Thursday, June 15, 2017

My Interview with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I met Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of acclaimed novels like Palace of Illusions and The Mistress of Spices, earlier this year. We talked about the importance of women's stories, and she told me about her next book. 
When you really look back and read the character of Sita as presented by many people in the history of the Ramayan, Sita’s not like that at all. At some point a patriarchal interpretation of Sita was created and pushed onto women. Sita is very demure, she’s obedient to whatever her husband says, she’s a doormat, she accepts everything that happens to her – and ladies, you better be like Sita. 
That’s what I want to counter. Look, it’s not just me: it is already there in the story. It’s just, the patriarchal spin has been given to it. Sita makes a number of important choices, some of them right, some of them wrong. She’s a very active character. My goodness, she’s the world’s first single mother in literature, and she brings up those children with great courage.
It will be a challenging project. I pray that I can do a good job.
Read it all here. 

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