Devdutt Pattanaik

Fascinating and a crisp read. I am very new to the rabbit hole of Devdutt Pattanaik and his works.

This book is a collection of short stories from Hindu mythology. It shows how fluid is gender and how it lies in a spectrum instead of being strictly defined like other myths.

I have always been fascinated by the birth of Aiyappan (Hari-hara sudhan), born between Vishnu, who temporarily turned into Mohini and Shiva. So I enjoyed all the 30 such short stories in this book. A king, becoming pregnant, and bizarrely delivering a child. A cursed person, turning male in the waxing moon period and female in the waning moon period. A bromance story.

I found the footnotes in every story fascinating and making to dig deep into every one of them. Highly recommend it.… (meer)

I found this interpretation of the Mahabharata to be a bit more realistic than the whitewashed mythology that we've been raised up on. Gods and men aren't chaste and de-sexualised, and Krishna is far more humane, albeit biased and cunning, than what we're accustomed to.

The author does not try to extol God or preach virtues, instead he presents the story as it is and lets the reader make his own decisions. It forces the reader to think and introspect, and in doing so, maybe helps the reader to understand himself as much as the story.

I personally enjoyed the historical facts that are included at the end of every chapter, which give the impression that mythology is just history that has been corrupted by the passage of time.

All in all, a very good read.… (meer)