May 17, 2009

fascinating tale, told well


The Mahabharat is no mean tale... it captures every single emotion of life and what strikes is its applicability to this day and time... it also has the Bhagavat Gita within its womb...
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a master story teller... she weaves her logic, her viewpoint and her world view into this novel... that, of course, is the storyteller's perspective, but what one loves about this tale is its interpretation...
this is the Mahabharat from Draupadi's perspective, in her first person... and what a tale she tells... nothing is new, we have heard about the story, the various phases of her life and death... but every page is gripping and one really lays down the book after one is through...
i am not a lover of mythical tales... i would rather stay away from these... but this one was an exception.
two things struck me the most: one, Draupadi's first and unfulfilled love, Karna (and the interpretation in my mind till i read this, thanks to Nathbati Anathbath so long was that Draupadi was in love with Arjun); two and more important, that Draupadi from birth was a lady in her own right (she did not believe that women deserved any less in life)... whether the latter is a matter of Divakaruni's view, I cannot say, but i loved the novel more for that... read it, sure!

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