty causes. her face and no Helen feel ashamed? Desire for one’s explained first by Simone de of love is actually the traditional least for her rightful The attribution of blame would both Greek shall have husband is only legitimate. “It is Beauvoir in the epochal The Second version from Homer onwards but part. Her self-re- call into question the supremacy reason to stone scarcely surprising that erotic desire Sex, women cannot be free unless this point should bring us back proaches – “chilling, of her beauty - its ability to impair her. Her beauty is should win out over shame, given they particpate in production and to the first reason itself - love is evil-devising bitch” men’s moral judgment - and make such that it erases the awesome power of that desire, give up “reproductive slavery”. birthed or rather forced in midst of a – are working decep- a mockery of the heroic enterprise moral concerns as presented here in the person of This Helen of Teasdale lists all her dangerous place by “divine agency”. by undermining the rationale for from men’s minds. tively once again to desirable qualities but she does not her own purposes. the goddess” (Blondell), bringing the fighting on both sides” (Blondell). argument back to a female character count her power of discourse – an Laurie Maguire in her book-length Yet Helen is not If Helen avows her exercise that likens her to both study of the varied depictions of This power that Helen exercises merely an object. guilt, then who are the poets – Homer and Teasdale. Radha Viswanath’s Ashtamahishi or insecurities and are seen adjusting why should she bear the burden of decision as not in his hands rather ‘the eight wives of Krishna’ claims with Krishna’s multiple partnerships these marriages. But once again he is forced to fulfil their desire to to give the perspectives of the eight by justifying his womanising Rukmini is seen as the benchmark marry him thus his god-like attitude wives of Krishna whose narratives behaviour as an upholder of dharma, of a good wife because she is quintessentially paradoxical. are never given an insight in the a concept that is very exclusive, happily accepts all the wives and Mahabharata or the Bhagavad Gita. privileged and brahmanical undermines her own discretion. In the end, although one can see BOOK REVIEW his wives other than Satyabhama I picked up this book contemplating The novel does throw light on other Moreover, there is a positive coming and pointing out Krishna’s that it will talk about what I was Indian mythological events which reflection on class, caste and behaviour it might have had a more looking for—retelling of Indian makes it informative, also the author patriarchy. For instance, Satyabhama consequential effect if they were Ashtamahishi: mythology and more precisely a coherently weaves these events with is seen very aristocratic when portrayed in the similar fashion retelling about Krishna through his the main plot, for instance the way she thinks lowly about Rukmini throughout the novel. Hence The Eight Wives eight wives. But what this book he dissolves the enmity between for not having great lineage so the novel is a good beginning to does is that it delves into the existing Drupada and Drona and the rivalry of how Krishna could marry her. a natal reading when trying to of Krishna hegemonial notions about Krishna, Pandavas and Kauravas even though understand the conventional notions and further strengthens the pre- it dwells in the existing idea of evil Even though Krishna propagates of Krishna but it is definitely not 197 pages, Rs. 295 existing impressions of Krishna as Kauravas versus virtuous Pandavas. that marriage should be based a good beginning to understand Publisher: Rupa a messiah and a doer of good deeds. on mutual love and respect and the retelling of mythology. His second wife Satyabhama comes not for political gains he self- Publications The novel though a third-person out as quite a strong and determined contradicts it by his own actions. Originally published: 20 narration gives the reader glimpses character, she goes against her father September, 2018 of the eight wives, other significant and also forces a change in theplan of On the contrary, there is a section Paramita Baishya ISBN: 978-93-5304-611-8 mythological figures and Krishna Krishna when they venture out for a in the book in which one can see himself. The novel weaves with war. Further Satyabhama says “I am Krishna in self-doubt of his several a backdrop of Krishna as a very not like Krishna…. I do not give up…. marriages but he validates this high-esteemed and powerful king I never lose! I never accept defeat! I of Dwarka, his good relations get what I want!” Thus, one can see with the Pandavas and his role as her comparing herself with Krishna a messiah and god-like figure for and asserting her will and strength people of his and other kingdoms. of self-efficacy. She also shows her Female Perspectives: Draupadi in the Palace of Illusions The most prominent idea that is lack of maturity and arrogance which dealt with all through the novel is of comes out as a result of Krishna’s marriage and how Krishna is seen as multiple partnerships. On the other The feminist writings of the makes her the ideal woman who brother choosing a perfect groom for Bhavya Verma an ideal husband and a perfectionist. hand, Rukmini is too sacrificing contemporary era make efforts loves her husband and who tends her. Draupadi eventually gets insight But what one can see missing is and submissive. A very few of the to point out the oppression and to prove her purity without a word. of how a woman should behave and brothers; she was never asked an independent and challenging eight wives exhibit elements of undermining situations of women Draupadi who accepts her marriage why she has been warned about of how she feels about it. perception about Krishna by emancipation and assertiveness. that have lived in a society like India. with the five brothers as her fate, and the evils like jealousy and angst. these eight women. Even though There is no insight into his other Through symbols and characters proves to be a good wife for each With growing up mentally and This book also gives an insight Satyabhama and Mitravinda (two wives like Jambavanti, Nagnajti, that were a part of the stories of a of them, to have no one to stand for physically, the book focuses on her about Draupadi’s unnoticed strong of these wives) assert their freedom Bhadra Devi and Rukmini: one does world that existed centuries ago, her at the time when her dignity and growing emotional turmoil. With feelings for Karna, and how they of choice to get married to Krishna not see their personal feelings but an effort is made to revisit the past self-respect is being robbed away the unfolding events of having to kept growing. Amongst the story despite the men in their families their political responsibilities and and rewrite the nuances of history. is seen as an example of a strong, accept marriage with five husbands, of Pandavas struggle against their disapprove because of political adoration for Krishna because he virtuous wife who would still as an arrogant mother in-law, living cousins, Kauravas, and Kauravas enmity with Krishna, it is done based is busy in marrying and fulfilling The stories that depict a world so her duty wouldn’t leave the side in forests in the worst of conditions plotting against them, we see a woman on their own biases towards Krishna. the desires of women. Thus, they different, a time frame well-known of her husbands. But these recent we see Draupadi go through a lot as a major character of the story, act more like fillers in the novel. yet so far away, might be of fictional retellings look at the world through of angst and discomfort. We get to her emotional distress, desires and The justification of Krishna’s nature but are seen as stories of the the eyes of these female protagonists, notice the emotions and feelings longing for a happy life as a queen. infidelity comes from his own Before Mitraminda marries Krishna past, representing the lives of the focus on their agony and disgust, she must have gone through. discretion to marry every time and the men in her family undermine people that lived here, where we their sufferings and sacrifices. Draupadi feels a sense of belonging not much light is thrown about her freedom of choice of marriage live now. Reading and writing about The boon of becoming a virgin with The Palace of Illusions, and what his other wives think about the because of political reasons and these stories brings in the concept In Chitra Banerjee Devakaruni’s The each time she will be passed on for the first time feels assertive same. It is only Satyabhama who even her mother is not given any of then and now where we tend to Palace of Illusions, we look at the to another husband mirrors her and important. From the time challenges Krishna’s polygamy. opportunity to have any say in it. relate to these stories, which seem Mahabharata , the great war through thoughts about it as a curse rather when she gave her opinions about On the contrary one can see how Also, Mitraminda feels Krishna’s to be real-life incidences and make a strong, stoic character of Draupadi. than a boon. This boon she feels “Mayamehal” when demon Maya his wives compromise with their marriages are problematic and sense of them in this 21st century. All through various books, television should rather have been about her asked for them, she started feeling serials and movies, we have simply memory being afresh everytime worthy of herself. Draupadi’s Stories of the human struggle against known Draupadi as the one with she goes to another husband. helplessness and anger at the Fate and Destiny have existed since five husband, somebody who was time of her humiliation in the the earliest times. The unceasing mocked and harassed during her This importance of virginity and Dice Hall brings before us the geographical movement of people menses in front of her husbands chastity of a woman in this society reason of her vow to avenge it. across continents carried such unable to do anything for herself. remains at the pedestal more than Dharma or accounts to other regions where Some people only know Draupadi that of a woman’s hardships of being The book unravels various emotional they took on newer, local aspects. due to this incident. We have also a wife to five brothers. Draupadi as a barricades and traumatic experiences The Supernatural, wars against known Draupadi as Krishna’s friend princess was never Draupadi went through while her men and gods, heroism, and many and as the one who became the asked if she husbands, her father, brother and sons more elements enhanced the basic cause of the great war. The accepts to were at war, and she was the one who adharma? story. Tales turned into legends Palace of Illusions however marry was majorly blamed for the same. “The God is cursed” said the or Shikhandi in the holy narrative. and in time myths were born. takes us on a journey where all five Chitra Banerjee Devakaruni’s story synopsis on the cover of Devdutt we see Draupadi as a child of the Mahabharata brings before Pattanaik’s Jaya: An Illustrated While we have grown-up with the These myths remained confined growing up inside her us the aforementioned heroine, Retelling of the Mahabharata. The idea of Adharma associated with within their territorial boundaries, father’s palace, known Draupadi and her life through the idea of lord Krishna being cursed the Kauravas and the Dharma was occasionally transforming as contexts for her beauty. As a onset of the great war. Devakaruni was an astounding turn to the old established by the Pandavas, this changed, but despite obvious child who always lets Draupadi, the protagonist, tales of Mahabharata. “How can book’s ending raises a question on parallels their common structures rebelled with the decide the flow of the plot and talks god be cursed?” was the question Dharma. This book has an ending stayed undiscovered and unexplored feminine ideas of about in detail of her ambiguous that started to fire up the curiosity that has never ever been told in across cultures till fairly recently. learning the household thoughts. As a feminist writer in the orthodox mind of an Indian. any retelling of the Mahabharata. skills and art and craft, Devakaruni portrays Draupadi The first book describing the war This ending is the reason the Retelling of mythologies have who always was more as a heroine greater than the of Kurukshetra written by Vyasa book was originally called Jaya always been of utmost interest for interested to learn about Pandava heroes and pans was named ‘Jaya’ and Pattanaik has by Vyasa. Devdutt Pattanaik has writers across different cultures as arthashastra and read the narrative towards a attempted to provide unique insights portrayed the both sides of the war these stories never get old or lose books and get education missing angle of love and into the lifestyle and beliefs of the in the same light and never has people’s interest. However, in the like her brother. We see anger of a woman and people of 8th-9th century through made presumptions about the ‘in- recent past there have been many Draupadi as a rebellious child, how strongly it can his version of Vyasa’s ‘Jaya’. built’ righteousness of any one clan. writers who retold such mythical not following the norms, affect the plot and stories with a different perspective and questioning her identity characters and Pattanaik’s version is not only The similar conventional idea was altogether. These recently explored as a woman. Draupadi’s intrinsic mold the truth about Krishna and the war of also broken in Dharamvir Bharati’s perspectives changed the whole thoughts, about why she cannot learn that cannot Kurukshetra between the two play ‘Andha Yug’. In Andha Yug, outlook of the characters and their what her brother does or why does ever be clans but the narrative includes the Ashwatthama has raised questions on identities which have always played she have to follow certain norms justified. story of the women like Satyawati, the Dharma of the Pandavas and their a major role in the being of folklore. and stick to the ideals and not her Kunti, Gandhari and Draupadi. The clan when he said “Dhrishtadyumna brother, always kept her going? queer narrative like that of Aravan, violated Dharma when he killed There have been many writers like The book eventually takes the Ila, Budh and Shikhandi have Dronyacharya. Bhima violated Devdutt Patnaik, Kavita Kane, plot forward with growing been narrated in equal limelight. Dharma when he killed Duryodhana.” Irawati Karve, Shanoli Mitra who up of Draupadi as the There are Duryodhan temples in Later, he takes revenge against the have rewritten these folklores from one who questions Uttarakhand and Draupadi temples Pandavas by killing Abhimanyu’s the perspectives of Sita, Draupadi, the idea of her in Tamil Nadu, for example. unborn child, Pandavas’ grandson, Menaka, Ahalya, Surpanakha and father and and violates another Dharma. other female characters. These her While the country has been writings bring a fresh edge that traumatized with the issues In present day context, these re- questions the toxic patriarchal related to women and queer telling of history and mythology domain of the egalitarian society we communities, such retellings of make the most sense that no party live in. The ideals like “motherhood”, these traditional narratives that the is completely right or completely “ideal wife”, “virtuous woman” conservatives look back to, needs wrong and how the repercussions are all questioned in the lines of to be written through the lens of of war will gradually destroy both the events that once happened these marginalised sections. The the clans involved. The corruption, and those that counterpart in the contemporary stories might not commodification of women and present context. The establishment bring changes in the mindset of the the politics of hypocrisy brings a or exploration of identities of these traditionalists as much as the stories stirring feeling amongst the hearts characters tends to emphasize a they look up to for the footprints of of the readers that connects them different perspective of a tale that is righteous living will. For example, to the similar issues of the present- being told for the millionth time. We the stigma around homosexuality time situation and its relevance. always have been seeing Sita with the being a mental disease and/or un- characteristics of ideal womanhood. Jailata natural for many conservatives The number of allegations and can be challenged with tracing the questions on her chastity answered existence of characters like Aravana Fiza Haider through silence and agnipareeksha The “Every great changemaker was a dreamer, someone who saw the world differently – saw QA& potential and pursued it.” SHARANYA MANIVANNAN

