The Unforgettable Desire

  When identity politics begins to seem overwhelming you enough to want to get away from it entirely, the go-to book is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. It’s a go-to book on any bad day when hope seems too far away, life doesn’t make much sense, meaninglessness reigns, and peace is forgotten. To me, it was a return to the real world, a world I had shut myself away from because it seemed too cruel and hopeless to change. It was a resurrection of faith in kindness. MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT Linus Baker works as a caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He visits orphanages for magical children, interacts with the masters of the place, and at times, with children if needed. He files a report recommending whether the orphanage should remain as it is, or be shut down. He lives a quiet, solitary life, abides by RULES AND REGULATIONS of DICOMY. He is so good at what he does that he is selected by the Extremely Upper Management for a highly classified job – to be ...

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...

When I read Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore (2002) , I wondered about the falling fishes, talking cats and mysterious men and women. When I read South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992) , I wondered about the mysterious woman and how a person can seem like a figment of imagination when s/he leaves no physical proof of existing. When I read Norwegian Wood (1987) , I wondered about how there is nothing in particular to wonder about. The translator’s note in Norwegian Wood states how some readers call it ‘just’ a love story. The translator, Jay Rubin, goes on to show how it’s ‘not’ just a love story. I agree with him. I had put a lot of effort in figuring out why fishes fell from the sky when I read Kafka . I assumed that I needed to read more of Franz Kafka and Japanese culture. However, I ceased to wonder about it when in his interview with The Guardian last year Murakami stated that it was the job of the ‘intelligent people’ to figure out what fishes falling from the s...

A man sitting on my seat offered to get up when he saw me undecided - should I ask him to get up or simply climb up the side upper berth?   I took the book that I was reading out of my backpack as he began to get up. As we stood side by side for a few seconds, he asked me, "What are you reading?" I showed him my copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah . He tried to read the author's name and perhaps, failed. He returned the book with a look that made his friend chuckle. I wanted to tell him, it's a Nigerian name. I wanted to tell him that the title of the book is what Nigerians tend to call people who move to America, something like Amriki or Amrika-wale as we Indians might say in Hindi. I didn't want to explain without being asked, which was quite unusual for my ever-explaining self. Later in the evening, as I climbed up to the upper berth, allowing my co-passenger to have the lower berth all to himself, I wondered about the former moment. I bega...

Ray, P. (1995). Yajnaseni (15 ed.). (P. Bhattacharya, Trans.) New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt . Ltd. Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni ― an epistolary novel, beginning at the end and ending at the beginning ― tells the tale of the most complex epic of all times by turning the victim into a survivor, by bringing the marginal woman to the centre. Draupadi is perhaps a character who has carried the weight of every single patriarchal injustice towards women. The beautiful dark-skinned princess born from a sacrificial fire with the purpose of establishing dharma on Earth had been a victim of male gaze, lust, arrogance and ego, beginning from the Kauravas to Pandavas. “Despite someone else being the root of all causes, they emptied the entire cup of blame on my head and went away – leaving me thus at death’s door. (2)” Yajnaseni , retells the Mahabharata from the perspective of Krishnaa. It is her story of womanhood, for she follows every act of Dharma - of being a wife divide...

The One who Swam with the Fishes , Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, India, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2017, 1st edition, 152 pages, ₹250. Add caption Satyavati has long been seen as a fisherwoman who manipulated her way to the Kuru throne. A selfish unashamed woman who wasn’t satisfied merely by being the queen but made her to-be-born sons the heirs to the throne of Hastinapur instead of crown Prince Devavrata. Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, in her The Girl who Swam with Fishes from the series  Girls of The Mahabharata weaves the story of how a fish-smelling girl of divine birth, raised in a fisher community, finds her way to her Destiny. It shows the story of Matsyagandhi evolving into Satyavati of The Mahabharata . The contemporary storytelling makes the book distinct from the poetic language of an epic. At the same time, the Vedic setting and time period isn't forgotten as the modern storytelling describes a span of year in terms of rain and that of a month in terms o...

The first novel that I read was Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Centre . The first novel series that I read was Stephenie Meyer's  Twilight Saga . After that, I mostly read Nicholas Sparks and disliked Erich Segal. I read Ann Brashares’ Sisterhood series, Sarah Dessen’s The Truth About Forever , and Cecelia Ahern's books that made my teenage easy to bear. Harry Potter books happened to me only because I did not understand what happened in the movie - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince . I had read Harry Potter and the   Philosopher’s Stone as a kid. It was an utter pain to read such a thick book with tiny alphabets back then. Eventually, I was embarrassed of the books that marked the beginning of my reading habit. I was embarrassed only because people saw those books in a derogatory light. After a few years of public comments on my book choices, I did begin to ask people if they had read those books. The answer usually was, no. It was then that I stood up for ...

The stories of already established mythological works from the point of view of an almost invisible character has given way to the contemporary genre of retellings and mythological fictions. Among these, a strong voice has been that of the women who were mere props in the metanarratives that were written with patriarchal ideals. Kavita Kané’s Karna’s Wife , Sita’s Sister , and Menaka’s Choice are newbies in mythological retellings and fictions. The three books are love stories of side tracked voiceless women in the grand narratives. What the books do is that, introduce the readers to characters that they might not have thought about, like that of Uruvi, Urmila, and Menaka respectively and yet hail them based on the favourite patriarchal feature associated with women, self-sacrifice. The three books have their women protagonists smitten in love and eventually subjugated by it. In these stories, the storytelling is quite contemporary as opposed to the characters who are eon ...