Renowned writer, academician and former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Purushottam Agrawal launched the book, Krishna’s Playground: Vrindavan in the 21st Century, at IIC on Wednesday. Written by Prof John Stratton Hawley, the book has been published by Oxford University Press.
The evening began with a musical rendition by Padma Shri awardee, Shubha Mudgal who was accompanied by tabla maestro and classical harmonium player Aneesh Pradhan and Sudhir Nayak.
After this, the author gave a brief presentation about the book. As the name suggests, Krishna’s Playground talks about the transformational journey of Vrindavan from a small religious town, that many call the spiritual capital of the country, to the mecca for real estate developers.
The book is based on his over 40 years of visiting and working in Vrindavan, especially the last decade and a half, when it became clear that the town was being dramatically, perhaps irreversibly, transformed.
In many ways, the book evokes questions about the town’s status as a heritage landmark. Especially when the temples here now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction in Krishna’s pastoral paradise.