haranya Manivannan is the Is there a subversive aspect in portraying renowned author of the short story Kodhai’s sexual desire focused on the divine? collection The High Priestess How does this and the absence of a corporeal Never Marries, which won the lover add to the poetry of longing? South Asia Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender This subversion comes from Kodhai-Andal herself, not Sensitivity (Best Book – Fiction) even from me. I urge readers to go to her poetry – her s in 2015-16 and was shortlisted finest translation in English is The Secret Garland by for the TATA Lit Live! First Book Award (Fiction) and Archana Venkatesan. You will see how closely I aligned longlisted for the Atta Galatta – Bangalore Literature my prose to her poetry. That deeply sexual longing is Festival Book Prize. Her debut novel, The Queen of all there, in her own words. Imagine how subversive it Jasmine Country, was longlisted for JCB Award earlier was for a teenager in the 9th century to write this way, this month. Manivannan’s impressive presence cuts an and you’ll see just how brilliant a coup it was – through angelic figure. Almost every metaphor of her is twined the sheer beauty of those verses – that her work became with the imagery of earth, both local and distinct. canonized. You have published poetry before. The Queen opens on pleasure, not just desire, as is only narrative of The Queen of Jasmine Country has natural. Kodhai has no lover, but her longing for one is a melancholic poetry of its own. Do you think absolutely situated in her body. It’s a disservice to her to poetry comes more naturally to you? Are there say her poetry is purely metaphorical, as various people have over the centuries. The fire in her body was real, any disadvantages of this narrative style? and it scorches her words. Her body was real. Her voice was real, even if her myth was not. The Queen of Jasmine Country is one poet’s homage to another. I saw Kodhai as a poet, primarily, and this is the story of how she became that poet, what went into her lines. In her lifetime, my Kodhai never knows that What is one story, myth or fable you’d love to she will become Andal. The historical deification also do a retelling of? Why? happened long after her lifetime. I don’t think poetry necessarily comes more naturally to I have cards up my sleeve, so to me, although it’s my earliest love. What remains true is speak. But let me say this: when that in my creative work, a poetic use of words is ever What is the purpose of retelling I work with a voice, I honour that present, no matter the form of the writing. There are no according to you? voice. Whether she is a goddess disadvantages that I can see to this style. or an unnamed woman without Retelling is a way to reclaim a story from agency doesn’t matter. I value her just the same. Many years ago, I the institutions that have benefited from began to recognize that some of the appropriating it. Notice how the Ramayana Sita, Innana and Lucifer belong to three stories and voices that came to me is such an important cog in the nationalist different cultural contexts. How difficult was were ancestral or ancient, and that I project, for example, when in reality needed to understand my writing as a yoking the three together in The Altar of the there are hundreds of Ramayanas. The rebalancing of silence and silencing. Only World? How did you manage to articulate doing, in the context of contemporary publishing. One experience I had religious Ramayana is more Tulsidas’ than So I sit with them, the characters who these collisions? is that my writing unabashedly centres the female earlier this year with Valmiki’s, yet many people don’t even come to me, and ask them what they experience. The second is that it seamlessly weaves an obsessive fan, want. I’ve thus far not approached It was because I saw them as in sympatico, and not in know this, let alone know of the Mapillai in my Tamilness, which comes from being of a whom I met personally a character in a dispassionate way. collision, that I was able to bring them together. It was Ramayana or the Laotian Ramayana or minority (and so has nothing to do with stereotypical but who literally could It’s an exercise that an author friend a very natural and intuitive progression for me. I began even the Kambaramayanam. So when you or Brahminical iterations of the same). I’m from Sri not see a person in suggested I take on (to write about a with Sita, and as I went along, the story of how Lucifer retell an established story, you provide a Lanka and I grew up in Malaysia, countries which have anything I spoke or character I couldn’t identify with and was exiled because he refused to bow before anyone experienced race-based civil war and constitutional wrote. Even my most view of its underbelly, its deeper meanings, even loathed), but it is not yet for me but his true Beloved (God) seemed to me so much like racism, so being Tamil is culturally and politically personal sharings on its mirrorings across times and societies, at this time. Sita’s own story. So Lucifer entered the manuscript, of importance to me. At the same time, I am deeply social media would and you can also create challenges and and brought with him the cosmos – brought supernovas resistant to and truly abhor any kind of ethnocentric be met with some complications for hegemonic narrative and and analemmas and the dark silences of the universe, as chauvinism which invariably slips quickly into grandiose, irrelevant The Queen of Jasmine Country befitting his name (Latin: “light-bearer”). They joined practice. misogyny, casteism and other bigotries. There were comment that had the has been nominated for the Sita’s mud and tree-roots, blossoms and ferns. Following That’s political. From the perspective of plenty of readers who disliked the Tamilness of The High effect of erasing what I Lucifer into research led me to his connection with pleasure, retelling brings the familiar back JCB Prize for Literature Priestess Never Marries, and I took it to the next level had actually said. This Venus, and thus with Inanna who enters the underworld to the centre and lets us get it to know it 2019. Similarly there are other by writing an entire book about a Tamil poet in medieval is what a lot of people and ascends from it. So the manuscript, which I wrote retellings too which have made Tamilagam. These are very personal expressions have done to Andal anew. For example, you see any Ramayana over 8 and a half years, grew greater dimensions. It is it to other long and short lists but have a powerful effect. When I read Subramania over the centuries. It completely differently if your starting point not only about Sita’s grief and the way she finds solace of prestigious awards. Many Bharati’s poem to a stunned silent bar in Kuala Lumpur is a form of violence, is Sita weeping in the wilderness, as mine in nature, but also about the courage with which the in 2007, when I published an English book in the UK and it can happen to was when I began to write The Altar of the have also emerged as best composite character formed by the three mythical figures with an almost entirely Tamil title (The Ammuchi Puchi), anyone. sellers in the past. What makes confronts themselves, the truth of who they are, what Only World. as small as they may be these gestures still ripple the We can engage the retellings so popular and they’ve done, what was done to them – and how to rise water. They assert my hybrid existence, claim space that with such violence above it. How to embody grace. fascinating? isn’t allowed to those like me, and make room for more. when it comes to figures in the collective imagination by exploring alternative narratives, which centre, The interesting thing about retellings is that they complicate or marginalise them. In doing so, we don’t somehow appeal to a cross-section of social, political just make the popular story more nuanced. We also help and cultural perspectives. I’ve experienced this firsthand Given that you draw from a variety of Subjugation of women also happened by ourselves, as ordinary people, by bringing more nuance with Queen. I had been terrified that my book would be mythologies located in various contexts, do you labeling them as ‘witches’, a term you use as a and perspective into our own lives and choices. met with an unpleasant reception from the Brahminical aim to bring out a universal narrative about title for a short story collection. What do you elite who control every aspect of Tamil Nadu, where I women? live. It was only in late 2017 that Andal was the subject think is the value of reclaiming such terms? of a vile misogynistic and casteist controversy in this Also, how apotheosis also does the same in All my work concerns itself with the multiplicity of You mentioned somewhere about how a couple state. So it’s been amazing to me how many readers of denying women their humanity, as happened narratives, so it’s not a universal narrative that I am of dreams inspired you to write The Queen of this background have loved and embraced my telling of with Andal. What do you think then is the way interested in as much as the points where experience is Jasmine Country. What do you think is the role the Kodhai-Andal story. My story is not a classical one, to engage with this? and is sown through with subversions. The reception universal and relatable. of dreams in not only remaking this world but to my book so far strengthens my hope in the power of Witchcraft is the title of my first book, a poetry also in how dreams transcend to the works literature to create a collection which came out in 2008, and that was one themselves? better world. How has the emergence of publication of the main reasons why I titled it that way – the ways I think some of in which women are stripped of their power. And Dreams were a huge part of what made me create houses such as Zubaan allowed for a more the things that absolutely, this is what happened to Andal too. More Queen, but they are an equally important part of the make mythological accommodative space for an array of diverse accurately, the refashioning of Kodhai into Andal was a stories it includes. For instance, the dream that leads to retellings so popular women’s writings in a male-dominated canon? religious project. So she is seen as goddess, not poet – the founding of Puduvai, the dreams that Vishnucittan are: familiarity, How does revisiting Andal challenge this? even when her poetry is used liturgically. What Queen (Kodhai’s father) has through his life, and which childhood does is to restore her humanity to her. It is far more influence both his and his daughter’s careers, and sentimentality, a Zubaan (and before it Kali For Women) and other complex and more precious than the elision that comes her own dreams and especially her daydreams. She sense of alienation independent publishing houses do amazing things just with pedestalisation. This is not to say that she didn’t dreams herself into the mythical landscape of Ayarpadi, from traditional by existing. The books they produce are as varied as attempt it herself; in her poems, she describes herself “wayfaring on the hallucinogenic of words”, as she narratives, and a true any other publishing house’s, and this is a good thing. as the daughter of a king, for example. But anyone who composes her poems. desire to re-enter I’ve loved and intensely disliked different books they’ve does not read those lines and not see equally her self- Dreams that come in sleep influence us subconsciously, these stories in a done, and that’s the whole point. To bring to the market possession and the sense of alienation she experienced but daydreams provide a compass for how to move way that challenges as many different kinds of titles as possible, from a from what was around her is lacking in compassion. forward. Every great changemaker was a dreamer, sociopolitical diversity of voices. It’s funny, as I respond to this I’m reminded of an someone who saw the world differently – saw potential realities. There are a few things which I see my body of work whom I met personally but who literally could not see and pursued it. The Colour of Love Shivangi Sinha The colour of love Nathavati Anathvat The colour of love is the intoxicated red of wine, illuminating and appealing, It grows to breathe a splendid adventure or so they say- But I render, it was no adventure for Daphne whilst Apollo drunk in the feverish piety of consumed frenzy chased her, The One Who Stood for Herself trying to sweep her off her feet with no consultation of her volition. They say there is a madness in love and I wonder where the reason in this madness disintegrates? “A kshatriya woman’s highest n silence. Panchali is often praised can’t love understand that it can't always be accepted? purpose in life is to support the for her role as a woman speaking not warriors in her life: her father, only for herself but representing all It wasn’t the footsteps of love that Daphne was running from, brother, husband and sons.” tutors women of her times, “I have shed it was the footsteps of shrouded darkness entailing her innocence. a sage to Draupadi’s brother. From tears of all women in this world, in The colour of love is red like roses that blossomed with Persephone’s touch behind the curtains Draupadi the assembly today” one hears her but sweet naïve retorted “And who decided that a saying after the disrobing sequence Persephone forgot to thorn her roses so the keeper of souls, devoid of his own woman’s highest purpose was to in the 2013-14 television adaptation in sunless depths, support men?” These lines from of the Mahabharata by Swastik where hope despairs and warmth weeps shackled her feet. Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee’s The Productions aired on Star Plus. He dragged her to the underworld, made her the queen of death. Palace of Illusions shed light on the character of Draupadi. Draupadi Shilpa Prasad in her article For Hades, love is the red of pomegranates that made Persephone a captive, has always been a favourite of “Exploring Draupadi with a Feminist tied her down to a crown of bones. authors, her portrayal a battleground Lens” published on the online when it comes to retellings of the platform Feminism in India writes, When Tereus saw Philomela, a heedless cyclone of desire seized him, Mahabharata. The myriad retellings “She spoke up for herself in full he lost his senses, committed the offences ‘cause apparently the cousin of love, attempt to correct the mythology by awareness of the consequences of lust lunged its hold onto him. a strong portrayal of an otherwise such boldness and wittily explained It turned the king in him into a barbarian, the man in him into a rapist weak woman in traditional sense or the ideas of right and wrong to When the metal of his sword clanged against Philomela’s tongue, besmirched the mainstream narrative. This article the kings when she was wronged. in the red of her blood tries to highlight the strength of The role of quiet suffering and he didn’t just mutilate her, he muted her character displayed by Draupadi in submission is the one she rejected.” but he forgot that while the feathers of her wings were upheaved, the toughest of times especially the While Draupadi is praised for her her claws were still there. dicing game and the way in which wit, knowledge and legalities of she stood up for herself when nobody issues, her understanding of Dharma When you try to silence a woman, you will find out that we’re doubly else did along with presenting her and voicing her concerns in a male equipped. character as imagined by Divakaruni dominated society, some have Our voice has an echo that can trigger an avalanche to any misogyny, in The Palace of Illusions and the criticized her for these qualities. the prowess to uproot any patriarchy Star Plus television adaptation. Iravati Karve in her collection of but even without our voices, we are an avalanche in ourselves. essays on Mahabharat as Yugant: Try to take us down and you’ll be the one coming undone. After Yudhisthira loses Draupadi End of an Epoch writes, “Draupadi in his last bet against the kingdom was standing there arguing about Red isn’t just the colour of love, it’s the colour of vengeance. and Duryodhan’s wife Bhanumati, legal technicalities like a lady pundit Procne knew to deliver hell, you need to unleash your own demons first Duryodhan sends an usher to convey when what was happening to her was ‘cause if you don’t, fact is that in today’s world. Draupadi his order calling her to so hideous that she should have only The pointing fingers might just drop down to the length of your dress. the assembly. Draupadi refuses and cried out for decency in the name You and I have apparently progressed from sleeping in caves uses her wit, asking usher to return of the Kshatriya code. Allowing to the humble abode of our bed amidst the clatter of high-speed internet and question the Kuru sabha that if their daughter-in-law to be dragged but our carnal instincts wrapped around the blindfold of a rigid mentality Yudhisthira had lost himself before before a full assembly, dishonouring reclines us back to eons ago. wagering her in a bet, how he could a bride of their own clan in the hall still stake her in a bet. Divakauni’s of men, was against all human, Not much has changed, we are quick to blame and victim shame. Draupadi, in The Palace of Illusions, unwritten laws that quibbling about Medusa remains a monster, the venom though didn’t drip from the fangs of here quotes from the Nyayashastra legal distinctions at that point was the serpents coiled around and says, “If perchance a man the height of pretension”. Karve her head – the real venom springs in misguided structure of society. lost himself, he no longer had adopts a conservative approach to That’s the thing about society, it thrives on double standards, the fault falls any jurisdiction over his wife.” view Draupadi. While Krishna’s onto our attires. voice emerges as a strong force not Society calls out a random stalker ‘Romeo’ whom I refuse to play Juliette for. Duryodhan was surprised to hear submitting to the patriarchal notions Draupadi’s questions as, Mehendale and orders in that assembly, Karve Funny how it’s all fun and games until knives and stabs are involved, argues in an essay, published in wants her to submit to the same in cases like these, where there is a blurry line between a love letter and death Journal of Oriental Institute, male forces that dragged her into threat, because he thought by hearing that the assembly neglecting the cause of love doesn’t blossom, love infects. her husband had lost her and that the action which was not Panchali’s she was not a queen anymore, she questions but jealousy and egoist So, tell society not to mistake 'molestation’ with acts of endearment would breakdown but by asking approach of the Kauravas towards ‘Cause only then the females of our world wouldn’t need to cry out #Metoo. such a question and returning the their cousins. Calling her questions usher, not following the orders, she “foolish” and “terrible”, that had had shown that she still considered put the Dharamraj into a “dilemma herself to be free. Alf Hiltebeitel in and unwittingly insulted him”, her STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS THROUGH THE TIMES his essay “Draupadi’s Questions” position “desperate”, Karve ignores “A woman is a full circle, within her second wife. Medea took revenge brings forth her refusal to accept the fact that it was Draupadi and is the power to create, nurture and on Jason by murdering his new wife

