The Forest of Enchantments - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Palace of Illusions was one book that had blown my mind. Chitra's portrayal of Draupadi was real, complex, rebellious yet submissive at times, arrogant, enigmatic, powerful and what not. She is flawed and yet perfect....very much human. Palace of Illusions was written from the perspective of Draupadi. We have read the epic Mahabharata from so many writers and from many perspectives and yet Draupadi's perspective was refreshing to know. And my expectation form Chitra was already set high. After this book I reread Mistress of Spices. Here too her portrayal of Tilo left me craving for more. I started off with high expectation when I brought the book The Forest of Enchantments. I knew that the author had written the book form the perspective of Sita. And I had wanted to read Ramayana from the perspective of Sita very badly.

I have grown up being told that it is not good to name any girl child Sita or any of her other names like Janaki, Dhara, Dharitri, Siya, Maithili, , etc. The reason being that all Sita did in her lifetime was suffer and nothing else and if we name our daughters Sita or any of her other names, the same fate maybe in store the child. So in general we all know that Sita suffered throughout the epic story of Ramayana, So I was naturally curious when I picked up the Forest of Enchantments. I wanted to read about her experience as an adopted kid, her relationship with her peers and parents. I was very curious to know her perspective of being a bride and entering a household which had three mother in laws and other concubines. What was she going through actually when she went with Rama into the forest. Did she ever regret going into exile with her husband? After all, we are all humans we naturally question our each and every move. Did she question her decision and regret it ever? How did she feel about Lakshman for abandoning Urmila for so many years? I wanted to learn about Lanka and Ashoka Vatika from Sita's perspective. And most of all I wanted to know her relationship with Rama... the intimacy and the realty of being a wife to someone and her reaction to all the betrayals she faced.

The word play by Chitra Banerjee is brilliant. This book did answer many of my curiosities about Sita. Her story telling is as always too good and there can be no other opinion about it. But it was definitely not Palace of Illusions and most definitely not like Draupadi's character. The book felt more like just another Ramayana book to me just told from Sita's voice. I guess I wanted Sita to be filled with rage, hate towards the injustice, more emotions and most of all I wanted her to be real.... human. There was rage, emotions and everything that I wanted, but it was all very muted. Sita surpasses her emotions as much as possible. Eventually Sita rebels and stands up against the system, but I waned to feel Sita's rage against the injustice and not my rage.  Sita felt very much like how we have read in other Ramayana versions..... It was in a way a bit disappointing for me personally as I have felt that female characters in our epics are very strong characters and yet mostly they are pushed into the background and every major decisions are taken by the male characters. A female is always either a revered or a servile character but when it comes to decision making, they are never taken into consideration and always female characters have to be either a damsel in distress or made a villain . How often have we heard people saying that in Ramayana and Mahabharata war took place because of Sita and Draupadi as if by blaming the female characters one can hide the fact that the male characters created the circumstances that led to war. 

Overall this Sitayan had its hits and misses. The author also writes about other neglected characters in this book like Sunaina - Sita's mother, Kaikeyi - Rama's 'evil' stepmother, Urmila - Lakshmn's wife ( although I wanted more) ,  Surpanakha -  Ravan's sister and  Mandodari - Ravan's wife. We get to know each one of these female characters more and from other perspectives. Chitra Banerjee weaves all the characters so well and makes us desire more.  She makes the character of Ravana as a very learnt and an intelligent man who respects Sita. Overall I did enjoy the book and is a must read for everyone as it teaches us how one should treat others especially women and also how not to treat them. 

Road Trip!!

Road trips are always fun and exciting .... no matter the condition of the road, company and vehicle. And it is much better if the road is good and the journey takes us through some beautiful places or it is raining :D . So when this time hubby dear planned for a road trip to and from Mumbai and Shimoga in our Ritz, both me and the kiddo became excited. We started from Shimoga by morning 5 and reached Mumbai by 8 in the evening. We took a lot of breaks, did a bit (read a lot) of shopping ;-) and enjoyed the trip thoroughly!!!

Mom had packed some homemade( mom made) rice flour 'Rotis' with 'Kadale chutney' and Brinjal 'palya' for breakfast!! We took our first break near Haveri for breakfast. We were having those tasty rotis when we heard some unusual sound coming from the tree under which we were enjoying our break. Upon investigation, we realized that there were three monkeys on the top of the tree!!! To be precise they were Grey Langur.

The weather was good and because of the summer showers through out Karnataka this year there was a lot of greenery all around. Past Hubli, there were mango sellers on either side of the road and what yummy mangoes they were. Bought loads of mangoes and different varieties of them too!!!!

