BENGALURU : Author Kavita Kane has many books like The Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen, Sita’s Sister, Menaka’s Choice etc to her credit. She is now out with her latest book, Ahalya’s Awakening. Kane has worked in various media houses for almost 20 years. Excerpts from an interview:
What was your trigger for writing Ahalya’s Awakening?
She is the most dramatic and the most visible victim of patriarchy. Also, her paradoxical presence in our mythology, the doting wife as well as the condemned adulteress who ironically becomes a revered figure in her redemption. Two extreme identities that is easily moralised upon. Interestingly, for one who is so talked about, she barely has anything to say for herself. In fact, she is almost a mute spectator witnessing the drama in her life while everyone passes judgement on her.
What made you want to focus on Ahalya’s perspective?
We often don’t view her story through the society’s perspective. Ahalya is a silent witness to her own tragedy: She doesn’t utter a word of protest or explanation for both her curse and the subsequent liberation from the curse. Her silence screams of her impotence, her helplessness, guilt, plea for justice. No one seems to be interested in listening, but condemning her. In Ahalya’s Awakening, it is her voice we hear, it is her perspective we see.
What did your research process for this book involve?
There is not much written on her besides a particular episode but there are varied versions which speak a lot on her and the way she is perceived by society. While the earlier narratives are Rama-focused (as he is the one who liberated her from the curse) the later ones centre on Ahalya, telling the story from her perspective. Unlike the common perception that she was the most exquisite creation of Brahma, there is a thread in the Bhagavata Puranas and the Harivamsa which describes her as a Puru princess. I expanded on that to flesh her out more as an individual than a godly creation, humanising her with her flaws, follies and qualities, diluting the divine interventions in her life, revealing a woman with her strength and weaknesses.
Your books often focus on the women characters of mythological tales. What new way do you want readers to see these characters in?
We often view mythology through the men’s point of view, rarely the women’s. Once the spotlight falls on these minor female characters we see them as independent individuals who have their own story to tell, hidden in the larger narrative. Ahalya is a minor character and her presence just a mere mention but this tiny episode has a big impact later in the Ramayana.
What was the most challenging part in writing through?
The very theme of marriage and infidelity and the precarious balance between love, loyalty and deception without endorsing or condemning either. Ahalya’s story is about judgement and punishment and that’s what I wanted to keep away from her.
What do you think is contributing to the popularity of mythological fiction these days?
They are still our stories. It’s the very universality of these ancient stories is what makes them immediately relatable and hence appealing and still appropriate and relevant.
Have you always seen yourself as a writer? What has been your inspiration as a writer?
As a former journalist I was a writer of different manner, mode and mood! Inspiration is always around you, waiting to be detected and discovered to process ideation. I find women a very fascinating subject and species!
How difficult or easy is it to get published? Have you had to modify or change the content of any of your books for it to get published?
Fortunately no, the manuscript remains largely unchanged but for the fine tuned editing. I guess I was lucky with the publishing too. I had blindly mailed the first three chapters of my debut novel to all the major publications. Some rejected while some accepted it. In that, I picked the best possible deal and Karna’s Wife saw the light of the day! But I hear it is very difficult these days where the author has to chase publishers relentlessly, without much hope.