slavery and her choice to consider her wit as a “lady pundit” that Nilansha transform”, wrote Diane Mariechild. and their two sons and became an herself a free woman until she enabled her to free her husbands and Women have always been an integral antidote to a motherly figure. She receives an answer from Yudhisthira kingdom from impending slavery and prominent part of our rich history displays her strength of character by whether he staked “self or me” first. when given a boon but Yudhisithira but they have also always been not only deciding to take revenge on lost the kingdom in the final marginalised and disregarded. The her husband but going to an extent Draupadi after being dragged into challenge bringing upon his brothers society has always put down women of killing her own children in order the court, challenges all the well- and Panchali an exile of thirteen and treated them as inferior to men to provide herself with justice as learned, shastra-knowing males to years. Karna, remarks on Draupadi’s but, through the years we have seen she wishes it to be. She not only answer her questions. Angered by decision to free her husbands and some strong, female figures who comes across as assertive but also the treatment she received at the kingdom, “Like a boat she saved have refused to give up even in the as a strong female who refuses to hands of Dushasana, who pulled her the Pandavas when they were about face of adversity. Draupadi, the accept injustice being imposed on hair and dragged her into the sabha, to drown in a sea of disgrace.” heroine of the Mahabharat, an epic her. Another tale is of Philomela she questions all the male warriors in Indian Mythology is a fearless and Procne, two courageous sisters. including the patriarch Bhishma on Pradeep Bhattacharya in his essay, role model who was born from a Philomela was Tereus’s sister- the practice of their idiosyncratic “Panchkanya” talks about the use sacrificial fire, changed the status of in-law but was raped by him. He Dharma, adding if it is their of knowledge by Draupadi not only women during her times. At a time cut her tongue and hid her so that knowledge of individual Dharma that in course of the dicing game but when women were considered to she couldn’t tell anyone what had allows these stalwarts like Bhisma, also in working of the kingdom. He only stay within the four walls of the happened. After it came to Procne’s Drona, Vidura and Yudhisthira to let a mentions that Panchali used to give house, she was the only one to stand knowledge, she killed her son with woman be dragged and disrespected Pandavas advices in the political up for her rights, beliefs and virtue. Tereus and served it to him for dinner in the hall (society). Here in this matters, kept an account of wealth, After being stripped of her dignity in the name of revenge. When it moment, Draupadi becomes every a track of Yudhishtra’s tours, made in front of a full court of people, her comes to Greek goddesses, Artemis female, unapologetically voicing arrangements for his trips, checking desire for revenge became stronger is a huge inspiration and is one of the their concerns, unabashedly his retinue and other requirements and she rarely passed an opportunity most respected of all Greek deities. questioning an all-male assembly herself. Draupadi emerges as one to complain about her ill-treatment Artemis, being a virgin drew the when patriarchy was deeply rooted of the strongest voices from within and bad luck for having such a lot attention of many men. Actaeon and in the society. Draupadi reminded the Indian Mythology who not only for husbands. The Pandavas never Siproites tried to rape her but she the sabha with equanimity of her refused to submit to her circumstances failed to do anything for others in punished them because she wanted position not only as a daughter-in- but also used her knowledge and wit order to help them but sat quietly in to remain chaste for eternity and law of the Kuru clan but also as a to come out of her situations, not front of the gathered nobles as they punish them for their attempt to do woman. She delivered a monologue only saving herself but her husbands, watched Draupadi getting humiliated wrong. Even in the recent times we citing the concerned Dharma of becoming a queen of all women and did nothing to stop it or avenge see strong, independent women an individual. Being the only one of her times, providing a strong her. She stood for herself. Another like Rani Lakshmi Bai, Michelle who was looking for answers in voice of justice and registering her very interesting story is of Medea Obama, Sushma Swaraj, Lilly Singh, that assembly, she attempted “to protest within a patriarchal society. who is a character in a Greek play Priyanka Chopra, Kalpana Chawla, transform the situation of ordered by Euripides. She was a former Laxmi Aggarwal, Mary Kom and violence into one of discussion” as princess of the ‘barbarian’ kingdom Oprah Winfrey shining in their own pointed out by Kevin McGrath in Purusharth Chawla of Colchis. She was married to respective fields of expertise and his essay “Speaking of Truth”. The Jason, another king, but soon found profession and giving inspiration sabha was unable to resolve her her position in the Greek world to young girls to aspire and achieve query and bowed down their heads threatened by a princess of Corinth whatever they can dream of. “I don’t think I write books to make them famous, I QAThe & write books because I like them.” DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

