Bestselling Author Anand Neelkantan and Winner of the Other Awards 2021 – Madhavi Mahadevan – Come together for conversations of gripping about the latest books ‘Valmiki’s Women’ in the first digital edition of Litfest.
The session begins with Madhavi said that Anand’s latest work was “unusual books, which brought to the front lines of characters most of them had been fully ridiculed in traditional Ramayana or they had been ignored.” He went to ask Anand whether the equation between physical beauty, women and virtuous nature was found in Ramayana Valmiki or a newer epic version.
Replying to Madhavi’s question, Anand said, “Associating crime and the lack of beauty is the general nature of all cultures.
This is an unfavorable fact that the black divine color, which was once associated with times, Krishna, Sita, and Draupadi, is now associated with a lack of beauty .
My book is a deliberate effort and also satire about the fact that the beauty has nothing to do with whether someone is good or bad.
”
With the conversation that moves forward to the depiction of the character of women from epic on television, Anand commented, “We are a product of many conquests and colonization.
Sita obedient and demure, represented in Ramayana Tulsidas, is not confiscated from Valmiki.
We need to see when this depiction Changed in history.
”
When Madhavi asked Anand whether Ramayana would be possible without the character of oppressed women such as Sita, Surpanakha, or Manhara, he replied, “These women are very important, they are not caricatures, and each has a reason to be so.
Ramayana is not a story A good victory over crime.
It’s more about karma.
All these women and other characters in the epic do what they think is right.
There are no evil.
It’s just through the angle you see.
”
Speaking of his favorite character in his latest book, Anand said that Shanta (dhashratha princess) was the most interesting for him.
“Shanta did not come in Valmiki Ramayana.
He is a Vyasa character.
But without Shanta, there is no Ramayana because, without the sacrifice he made, there will be no RAM.
Shanta can be an Indian girl, where even in a household without discrimination between children Women and boys, the girl was always made to feel that it was not her home and one day she had to go to someone else’s home after marriage, “Anand said.
The conversation ended with both panelists discussing the past, and whether it must be dismissed, glorified, or look different.
Talking about the same thing, Anand said, “Purana is relevant today and will be relevant in the future too.
If the only thing we learn from Purana is about imaginary past breeding, we do a great injustice for them.
They eternal.
They offer us a way of life that does not judge, shows all kinds of lifestyles, the importance of someone’s choice.
That’s what I see in it.
For me, Purana is about getting harmony in life and getting peace from them.
“
