The evening of July 4 at Goethe Institut was all about an intimate gathering of literature enthusiasts, quiet and keen, and a dimly lit room directing the spotlight on an intriguing chat between writer K Srilata and V Balakrishnan of Theatre Nisha. The conversation revolved around Srilata’s new book, Footnotes to the Mahabharata that contains shards of heart-to-heart talks between women — unfeigned, vulnerable, yet powerful. Writing this book from beyond her comfort zone, steering off from her usual autobiographical and personal tones, Srilata said, “This came as a surprise for the people who know my work. I am not a Sanskritist. I don’t work in the space of mythology.”
Balakrishnan mentioned a portion of the book, which read ‘No Trunk to this Textual Tree: The Mahabharata’, and remarked that the collection of poems has amazing roots. A strong answer followed when Balakrishnan asked Srilata about the stimulus that led her to the poetry collection. She said, “I was enthralled and enchanted by the retellings of the Mahabharata — SL Bhyrappa’s Parva, and MT Vasudevan Nair’s Randamoozham.” Despite the canonical Mahabharata, stories part of Amar Chitra Katha, being integral to her childhood, Srilata found the retellings strong enough to have seeped deeply into her. She referred to Amar Chitra Katha as “racially coded”, and these retellings are like the new perspectives that crushed the regressive connotations.
Srilata set her sights on experimenting, giving her ideas a tangible form of words and verses. “Gradually, I asked myself what if I slip into the characters of the women (from the Mahabharata),” she noted. Through dramatic monologue, she wanted to tell the stories out loud through these women’s perspectives.
Fascinated by the facets of reinterpretations, Srilata desired to explore the Mahabharata through a feminist lens. Why only these women? Vividly and closely witnessing the lives of these chosen women, she said, “These were the women who stayed with me. These are the poems that lasted.” The writing process was long, intuitive, and analytical, abandoning some stray poems and sifting out the characters.
When asked if this piece offers a space to express her views amid today’s political scenario, she answered, “I believe, as a writer, that any creative work that is not war-mongering is like an island of peace. It is important to build the collection of these islands. Maybe this is a fragile way of responding to the horrors of the moment.” This is the way of coping with these horrendous moments, and there is art being crafted from the dregs of horror.
The evening was punctuated with dialogues between the audience and the writer. While the audience was eager to know about the significance of the title, she explained, “Footnotes, on the page, visually, seem to be the least important part, unless you are a scholar. Footnotes can be like a digression, can be like a rabbit hole in which you fall, and you discover other things.” Clearly, she alludes to the invisibility of women in literature. Her experiments could be seen on different tangents. While she is unapologetic about using creative freedom in her works, it’s distinctly seen in the way she melds Tamil literature into the mainstream narrative. The character Alli, who she mentioned is her favourite, comes from the Tamil tradition. Alli Kadhai is a part of the performative traditions, Villu paatu, and folklores. “I wanted to deliberately have a Tamil twist to the whole thing. Alli is not part of the so-called mainstream Mahabharata. And one must not worry about it, the more the better,” she said.
Unbothered about the discussion on what is authorised and considered the original, the writer said, “I just flowed where my imagination took me. It took me to the direction of these wonderful retellings. I approached it as a poet. One main reason one should read the Mahabharata is that it’s an open, porous text; it was always meant to be a text without one truck; that spirit should be the approach.”
Applauding this bold attempt of carving out a piece of work, Balakrishnan said, “A long time has passed from the context of the Mahabharata. When you bring your poetry, it just adds itself to the multiverse of Mahabharata.”
‘Footnotes to the Mahabharata’ is priced at Rs 350.