evdutt Pattanaik stories, symbols, and rituals to figure mythological fiction, left turns the I have written only one re- is a well known out how the past is communicating past into evil and right turns the past imagination i.e. The Pregnant King. writer, columnist, with the present. into very noble. Every other book is a retelling of illustrator and a stories trying to figure out what they D mythologist, who There has been a lot of debate You have also retold Greek are trying to tell us. I don’t think I has incorporated mythology from an Indian write books to make them famous, I over Hinduism’s treatment of write books because I like them. Vedic knowledge perspective. What are some of into human resource management. women, queerness and sexual I make money from my lectures, Some of his renowned books fluidity. Works like Sita and the parallels you have found whether books are bestsellers or not include Myth = Mithya: A Shikhandi and Other Tales most intriguing? is irrelevant to me. Handbook of Hindu Mythology; They Don’t Tell You challenge Superficially Greek mythology is I have been writing on mythology Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling heteronormativity. Can very similar to Indian mythology for the last 20 years long before because there are many gods. of the Mahabharata; Sita: looking back to the scriptures mythology became a fashion. An Illustrated Retelling of the However, structurally it is not. help strengthen those who Because Greek mythology deals Ramayana; Business Sutra: An are still marginalised on the Is there an aesthetic universe Indian Approach to Management; with one life and Indian mythology in which mythology and its argument of cultural purity deals with rebirth. Shikhandi: And Other Tales they retellings operate? What does Don’t Tell You; Shiva to Shankara : and patriarchal hegemony? We can find stories similar between Modernity invents tradition. So, Achilles and Duryodhan because it look like? Giving Form to the Formless where Aesthetic universe depends on the he shows his groundbreaking work. modern-day writers and activists the mother tries to save the son tend to think of themselves as from weapons but leaves one part culture we are talking about. The He writes columns for not only aesthetic in South India will be Scroll.in, Midday and Daily O but saviours and cherry-pick stories vulnerable. But these are superficial from the past to show the past connects. One can even find such very different as compared to North also for Times of India, Swarajya India. In North India, the aesthetic and CN Traveller too. was wrong and they are right. connects between However, when you start a deeper Why is it important to the Bible and the is dominated by the Nautanki understanding of these stories and hold onto epics than Quran, but the traditions. In South India, it is Your works largely focus dominated by classical traditions. look at all texts you will realise that framing new narratives point is to see on retelling mythology. all ancient cultures have multiple the structural and But there are street plays which relevant to day to day life then it is and the that engage directly have different traditions. So, there Would you see your works points of view, some positive and demystification and there is nothing Mahabharat, they psychological as rediscovery or as parallel some negative. with dynamic social foundation of these are many aesthetics. Unfortunately, magical about it. It is trying to help both talk about the today we are overwhelmed with world-making of a grand Words like cultural purity and realities? stories which are people understand what the stories treatment of lower the aesthetic of Bollywood and patriarchal hegemony [are] Old epics can be seen in very different. narrative? are all about. caste people badly the traditional aesthetics are being You are confusing mythology with construction[s] of modern-day [sic] as in the two ways, superficially and writes who cherry-pick data from overshadowed. mythological fiction, which is How do you see the accounts case of Shambuka structurally. Superficially The literary rather common. Mythology focuses the past and it is not true whatsoever and Eklavya, but sphere is and that is what I am trying to show. of Shambuka and Eklavya they have no connection What is one story, myth or on what the ancients were trying that highlight the problematic they also talk with dynamic social reality. bustling with to communicate with the present about the killing fable you would love to do a aspects of mythology? However, when you look at retellings and generation while mythological Do works like My Hanuman of Brahmins retelling of? Why? If you talk to the left-wing they re-imaginings fiction re-imagines old stories, Chalisa and My Gita, that aim who do not treat the depth of the stories, the I have retold the will always see Hindu narratives as globally. restructures them in a manner that to demystify their sources, also human beingz psychological framing of Ramayan three misogynistic, patriarchal, therefore Some of them, communicates the viewpoint of the with respect. So the stories you realise it is times, I have retold attempt retelling? they will cherry-pick stories like author for the current generation. Ravan is killed. as relevant today as it was including your the Mahabharat Let us first understand what Shambuka’s and Eklavya’s. Dronacharya is works, have three times because demystification is. Many people If you talk to the right wing they yesterday. beheaded. So, been ranked as there are layers and How would you define chant hymns or read books without will say these are false stories, the story is not bestsellers too. layers of meaning mythology? quite understanding what they say. misinterpreted and everything in favouring one caste over another. that often escape Mythology is the study of stories, When you translate these books, and Hindu scriptures is good. What do you think is the This is called modern-day modern storytellers symbols, and rituals. You decode contemplate how they are However, let’s look at the Ramayan reason behind the popularity reimagination of the past: in who have presumed notions of of these retellings both the past, and that is why I stick to amongst the authors and the the Ramayan and the Mahabharat readers? continuously.

