This book was about retelling of the great epic Mahabharata
from Draupadi’s viewpoint.
One is left with nostalgia and memories of stories which
were narrated to us as a child. This makes no difference if you have neither
read nor heard those stories but watched this epic through famous Indian TV
serial.
You are left behind with an observation that the gigantic
characters form this epic character, had humanly virtues and vices. They were
all made of greatness and weaknesses, bright and dark facets of human existence.
But the vital point which stands out from this retelling and
narration is, rationalising ones act in the frame of good and bad. Both Krishna
(Good) and Duryodhna (Evil) were not purely accurate and inaccurate in their
acts but they rationalized their acts and tried to fit them in frames of just
and unjust.
Narration in this book was simple and free flowing. However,
sometime you do feel that author could have made her narration more griping in
few chapters.
There was an approach of innovative writing in the names of
each chapters.
Most of the chapter were with introspective view point of
Draupadi but there were points were it seemed that author intermingled her view
points with protagonist’s narrations.
In the starting chapters, the self-narration of Draupadi as
not very beautiful queen in comparison to other queens, was perhaps one pivotal
point in defining her persona. It also justified to a great extents, her
decisions and acts throughout the narration of this epic.
By the time one nears the closing chapter of this book, it
leaves you with curiosity to read or re-read the original epic and try to
understand each characters from humanely viewpoints. One accentuating point of
this book was to relook at the character and incidents of this great epic through
normal human emotions and rationalizations.
We all end up finding little bit of us in every character of
this epic and every character will look less divine and more human like in
their acts and emotions.
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