Tapestry of Women in Indian Mythology: Meenakshi Mohan

Non-Fiction

Verdict: Cannot Recommend.

This was another newspaper recommendation after an article on Feminism. I was pretty excited to read it. 

I understand that feminism means different things to different people. Especially between generations and cultural groups. India is not known for it's women-friendly environment. It's a downright misogynistic place to this day. I thought anything feminist coming out of India would be a good thing. My flaw was thinking that feminism meant through the lense that I see through. I won't bother you dear reader with a speech on my views of feminism, but let's just come to the conclusion that I was wrong. Dramatically wrong. 

India is a nation of apologists. Accountability and ethics are, well, let's say "flexible". If you look at the religious texts like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (and I have read both), you find texts with very sticky moral situations and the justifications around what is right and wrong. It's truly challenging to read with an open mind as cultural "rights" and "wrongs" are ingrained in us so deeply from a young age.  I'm getting to the point, I promise.

This text looks at books like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and attempts to translate the lessons of the books into feminist themes. By excusing or ignoring deeply harmful actions, or justifying the cultural correctness of the time. I found it disgusting. I know that's not very understanding of me, but washing the mud off of a pig doesn't make it a donkey. I have said many times that India will probably never change at it's core, and I believe it's because people like having the moral flexibility to do anything and defend it as tradition. Of course, that's trite. But it's correct at the core. 

As we travel through the 21st century, we hope for progress - both in infrastructre and mindset from the entire world. Equality of all people, be it women, LGBTQ+, backward castes, etc should be something we strive for, not just talk about. If people continually defend the actions of the past with no moral judgment relevant to the present, then change is not possible.

Look, practice whatever feminism floats your boat.....but please not this one. Do not be apologetic about equality anywhere. We all know the time past had a different culture, different mores, and different reasoning. That is irrelevant to today where we try to continue evolving in thoughts and deeds. If you rationalize mistreatment of women in the past, you excuse it today. Let's continue growing. Sermon over.

~Becky~

The Difficulty of Being Good - Gurcharan Das

NonFiction

Read it

Gurcharan Das was an author that was mentioned in a book I read recently on Punjab. Since I like following rabbit holes and building context, I thought I would try him out when I saw this book. Das takes us through the concept of being "Good"  and fulfilling one's Dharma and contrasts that with the definitions of "Good" and "Dharma" in the Mahabarata.

If you've ever read the Mahabarata, you know that both Good and Dharma are relative terms. It's all subjective and arguments can be made for any direction. It's maddeningly twisted. Trying to apply the Mahabarata to real life is a similar exercise. If you cannot define in exact paramaters what "Good" and "Dharma" are, then comparing or applying them to real life is a mind melting exercise. 

I would call this more of an analysis of "Good" and "Dharma" are in the Mahabarata. And Das explores every small twisted alley in depth. Even he still accepts the nonsolidity of the concepts by the end of the book. It's a good book to read if you want to dive into ethics and Indian literature and societal ethos. The minute you try to apply concrete values to any of it, you will feel like bashing your head on the concrete. 

While it was a bit long and drawn out, I'm not sorry I read it. Even if I was ready to be done with the relativism 3/4 through the book. 

Read it.

~Becky~

The Seeds of War - Ashok K Banker

Fiction

Read it

I've read many different flavors of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, some good, some inane. This is another reincarnation of a part of the Mahabharata and one I found very interesting. While this is only a section of the author's rendering of the Mahabharata, I found some of his explanations and story telling skills very good for understanding the underlying thought and logic for some of the familiar stories. 

In general, I'm a fan of multi-generational stories, and this one stretched for a few.  I found the plot pacing to be rather sporadic - in some places the author takes pains to over explain and give too many details and in other places, he races past things. I'm not sure if this was due to the size of the project he was trying to cover or if he wanted to connect stories. Either way, it was a bit awkward to read from that perspective. 

I'm not sure I would sit through the rest of the series if this is any indication of how it would go, but I did enjoy learning new things about old stories.

Read it!

~Becky~

The Krishna Key - Ashwin Sanghi

Fiction
Verdict: Depends on your tolerance of mythology

I have read Ashwin Sanghi previously. This is a book I have been meaning to read for quite some time now, so when the librarian mentioned it, I decided to just go for it.

Ashwin brings his audience through a suspense novel concerning some artifacts, the Indian mythological system, murder, and misplaced righteousness. Spoiler - I didn't finish it. I'll get to that in a minute.

I enjoy Ashwin Sanghi's writing, aside from a few novel-specific points He's competent, coherent (or at least has a good editor!), and overall spins a good story.

Why it didn't work for me:
1. I appreciate mythology, I truly do. I'm not sure if Sanghi was trying to appeal to a wider audience than India, but he over explains the mythological concepts and connection in the guise of a teacher/student dynamic. This bothers me because a, I'd bet that almost every Indian knows these stories, b, trying to sell them as actual events here is not going to be argued with too much, and c, your student is 40 years old - she won't be asking level 1 questions.
2. I will never be convinced that the Mahabharata's stories are any more true than the bible or Koran. Less likely in fact.
3. The characters were caricatures. The geeky but hot student, the chain smoking, rough voiced female cop that scares the shit out of her colleagues and everyone in general.....come on.


If you have some time and you like mythology and the echo chamber that exists here about proving questionable events, then feel free. Not my cup of tea.

~Becky~

Mahabharata - R.K. Narayan

I know that this post will most likely come off as incredibly nerdy and/or snooty. Not much to be done about that.

Mahabharata was next on my list because I've been trying to dig a little deeper into the Indian experience that I find myself living at the moment. That and my husband was nagging me (in a good way sweetie!) to read it. We picked a simple version by R.K. Narayan as a starter. For those unfamiliar, the Mahabharata is an old Indian text that is a commentary on how society should function together. For the uninitiated to Indian culture, it's like a delightfully frustrating maze in which you have to go back and try again a few times, even though it seems simple. Much like learning Hindi. Thankfully, this version is short and features simple language. There are as many authors of the Mahabharata as there are authors that wanted to create it, and it has been a constantly evolving text, changed more than a few times over to suit both the times and the location where the author was from. The Mahabharata is beautiful because it's so deep. If you want to get progressively harder (all the way up do damn, this is impossible), there are many, many versions that become progressively longer and more complicated to understand. Seriously. You can wander all the way up to the Sanskrit version. Unless you're a Sanskrit professor, you probably won't be able to read it though. I'm not going to be arrogant and declare that I'll get just below Sanskrit, because that's just ridiculous. I do, however want to get a slightly more complicated version. One of the things I found frustrating about R.K. Narayan's version of this book was that while it challenged me to pay attention, it also glossed over many, if not all of the story and kept it very superficial. My husband and I have on many occasions gotten into discussions about this story and I can feel aspects of it that are missing in this book.

Verdict:

Amazing version for beginners if you have any interest/inclination to dig into Indian culture and ethos. For those who already know the story or have already read it, this won't cut it.