“I marvelled at the interpretation of the sequence The by the writers because there is not a single weak QA& moment for Draupadi.” POOJA SHARMA

ooja Sharma is an but also her weaknesses, the ability the writers because there is not a who spoke out against sexism and Indian model and to courageously endorse every single weak moment for Draupadi; raised questions that are valid till television actress. emotion is what being a human even though she is at the receiving date. She is known for her being is all about. So yes, she loves, end of such shameful choices by role of Draupadi gets angry, fears, gets worried, gets her kith and kin. Dusshasana What is that one mythological P anxious, nurtures her family and in Star plus’s overpowers her physically and or historical character that ‘Mahabharat’ and lambasts them when the time comes even though she cries she shows you would like to portray on- as Parvati in Color’s ‘Makhali- and depicts her innate strength too. indomitable spirit in this challenging Anth Hi Aarambh Hai’. She made situation. She does not take this screen and why? her acting debut in 2012, with Star How did you prepare for the lying down and raises questions I feel Blessed to have already Plus’s ‘Teri Meri Love Stories’ and role and how did reading and that are thought portrayed the best...first Draupadi then Mahakali/Parvati and hopeful much later in 2018-19, she voiced reinterpreting literature help provoking for How do you think to portray more such avatars. over for a show and narrated three in the preparations? people until this shows. Sharma was also listed As an actor I largely go by my Draupadi as a character day. I loved every in The Times of India’s Top 20 instincts. What helped greatly is relevant in the modern bit of the shooting most desirable women on Indian was the superlative writing of our times? of this sequence. Television in 2017. show. Kudos to the writers for As I mentioned earlier, she We shot about 22 such a sensitive interpretation of was almost like the first days. To maintain Draupadi in Swastik different volatile characters. Swastik woman who raised such valid such heightened Productions’ adaptation Productions also provided us with a questions about patriarchy, emotions for such a long period of of Mahabharata comes lot of reading material. misogyny and Dharma. Even out as a very fierce and an today most of the women time was the taxing unapologetically strong face such subtle and brazen part. It did not tax Cheerharan sequence and attacks Draupadi teaches us me emotionally woman. What’s your take on Draupadi’s questions in the not to take it . Someone may but even today my the character? male-dominated Sabha of overpower you physically heart swells with What I love about Draupadi in your show was much talked but spirit should remain pride over how our Mahabharata is that she is a about; also, you have called individual? audience). I indomitable and this same Draupadi behaves in well-rounded character who goes it a taxing sequence in your The sequence was a very marvelled at the can be understood in the this unprecedented through a wide gamut of emotions. rewarding experience. I still interpretation of interviews. How did it tax you contexts of social, religious situation. It seems In my opinion, she is unapologetic reap the reward (thanks to my the sequence by the and ethnic minorities. like the first woman not just of her strengths but as an actor and as an Paroxysm

Virginia to Vita

You tell me my mind is magnetic; it is a sun - all-consuming I’ve swallowed it whole; it is stuck in my throat I now speak of nothing but you.

I have loved the man like nobody can; I have emptied myself now Take So, you give me the love, that is enough just for tonight Watch the moon with me but not tomorrow’s sun. Me God, the nights have so many stars to show me; autumn has never looked more ecstatic And I want to be everything that makes you feel infinite; so, I will Away remember my name again Across the ocean No longer will I write poetry about how sad I am. I keep standing For hours We have the money and the room at last; fiction seems And wait cosmopolitan For that tide But I hope you know that I’ll come back to this; I was Wait for it only born yesterday To take me away I am still a child of six. My existence In this nonchalant world. There is a dangerous love inside of us; the veins I cry a wry, quiver At the moon The blood stains the walls; the claw marks are on Looking away, the furniture Looking away from my awkwardness And there is too much to clean before someone I try, comes over. I try my sound best To tell him You reek of art and sunshine; I shall diminish I need his calm you no longer I need his light I know you wanted to save me To look away from my scars But, Vita, I’ve filled my pockets with too I take a deep breath many stones already. Every time I go near the water And ask it to take me away Take me away because I can’t take a stand Satvik Tandon Because I can’t decide what’s harder To swim in Or let go. That boat I was unable to take Took me away with it Took me away with people I loved With people I knew not for very long But loved. My brain too, I couldn’t take a stand To take it or leave it And now I’m standing here hums with scraps Clueless Wrying at the moon of poetry and Longing for its light. madness, Virginia Bhavya Verma Rainbow These poems do not live- And die, I abhor myself for breathing in grey, As soon as they come to life. When I wish to come out as a rainbow. But they say it’s erring, These poems are war cries They make me feel mortified of some delinquency I have And lullabies, never performed, That put me to sleep every night. They glower, They call me horrendous things. These poems throw a feast They take me to the temple, And celebrate To sponge off everything they think is wrong, All those who gifted hurt. Smooth Dissonance And do not realise god has more significant issues Than a girl lying curbed in a closet. These poems are all forms of glory, A break in this state of being My mind is anxious, And ache Shall make all detestable winds My body is insecure, For all the times there was no healing. Stay while the light that’s seeing I am ashamed, Shuts on me with my musings For, I do not have the nerve to bolt their mouths with my These poems are the proof that I existed fist, That I was here, While it blinkers and fades away It feels that this society will never let me escape, Even when I thought I wasn’t. A forceful peace abounds in me Some call it a phase that will just pass, My physical being ceases to sway Some call me confused. These poems are a child’s cry, My mind’s eye no more does see But in real, it’s there mind what’s fused. Naive and pointless The hole I am confined in, But God, so pure. Our minds heavy, our bodies hollow Is small and suffocating, Invisible chains ensnare us all I am unable to breathe. These poems are ecstasy We trudge through life, it’s meaning shallow Oh dear, when will I stand in light In times of grief Incessantly waiting on the divine call With my head held high with pride? That one cannot help but succumb to. Getting accepted is much more than getting a prize, Feigning smiles, demeanors , manners humours More lovable than being a gay. These poems are Splashing colours of inebriation in our hearts But I will rise, What Plath meant when she said Trying to cure our emotional tumors I will rise from this, “I am, I am, I am.” Invading destitute homes for our apple tarts And will feel glad and proud for who I am. I am freaking rainbow! Singing through this state of torment Kashish Gupta We shall live through, only to sleep Committing innocuous crimes, never to relent Khushi Batra Sleeping through eternity, never to weep. Saloni Mirchandi “The only way that history can be meaningful is The if we present several points of view and see the “truth” as something that lies between those QA& multiple perspectives.” ASHWIN SANGHI

