Book Review: Mahabharata Ki Jaani Anjaani Nayika by Monika Rusia

It will not be wise to say that epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana were all about men’s game – they fought, devised strategies, and bore ramifications and enjoyed glory. Women’s share in these epics was equal as men’s. This poetry collection by Monika Rusia brings forward a list of around nineteen women who directly or indirectly influenced the bedlam of the battlefield of Mahabharata.

The book offers a fresh and unique narrative in Hindi, first off, it is easy to read and learn. The author first puts a short introduction and then the storytelling is carried forward via an all-explaining poem. The pattern is same for all women covered in the book.

If someone has already read the mainstream Mahabharata and retellings, chances are that they are familiar with some characters. However, still there are many women who were either ignored or forgotten. The book is evident that the author has a great research on this epic, thus, she handpicked the women for our acknowledgement.

A close look reveals that the author maintained a sense of chronology with regard to the women of Mahabharata. For instance, she starts the book with Ganga and Satyavati – they were before Pandavas and Kauravs were born. It clearly suggested that they were early women who staged the back curtains for the battlefield of Mahabharata. As you read, in middle you come across Kunti, Gandhari, and likes of them. By the end, the women were not wives of Arjun or Bhim or others, they were relaying the younger generation of Pandavas such as Uttara marrying Abhimanyu.

These women’s plight, curse, and pain is captured brilliantly with the help of poetic ambience. For sure, Hindi belt readers will find this book worth their time and investment. It brings to them more characters that they can include in their knowledge about the epic Mahabharata. Yet it could be felt that most of the women covered here belonged to Pandavs club, it is likely as that they were always kept in heroic limelight. The book is a useful read for all age people, and in particular naïve readers can pick it up for more classification of women that mattered in that battle. Along with women, the author tagged men counterparts like Bhism, Arjun, and Krishna. Mahabharata is such a vast book with so many characters and their idiosyncrasies, hence, it needs many books to have perfect debate on it. Nevertheless, Monika’s book is a treasure to read and remember. Highly recommended if you are a fan of Indian mythological literature!

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog