The One who had Two Lives - Book Review

Book Title: The One Who Had Two Lives

Author: Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan
Publisher: Harper Collins India

Year of Publication: 2018

Price: INR 299

Pages: 228

The One who had Two Lives by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan was published in 2018. It is the second book in the series The Girls of the Mahabharata. As mentioned in the author’s note, the book is a stand-alone volume even though it has a brief appearance of Satyavati who was the protagonist in The One who Swam with Fishes. The One who had Two Lives describes the lives of Princess Amba of Kashi who is reborn as Sikhandini and identifies as Prince Shikhandi of Panchal.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part narrates the story of Amba’s Swayamvar. The third part narrates the story of Sikhandini’s sexual reconstruction to Shikhandi. These parts unravel the story of the birth and life of the protagonists in a non-linear fashion. The second part, ‘In-Between’ is presented in the form of dialogue between Amba and her guard turned maid turned dearest friend, Lalita.

The three parts explore different gender and sexual identities. Amba was born a female and identified as a woman. In this part, we are introduced to Lalita, a eunuch. The second part reveals the story of Lalita’s transformation from Jinodaya. She was born a male, identified as a woman and underwent castration to join the eunuch community. Shikhandini was born a female, identified as a man and underwent sexual reconstruction.

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan constantly explores sexual fluidity by hinting at the events behind closed chambers of women in the palaces and men in army camps. The sensitivity with which the author deals with sexual and gender fluidity is best described in the following dialogue between Shikhandi and his friend, Utsarg.

‘Was that – did you – was I a man or a woman just then to you, Utsarg?’
‘I don’t know,’ he says, still looking up at the sky. Then he adds, ‘Both. Neither?’
And that answer will have to do. I find that I am satisfied by it.

The author uses simple language, but not colloquial, to describe the grandeur of the epic to which the characters belong. Certain words like Asuram, Rakshasa, Atman and sounds such as Tcheh are not translated into English which provide a sense of familiarity while translated words such as sweetmeat or descriptions of attires can hint unfamiliarity. The story doesn’t merely retell the incidents of the Mahabharata as seen by the characters of Amba or Shikhandi but also, tells the tale that remains mostly untold in the epic. The fiction describes the lives of these characters ‘before’ the purpose of their death and birth is served in the Mahabharata.

The language used along with the themes of gender and sexuality and first person narration makes the tales of a perceived distant past relevant in the present day scenario. The description of girls from another yuga seems like the tale of any other girl in the twenty-first century in terms of sexual orientation and gender expression. The One Who Had Two Lives isn’t merely a retelling with the internal monologues of  female characters of the Mahabharata. It is a fiction that serves as a reminder of inclusiveness of the epic that is being consciously not seen by many today.