shwin Sanghi—entrepreneur by of texts do you approach to embellish the novel day, novelist by night—has all as a whole regarding any one character, apart the usual qualifications of an from a primary text that may have inspired the Indian businessman. Schooling at the Cathedral & John Connon crux of your novel? School, a B.A. in Economics from As I have mentioned earlier, I spend several months on A St. Xavier’s College, and an MBA research. The nature of the research varies according from Yale School of Management. to the book. For example, Chanakya’s Chant simply Besides being a businessman, Ashwin manages a involved multiple readings of the Arthashastra and the parallel career as a writer of fiction. Mudrarakshasa. Whereas The Krishna Key involved He ranks among India’s highest selling English fiction travel to Mathura, Dwarka, Somnath etc. and a good authors. He has written several bestsellers like The reading of Kalki Purana. The Sialkot Saga involved Rozabal Line and two bestselling crime thrillers with interviewing people who had lived through Calcutta and James Patterson, Private India and Private Delhi. Dr. Bombay of the fifties and sixties and looking at modern Shashi Tharoor calls Ashwin’s second novel, Chanakya’s history books. Keepers of the Kalachakra involved Chant “an enthralling, delightfully-interesting teaching myself quantum theory. and gripping read with historical research that is impressive.” Sanghi has been included by Forbes India in their Celebrity 100. He is a winner of the Crossword Popular Choice 2012, Amazon India Top-10 eBook In terms of the craft of writing a retelling, do 2018, Bangalore LitFest Popular Choice Award 2018, you think there are certain tropes that find WBR Iconic Achievers Award 2018 and the LitOFest themselves repeatedly in novels like these? Literature Legend Award 2018. He also mentors, co- writes and edits titles in the immensely popular 13 Steps Of course! An ancient secret, a long-forgotten relic, series. a secret society, an archaeological dig… the list is endless. But then, the reason one reads commercial In an interview you humorously called yourself fiction is precisely because of these expectations. How a ‘rewriter’. What is your modus operandi many tropes do you see in a murder thriller or police procedural? The brooding for ‘rewriting’ ancient stories within a Fiction which retells mythology investigator with a dysfunc- contemporary framework? tional personal life… need I and history is in vogue presently, go on? I was talking of ‘writing’ and ‘rewriting’ in the context of having to go through multiple drafts of the same work both internationally and before it is actually readable. I have always considered nationally. What according What is that one story that myself to be a poor writer but a fairly good rewriter. to you led to a resurgence of Regarding ancient stories, I am not interested in retelling you would want to do a them. This is a country that has 300 versions of the interest in tales as old as time? retelling of? Why? Ramayana so what is the need for an Ashwin Sanghi to retell that story? What I do is use mythology, history, The spurt in the sub-genre of mythology- Ponniyin Selvan based on the philosophy and science to make for an interesting related popular fiction by Indian writers early days of the great Chola modern tale. Your book Chanakya’s Chant reimagines sub-genre but the entire in English was the result of a few parallel emperor Rajaraja Chola I. I am an obsessively organized person. A decade ago I a historical event. Can a retell-ing be used popular fiction genre) did trends by the new millennium. was a businessman who was also a writer. Today I am a not take off for many years writer who is also a businessman. I usually write in the politically to also recorrect a historical wrong? in India primarily because ● Emergence of home-grown publishers mornings from 5am to 9am. My evenings are usually The Mahabharata started as a story of 25,000 verses of the condescending such as Rupa and Westland. spent reading and researching. I spend several months on attitude of publishers in research, so for a typical book like Bharat Series it could called the Jaya. Several hundred years later it morphed into a work called the Bharata that was 50,000 verses the subcontinent to such take six to twelve months. I then spend around three writing. Publishers believed ● Success in English commercial fiction months on the plot. Usually the plot will have twist and long. That eventually became the Mahabharata, an by Indian writers such as Chetan Bhagat. epic of 100,000 verses. I can bet you that every author that Indians were best left turn in the story planned chapter-wise. It is only after to write literary fiction and these two stages that I start writing. Detailed plotting along the way added his own spin to the story. The same thing happened with the Ramayana. We have over 300 non-fiction. This is precisely ● Growing interest in Indian mythology ensures that I do not allow the pace to slacken except the reason that bestseller inspired by writers such as Ashok Banker of my own choosing. Since I am not a great writer but versions of the Ramayana and each of them gives a racks at Indian bookstores in and Devdutt Pattanaik who brought the a decent rewriter, I rewrite the manuscript several times unique spin to the epic. Frankly, what is happening now is not something new, it is simply a continuation of an those days were dominated epics and related stories to English readers before it goes in for editing. All in all, two years is the by foreign authors. If one average from beginning to end. age-old tradition. What makes it new is the language in simple language. of choice—English. The Spanish novelist George wanted a quick read, there was Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Santayana famously said “History is a pack of lies about ● The coming of age of urban children events that never happened told by people who weren’t Sheldon, Tom Clancy and Most of the mythological retellings that are who had grown up watching the Ramayana there.” countless others. But no written are based upon a writer’s particular I was fascinated by history during my school years Indians were on this list. and the Mahabharata TV serials and had ‘assumption’ on the subject. How does one but began to question what one was expected to take In those days the average read Amar Chitra Katha comics. negotiate the thin boundary between fiction and as the “gospel truth” in later years. In that sense, both first print-run of a book history here? mythology and history are coloured by the view of the penned by an Indian author ● The success of mythology, theology and writer. And that is precisely where the challenge lies— would be 2500 copies. As a fantasy inspired media in the West such as I like to think of the process as the construction of providing an alternative view. complete contrast, writers of Hindi pulp fiction (authors immensely popular The Da Vinci Code by a house. Your first priority is to dig the foundation We would be fooling ourselves if we think that history Dan Brown and The Lord of the Rings. and create a grid of columns and beams. This is ever free of personal opinions, biases or prejudices. such as Surendra Mohan skeletal structure is the history, mythology, theology, How else does one explain the fact that what is taught as Pathak, Ved Prakash Sharma anthropology and science that you spin your tale around. “The Great Rebellion of 1857” in India is taught as “The and Gulshan Nanda) used ● The emergence of writers such as Amish After the skeleton is up, you fill the spaces with brick Sepoy Mutiny of 1857” in England? The bigger question to sell in the hundreds Tripathi, Anand Neelkanthan or myself and plaster and that is your fictional narrative. I maintain that we must ask ourselves is this: should anyone have of thousands. Frankly, who combined commercial fiction with a clear boundary between fact and fiction, but then, I the absolute, unfettered and unchallenged right to write English publishers seemed mythological, theological or historical am a conspiracy fiction writer and it gives me scope to our history given these inherent biases? The only way to be more interested in themes. question the usually accepted narrative. that history can be meaningful is if we present several promoting their foreign Three important riders though: first, I do not call my points of view and see the “truth” as some-thing that lies authors to Indian audiences books anything other than fiction, there is no attempt between those multiple perspectives. As is often said, than searching for Indian writing. All that changed with to say that there is anything remotely factual about my there are three versions to any story: mine, yours and the the release of Chetan Bhagat’s first book, Five Point books. Second, I provide exhaustive references at the truth. Someone in 2004. Suddenly it became possible to think end of each book so that a reader may satisfy himself of an English popular fiction novel written by an Indian regarding the sources from which I have drawn my author outselling books by foreign authors. I think that material. Third, I approach each subject with a sense Often ‘best-sellers’ and popular fiction is the subsequent volumes clocked by popular Indian authors in the commercial genre speak for themselves. of respect—be it Jesus, Krishna, Chanakya, Buddha or relegated to the margins by elitism of literary Hanuman and that respect comes across very clearly in critics. How does one respond to such literary my writing. snobbishness? Since your stories are based around characters historical and mythological, what other types Popular fiction (not just the mythological popular fiction by people through seasons. “Know that I would gladly be draws on Christian mythology Hozier reconciles his poetry to the The Icarus to your certainty to invert the stereotype of terror of living in this society: Oh my sunlight, sunlight, sunlight the man protecting his love. In Strap the wing to me the face of the Second Coming, We lay here for years or for hours Death trap clad, happily his love just enjoys the chaos Thrown here or found, to freeze or With wax melted I’d meet the sea and is genuinely terrifying: to thaw Under sunlight, sunlight, sunlight”. for his love hurtles the end So long, we’d become the flowers (“Sunlight”, Hozier) sooner as it “slouch[es]” “to Two corpses we were, two corpses Bethlehem”. Hozier subverts I saw In Icarus’ longing for the sun, the Christian doctrine of charity, And they’d find us in a week we find reflected our most as the purest expression of When the weather gets hot precarious desires. This is also in love, and explores the compulsive After the insects have made their consonance with the Jungian idea nature of fear and arsonry: of myths representing If I was born as a blackthorn tree the primal I’d wanna be felled by you collective Held by you LOVE AND DESIRE THROUGH MYTHS IN HOZIER’S LYRICS unconscious, Fuel the pyre of your enemies. claim manifested through symbols (“NFWMB”, Hozier) I’d be home with you, I’d be home and images. But secondly, this with you. conflates Hozier’s love for his Singing about myths not (“In a Week”, Hozier) beloved and his mortality; he only adds current contexts to is absolutely ready to sacrifice them, but also allows for the Heaney had laid down the bog as himself to get closer to the reverence they hold in public an important Irish myth, much person who is his sunlight. imagination to be used for the like the frontier or the West Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan,” liberation of the voices of those in the American consciousness borrows from Greek myth who have been marginalized (Preoccupations, Heaney). and its theme of annunciation and denied spaces. For instance, Layers and layers of images of operates to give a deterministic his lyric “there is no sweeter unattenuated terror and violence view of history through the innocence than our gentle sin” lie submerged as more are violated mythological girl. Yeats (“Take Me to Church”, Hozier) added; the bogs become a weaves a communion of god, has multiple implications. metaphor for the Irish resistance. bird and girl, not for its intrinsic Disturbing the hegemonic structures Hozier uses this motif. “In a imagery but to depict a violent that demarcate supposedly correct Week” is located about the transformation; Hozier, too, behaviour and punish deviancy—for Wicklow Mountains, usually entwines the imagery of the bird, instance, homosexuality—as morally in public imagination for the the mutability of language, and heinous, Hozier’s lyrics are inherently number of bodies retrieved thence. love as a backdrop for violence subversive. Love is transgressive. Anmol Sharma Interestingly, Wicklow Mountains in “Shrike”, using the legend And Hozier retells the legend were also a stronghold for of the shrike bird that impales of the Original Sin, and Irish clans in the struggle its prey upon a thorn before paints it as defiant and rebellious, Hozier sings about the immense of its presence to make their In Eurydice against the English rule. The Irish feeding on it, as he “couldn’t instead of it being the root of themes of redemption and writings timeless and temporal at Imagine being loved by me. motherland causes devastation utter [his] love when it counted”, corruption or evil: “And when love, and especially their once. This is what gives Hozier (“Talk”, Hozier) to its own people. Referring but he “sing[s] like a bird ‘bout it now”: the earth is trembling on some intermingling with death and his extremely acute ability to to Joyce’s metaphor that compares new beginnin’/ With the same hopelessness. Particularly in the encapsulate the current turmoil As the chorus makes it plain, Ireland to the “old sow that The words hung above sweet shock of when Adam first world of today, in the face of in his special apocalyptic way. the myth of Orpheus as adapted eats her farrow” (Portrait of But never would form came” is continued with, “Be chaos and its overwhelming by Hozier becomes a means for the Artist as a Young Like a cry at the final breath that is like the love that discovered nature, Hozier—a contemporary Much of Hozier’s poetry the poet to seduce someone Man), Hozier writes: drawn the sin (Lover, be good to me)/ Irish singer-songwriter—seeks endeavours to make his love he finds appealing, taking up Remember me, love, when I’m That freed the first man and will rapture through his lyrics outlast his individual mortality, entirely different connotations as Oh but the farrow knows reborn do so again” (“Be”, Hozier). that employ everything from and using myths aids in this they are transposed to the modern Her hungry eyes, her ancient soul As the shrike to your sharp Classical to Christian, Irish and imagery, created using the world of dating. Hozier, then, It’s carried by the sneering And glorious thorn. Hozier does not simply allude contemporary mythologies: and cultural memory molded by his has the ability to draw from menagerie. (“Run”, Hozier) (“Shrike”, Hozier) to mythology. He builds perhaps this is what provides creative imagination. The classical legends, and inhabit his poetry around myths, him with purpose in the midst power of his images lies in their those perspectives to raise his Nietzsche argues for a cyclical This draws a striking parallel inhabiting those moments, and of this volatile world. facility for transformation: using love to those revered standards: nature of time: if time is to Yeats’ “A terrible beauty is retelling them from a current myths allows emotions located “No grave can hold my body infinite, what has happened born” (“Easter, 1916”); in both first-person perspective to suit Hozier has been most inspired in certain specific boundaries to down/ I’ll crawl home to her” will happen again. Myths, then, Yeats and Hozier, love— his ends, no matter how subtle by the works of Seamus jump space and time and take (“Work Song”, Hozier) , whether are cyclical too: “Oh, the tale which is amorous in Hozier but the metamorphoses. As Auden Heaney and WB Yeats, both on entirely different contexts. that home is in earth or in hell. is the same/ Told before and reverential in Yeats—and violence wrote, “I’d swear/ Men have of them Irish and both of Take this lyric for instance told again” (“Sunlight”, collide to give birth to a always lounged in myths/ as whom themselves attempted to Like Heaney, Hozier uses bogs Hozier). And therefore, our sacrificially consuming change. Tall Stories”, and not because retell mythology through their I’d be the voice that urged Orpheus as an objective correlative historical hunger and desire for they provide escape from the poetry. As Eliot writes in When her body was found… to unravel the intrusion of knowledge signifies a yearning for Hozier expresses human sheer burden of time, but because “Tradition and the Individual I’d be the choiceless hope in grief the past into the present. The bogs act “the mythic womb” (Nietzsche). passage through the continuum in spite of knowing about Talent” for a writer to be aware of That drove him underground… as residual memory, for within them Dreams are personalized of time by linking the natural their fabulousness, they allow their place in time and their I’d be the dreadful need in the lay buried countless generations myths (Campbell); and with the supernatural and by humans to truly find themselves contemporaneity, they must devotee with their individual stories and myths are collective dreams, extension his humanity with and others, so do we find Hozier have a perception of not only the That made him turn around aspirations, and then these bogs bare representing the aspirations of a it. “NFWMB” is a nod to “The as a “shred of truth in the pastness of the past but also And I’d be the immediate forgiveness them to the present to be found collective humanity: Second Coming” by Yeats; Hozier lost myth of true love” (“Talk”).

