Wednesday, March 11, 2009

My favorite author re-tells my favorite story


I can't remember when I first discovered Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It must have been during one of my many trips to Barnes and Noble where I would spend hours looking through the books, looking for the perfect ones to buy. In the late 90s I started noticing many South Asian authors and I was always excited to read them. I could find something to relate to in many of their characters because they were going through the same struggles I was. So, it must have been during that time that I came across a book by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. I fell in love with her "Mistress of Spices". I loved how she created a world where magic seemed believable. Soon, I had read everything else she had written including her books of short stories and poems. Afterwards, I'd wait eagerly for her next book to be released.

While I waited, I of course read books by other authors. Orson Scott Card has always been one of my favorite authors as well. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that he wrote more than the sci-fi books that I had become so addicted to. He wrote a series of books called The Women of the Genesis. It told the stories from the Bible from the female characters' point of view. Since then, I realized that there are other authors who do the same; take an existing story and tell it from the point of view of one of the female characters who don't have much of a voice in the original stories. I loved Anita Diamant's "Red Tent" and Amanda Elyot "Memoirs of Helen of Troy". All the while, I wished that I could be a writer so I could tell my favorite story in the same fashion.


I have been a fan of the "Mahabharat" since I was a little girl. Some of my favorite memories of growing up are of waking up at the crack of dawn and crawling into my grandfather's bed to wake him up so he could tell me a story. Where as my grandmother always told me fairy tales, my grandfather always told me stories from the Mahabharat. When I was older, I was given an English translation by my uncle. And since then, I have found and read ever English translation that I could get my hand on. It is my favorite story. There is a little bit of everything in it...adventure, love, war, mystery... But like all great Epic written thousands of years ago, there isn't much from the female characters' point of view. I wished I could write it.

But I wasn't surprised at all when I learned that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was going to come out with what I had been hoping for for years. "The Palace of Illusions" came out last year and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it all. She opened my eyes to ideas and made me understand the motivations of many of these characters. Recently, I have been following her blog, and became a fan of hers on facebook where she's been holding chats and answering questions and it's been a great experience.

She recently did a book reading that was posted on Youtube so I thought I'd share. I love what she has to say about Kunti not taking back her word on the brothers sharing Draupadi. The 5 were great as a unit. No one could be great without the other 4. For the first time, I was given a reason that made sense.
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