The road form Shimoga till Kolhapur is awesome especially between Harihar and Belgaum!! Soo wide and beautiful roads... makes it totally enjoyable to drive !! From there till Mumbai the road is good too but not as good as in Karnataka. We took a lot of small breaks... to click pics or just to admire the scenic beauty. We even bought some pairs of shoes in Shendre near Satara. Apparently a friend of hubby told him about this place. And it was worth the visit!!! The store is huge and full of shoes, shoes n more shoes.... A must visit if you are travelling that way!

The trip was smooth and uneventful till Panvel and it just past 5'o clock when we reached Panvel. But past that the traffic was heavy and it took nearly 3 hours for us to travel 30 to 35 kms :( .Anyway it was an awesome trip. The stretch between Pune and Mumbai especially Khandala, Lonavala are awesome. The tunnels, the valleys the clouds, the occasional showers...... I have travelled so many times between Pune and Mumbai many times , yet the Lonavala stretch fascinates me everytime!!!!!

Linking this post to Carconnect , a place where you can share your car trip experiences and submitting in Indiblogger. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and experiences are true and not fictional.

Viewpoint

Picture taken in Koodli, near Shimoga, Karnataka. 

Abandoned God or God of the Abandoned?!?!

Mumbai Diary - 1

Mumbai Local trains are the life-line of Mumbai. Mumbai would not have been Mumbai, if not for its never stopping Local trains. You cannot be called a proper Mumbaikar if you have not travelled in Mumbai Local.... or so the feeling everybody have. When I shifted to Mumbai from down South, where life goes at a medium pace, not too slow not too fast, Mumbai's fast paced life, that rush was shocking for me as well as exciting. 

I wanted to explore everything , go everywhere, do everything!!! Life would be so much fun, or so I thought. In January 2013, after 3 months of arriving here, we i.e., me and my family decided to try the local train journey. We went to the railway station and were shocked to see the station. There were people, people everywhere. The ticket counter was so long that Hanuman's tail would have looked a bit shorter in front of it. Finally after half an hour of struggle, we managed to get the train ticket.

We went to the platform where the train was supposed to come and found more people there.My daughter's reaction was...... tears. Yes!! She started crying and begged  us to take her home. She was terrified of the people and the station itself because of the untidy way it was kept. Belonging to place like Shimoga where we have a clean railway station, she couldn't believe that railway stations can be like this. 

Finally after convincing her about the journey, we started waiting for the train. And the train arrived and suddenly we felt that there was a commotion. Everybody in the train wanted to get down and everybody on the platform wanted to get into it. Me and daughter held on tightly to each other. There was no way we could manage to get on to this train. We let the train go and thought of waiting for the next train. And the next train arrived and we realised that this is the way of getting into a train.... just go with the crowd... and we decided to try it. But this time too we were unable to get into it. Even my husband too was unable to board into the train. 

Then came the third train, and yet we were not able to board it. It was getting frustrating now. The fourth train arrived and we rushed to board it along with fellow passengers. Hubby dear finally managed to get into one train where as me and kiddo were still struggling in the crowd. We both started to panic as the train was going to leave and we were still on the platform. Hubby somehow managed to get down. 

We waited for a few more minutes ..... trains would come and go and yet the crowd never decreased. Finally we were tired by just trying to board the train that we decided to say quits and returned back.

We laughed about if for a few weeks ... no months and never again tried the mumbai local again till a year. Then suddenly in February, hubby dear just wanted to try the train again. Though we were reluctant, he convinced us that this time it would be different. He told us that this time he has done some research and promised that it would be a hassle free journey. And we decided to go with him and with lots of fear in our heart went to the railway station. We got the tickets within minutes... yep.. no Hanuman's tail this time thankfully :D

The train that we were going to take was going to start from our station itself and not a passing train. Yet, me and daughter were holding on to each other tightly. There was enough time for us to board the train and get a comfortable seat and look out of the window and all. Slowly our fears vanished as the train started. It took just 50 minutes from my station to CST, which normally takes nearly 2 hours in the car. When we got down at CST, there was pure joy and excitement. Local train journey was in fact fun and an eye opener.

 I saw two or three kids ,who were almost my daughter's age got on to the train in one station and got down in another on their own. By seeing them, whatever little fear me and daughter had, vanished and we laughed at ourselves. Now I am excited to travel in train again now.I am not hesitant about the local trains anymore. I may not be able to board the train like others do on the passing trains which stops for just an minute in every station, but definitely there will be more train journey in the future. 

I will be writing about my experience of living and exploring Mumbai every now and then (Pssst... not regularly... mind it :P )