About 55% of medicine graduates Students do not know how cannot find proper jobs, and get to deal with failures. Myth is a past with a future, exercis- establishment of an identity in the Limitations of the Education System in India underpaying jobs or cannot open There is a dire need for ing itself in present. It is but with a present. The case of Greece is per- their own clinics. Moreover, these revolutionary changes in India’s passage of time that a myth evolves haps, extreme for Europe, a real case Swati Thakur problems occur despite paying a high education system, not just the from merely being a fable into a of “le regard de l’autre,” of the defi- “Teaching is a very noble profession neglect recreation while making time amount of money as fees, donations, syllabus and pedagogy, but part of our cultural heritage and nition of self by means of the other. that shapes the character, caliber to attend coaching classes which also and other charges. A student is left also the attitude of the society national history. It gets engrained For the Japanese, the mythological in- and future of an individual. If the focussing on scores rather than actual with no other choice, but to follow towards learning, otherwise as a part of national identity. “The fluences are prevalent in their graph- people remember me as a good learning. The grind between school/ the flock. The education system of India would not be able to discourse of history as well as of ic novels – Mangas. For instance, the teacher that will be the biggest college and coaching kills their India not only lacks the framework utilize its vast human resource. myth is simultaneously a discourse world-wide popular manga Naruto honour for me” is well said by A.P.J. creativity, making studies a boring or procedures to identify the innate The way the education system of identity; it consists of attribut- includes supernatural elements from Abdul Kalam. The central and the race instead of an opportunity to learn. skills of a child, but also kills those is implemented is wrong ing a meaningful past to a struc- the tale of Amaterasu – the goddess state governments, in their hurry to talents by failing to recognize and the Indian society is to tured present” (Jonathan Friedman). of the Sun, Tsukiyomi - the god of increase the number of educational The words from a song from the them. The system forces students be blamed. Sly investors the Moon facilities, granted licenses to private 2009 movie 3 Idiots very accurately to study subjects they are not even wanting to loot these In this and investors to open schools, colleges describe the morbidity of the Indian remotely interested in but also score parents get emboldened sense, Susa- and universities. However, there educational scenario and the plight high marks in those subjects. The by the overall apathy Greek no – the is a lack of quality checks on these of the students’ suffering: “Give education system in India expects on the part of central identi- god of institutions. Hence, the teaching me some sunshine, give me some parents to counsel their children. and state government ty as a storms. methods used never get questioned. rain; give me another chance, In most cases, this does not work. authorities. It would cultural Mythol- Also, these educational institutes I wanna grow up once again.” A parent might not be qualified to need efforts from all phenom- ogy here hire almost anyone, without testing counsel children on certain issues or parents, students, enon dis- becomes appeared Myth a source their teaching skills. As a result, Students in higher classes hardly get the child expects parents to counsel investors and the students are unable to learn properly. any time for outdoor activities and their children. In most cases, this government to bring in the The discourse material And coaching classes are ever sports. The education system in India does not work. A parent might not about a sea-change succes- for enter- ready to capitalize on this situation. encourages flock mentality-first be qualified to counsel children in the education sive on- tainment. slaught of identity There- through parents and then through on certain issues or the child could system of India. “A sheet of paper cannot decide the society. Since it is the parents hesitate in asking something from Failing to bring of the fore, the future of a student” (Thomas who decide the career of a child in the parent. In such situations, a such changes, Roman, con- A Edison), but here in India, the India, they tend to follow the flock counselor plays a valuable role; yet threatens the Byzan- sciously future of a student is decided by and opt for traditional favorites. most Indian schools do not have one. brilliance of tine, and or uncon- the marks scored by a student in Invariably the most favored courses a student’s Ottoman empires. This led to the sub- sciously we have transformed the an- class 10, class 12 and the three remain engineering, medicine, and Consequently, it is usually parents mind. sequent establishment of European cient myths and folk tales and made years of undergraduation. The management. Parents pay more heed that pick up a course or profession for identification of Greek national iden- them into the fabric of our lives by education system in India lays extra to prestige than skills and trends. their child. Parents decide tity. Greek literary and artistic forms weaving the narratives of myth and emphasis on scores rather than They want to join that growing a careeron two basic shaped Europe - the nude in art, for folk tale into our daily existence. education. Students scoring low flock which claims their child isa criteria: prestige example, was as central to the Re- marks suffer everywhere. They do doctor, engineer or has done MBA. and income. naissance as it was to ancient Athens. not get admissions in well-known According to India Skills’ report 2019, And usually, Even the mythology of Greece and universities. In a race to score high, researches across India prove only children do not its gods survived the rise of Chris- students usually memorise things 47% of engineers are employable. go against the tianity to decorate Europe’s palaces. rather than learning them. After Similarly 93% of MBA degree wishes of their the exams are over, their minds get holders are unemployable because parents, even if History, then, is very much a myth- vacuous about their subjects to a they graduate from substandard that means life- ical construction, as it is a repre- Shivangi Sinha great extent. Students are forced to business schools and lack skills. long suffering. sentation of the past linked to the BOOK REVIEW The month of September 2019, childhood) are far from hunky spotted by his father who lashes to which Valmiki himself draws which the government spent fighting dory. Autobiography as a medium out at the principal for making his attention to, comparing his literature dengue, attending international thus becomes in Valmiki’s hands a child work despite continual threats to those of savarna writers. In a conferences and placating the medium not to relive his memories, from the latter. Protest, a leitmotif text as political as this, language, public over the rising onion prices- but to revisit trauma and overcome of Dalit Literature, finds its first story and narration naturally take witnessed two atrocities which it. The title, which points towards articulation here. Further, he narrates a backseat, where it is impossible went largely undiscussed. On 15th the tradition wherein the leftovers or the account of his being put out from to divorce the writer from his art. September, a Dalit youth was joothan of the upper-caste members the chemistry laboratory everyday burnt alive by his neighbor who of the society were consumed which led to his failure in the subject, But even a text as hard-hitting and couldn’t bear the thought of his by the Dalit families, becomes a bullying by upper-caste children, the incendiary as this leaves some niece being in a relationship with wider metaphor to encapsulate rituals of his own community and the gaps, especially in the treatment the former. “Sometimes a man has the leftover and outcaste status solid family solidarity in the unit. of its female characters. We aren’t to do something to save the dignity of the Dalit community under the Valmiki also details his realization given much information about of his caste and family,” he replied savarna hegemony. Valmiki, thus, of the ‘Dalit consciousness’ on Valmiki’s sister who never got after being arrested. A few days is not only chronicling his story, reading Ambedkar, a person he had to go to school, his sister-in-law later, two Dalit children were hit on but of all those whose legs have never heard of before: “Reading who sacrificed her jewelry for his their heads by a man for defecating been ensnared by the caste system. these books had awakened my studies or his mother who wouldn’t in his fields, leading to their death consciousness. These books had let her son go and kill the pigs even on the spot. Even in such turbulent The youngest child of his family, given voice to my muteness.” if it fetches money necessary for times to assert that ‘caste is now Valmiki is encouraged by his father survival. But, such gaps are natural a thing of the past or we have long and brothers to receive an education. As the narration proceeds and in any text and can only be filled via abandoned that primitive practice’ But his school experience proves to details Valmiki’s economic and a retelling, which is where feminist would be to remain not only naïve be a nightmare as he is mocked by educational advancement, the Dalit accounts come into play. but also blindfolded to the horrors his classmates for wearing ragged horrors of untouchability are that keep on unfolding everyday. clothes and is castigated by his replaced by the subtle ways in which Joothan’s status as a seminal text in “To those who say that these things teachers if he attempts to look clean. casteism functions and perpetuates Hindi Dalit literature is not because do not happen here…I say that Worse, his new casteist and sadistic itself. A simple act of asking one’s it presents the sorry plight of people only those who have suffered this principal, unable to bear the idea of surname in a colloquial conversation living in deplorable circumstances. anguish know its sting” writes Om a Dalit child studying, makes him or keeping different cups of tea It is because it collects all those Prakash Valmiki in the preface of his clean the entire school- making for people of different castes in voices and articulates them into a much acclaimed biography Joothan. it a demonic everyday ritual. But one’s house- Joothan shows how scream so that it becomes a weapon this is where Joothan differs from prejudice and bigotry functions in against the giant tentacles of caste, Joothan: The Testimony of A Community Joothan, written by Dalit activist and other Dalit texts, written by non- a supposedly modern urban setup. still lingering in Indian society. writer, lacks the playful nostalgia Dalit writers. Rather than making The narrative of Joothan is simple, and a bitter- sweet remembrance it a testimony of suffering, Valmiki lacking any flamboyance- the Written by: Om Prakash Valmiki that is traditionally associated with makes it a testimony of protest. As language is rooted in the anger and Genre: Non-fiction, Autobiography autobiographies. On the contrary, he is cleaning the school one day, angst of trauma and features explicit Parth Pant Valmiki’s account of his life (even Valmiki, weeping and crying, is profanity and grotesque descriptions, Publishers: Radha-Krishna Paperbacks Language: Hindi Photography

