Utkarsh Patel Livres

The story of Shakuntala is well known—her upbringing in the ashram, her meeting with Dushyant, their marriage and subsequent separation due to a curse and their final joyous reunion. What is not so well known, however, is that the gentle, lovelorn Shakuntala immortalized by Kalidasa is very different from the original Shakuntala of the Mahabharata—a strong, fiery woman who stood up for her rights when she was spurned by her beloved.In this thoughtful retelling of the story of Shakuntala, Utkarsh Patel brings to the fore the original heroine, the bold and beautiful daughter of Menaka and Vishwamitra who fights to get herself and her son the recognition they deserve. She does not surrender to anyone, not even the king of Hastinapur. Retold to suit the modern-day context, Shakuntala: The Woman Wronged is a must-read to understand one of the most powerful yet underrated female characters of the Mahabharata.

There was something unusual in the air. There was no sound, no breeze and time seemed to have stopped as the world waited with bated breath. The eerie silence was unnerving and unsettling. What was this anticipation for? What was the world waiting for? In the stillness of the infinite silence, a mother was waiting in anticipation to give the world its elements. Indra was about to be born. Indra, most popularly known for his power over the rains, has been considered to be a cosmic, dragon-killing hero and a warrior god. So, what makes this warrior hero fall from grace? What makes him insecure, powerless and given to lust and merriment in the post-Vedic era? Indra-the Rise and Fall of a Hero is an attempt to look closely at an erstwhile 'human-hero', much maligned in the later period due to the wheel of time, which doesn't even spare the gods.