Prakhar Varshney Prakhar Varshney Prakhar Varshney

Kumar Mangalam Erom Jasmine Kumar Mangalam message from the editorial team Why did Achilles weep inconsolably to the point of indescribable destruction at the death of a putatively ordinary man, Patroclus? What state policies did Jahanara Begum introduce in the Mughal Empire with the imperial seal she wielded? Is it an image of sheer monstrosity that Duryodhana has of himself and his brothers as portrayed in countless adaptations?

Enchanting as these questions might seem, the one that we need grapple with before answering these is why does it all matter? Why should those myths and legends and histories from times long gone by demand our interest and attention today?

This edition of The Carrel endeavours to confront these questions and many others. Traditionally, the words logos (Greek for “verifiable truth”) and mythos (Greek for “authoritative promulgation”) have been in constant tension—proponents of each trying to dismiss the other in a quest for the dominant perspective. Generally, myths are relegated to the fantastical other from the self of history as it actually happened by those with the power to establish it as the truth, for instance the effacement of gender-fluidity in Ancient India. In the Postmodern Age, however, history itself is nothing but, as William H. McNeil puts it, the result of belief systems with unquestioned assumptions: blurring the lines to what we call mythistory. Myths and legends, histories and perspectives from the past have an undying power to them: smouldering embers that put to fire the instincts of anyone with an eye for them.

As deferential we might be for these stories, the most impactful way to feel their power (and perhaps to ensure their immortality) is to tell them and tell them again. For these stories are not inviolable monoliths that to reshape them would be heresy, but their brilliance lies in their flourishing despite, and most importantly because of, the mutation that happens through retellings. As it were, nobody tampered with the Greek or Indian myths more than the Greeks or Indians themselves.

In that regard, attempts at retelling myths are not sacrilegious attempts to supplant the originals, but as Madeline Miller says, "to bring balance to the original perspective". For far too long, our heroes have been homogenised into unimpeachable figures.We learn about Einstein's Relativity or Picasso's Cubism without any thoughts to the people who helped them become what they did, many times at huge costs for themselves: hardly anyone is aware of the physicist Mileva Marić, Einstein's first wife, who made invaluable contributions to his research, nor do people know or care about the women—lovers, muses, and wives—who bled for Picasso's art. Retellings attempt to atone for that: investing authors with the power to give agency to the sidelined, help understand the misunderstood, ground adequate psychology for seemingly erratic actions, and cast reasonable actions in different lights.

From James Joyce's Ulysses to Jean Cocteau's The Infernal Machine, or Madeline Miller's Circe to Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, the history plays of William Shakespeare or Girish Karnad, to Devdutt Pattanaik's oeuvre, some of literature's greatest works, as well as its most popular—Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Palace of Illusions or Amish Tripathi's The Ramchandra series, or Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, or the countless shows on Hindu mythology and film adaptations of Greek mythology—have drawn on myths and histories.

In light of the aforementioned, this edition of The Carrel invites an exploration of a diverse array of retellings, with a special emphasis on interviews that help us learn about the way these writers approach these retellings and what do they think about the society's fascination with myths. Featuring answers from the likes of Ashwin Sanghi, Sharanya Manivannan, Devdutt Pattanaik and Pooja Sharma, the newsletter also reviews books that attempt to retell mythology as well, as well as offers insights into the importance of history and mythology in our lives. Characters like Draupadi, Helen, Medea and various others have been brought back into the spotlight, erasing margins. From pop culture to politics, from feminist to subaltern studies, from prose to poetry – this edition of The Carrel is a kaleidoscope of fresh ideas.

The Department of English wishes to compliment the student editorial board of The Carrel for their untiring efforts & unflagging zeal in putting together the various features, creative pieces & interviews for this special edition on a topic which is of perennial interest to all. We wish them a lot of success in all their future endeavours! Dr Vinita Gupta Chaturvedi Teacher-in-Charge Department of English Editorial Group

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