The Birth of Kali

by Anita Sivakumaran

How exactly did Draupadi share a one-room hut with her five husbands? What would be Bhishma’s story if it is told by his nemesis Sikandi? What kept Sitai occupied when Raman was out hunting deer and demons? What if Akalya knew it was Indra who came disguised to her as her husband? Twisty, dark and mischievous, these are tales from Indian mythology retold from a woman’s point of view. Here, the heroines tell their own stories, no holds barred.

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 3, 2019

Reviews

[Elsa Rajan Pradhananga · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the first of the 9 stories in the collection, Sita wonders Is screaming less becoming of a woman than running? and is seen concluding that she should instead resort to prayer when in danger. Women in Indian epics had a blown up sense of morality and an exceedingly demure nature. They were so virtuous that their unending list of noble qualities are enough to affirm them or our epics a sham The Birth of Kali is a fresh take on Indian epics told from a contemporary woman's perspective.

Our much celebrated women would have been happier, better examples of themselves, had they been more vocal and not meek. When Sita befriended the liberal and progressive Shurpanaka, she becomes determined to break free from the shackles of oppression. Once afloat on Ravan's Pushpaka Vimana ...I shed first the betrothal ring, then the wedding pendant, then the carved ivory combs, then the conjugal toe rings, and with them I shed, bit by bit, my marriage to Raman. And off she fled aspiring a life free of attachments.

In The Birth of Kali Ahalya chose to turn into a rock and shut herself from a judgmental world just as wilfully as she had chosen to let God Indra quench her lust. It was her choice. And that gives the story a glimmering new dimension. I cheered for Draupadi when so as to defend herself, she roared with anger and sprayed a multitude of foul words on her husbands, the king, sages, soldiers, bodyguards and her perpetrators, spupefying them. One tight slap following that, and the idea to violate her was dropped.

Epics evolved with times until we equated them with history. The Birth of Kali is about strong, free willed, fearless women whose stories resonate better in the current times. A great read

[Neha · Rating 2 out of 5]

It hurt's me deep, when a "said' to be Mytho retelling isn't up to the level.
The book consists of 9 short Mytho retellings, each retelling has said to have a twist. But I felt it was more or less, same. It's hard to weave a new story in less number of pages, a character we know since birth does something reluctant & I can't get that until a strong character is build before.
Out of 9, I felt only 2 stories, and a bit of Draupadi's stories worth reading.

Full review to follow.

[Ananya Mandal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The initial stories were fresh and the writing crisp and nice. I literally raced through it in a day. Towards the end however the author lost me. I have read female versions of mythological stories. Part of this is really good... especially Sita, Draupadi and Ahalya... I loved Kanniga's anklet too... Nandi's pain and End of ages seemed misfit in this great anthology... Neverthless looking forward to more from Sivakumaran

[Norah Rami]

read because while i was reporting on college street a girl gave it to me as one of her favorite books—that interaction deserves a million stars. the book itself though…

[Raji · Rating 4 out of 5]

The women in these books remind me of Mahasweta Devi's Draupadi. They are fierce, unafraid, and impossible to ignore. I cannot claim to have liked all the stories equally but I found most of them to be thought-provoking. This is what we should do with our myths and legends, recast them again and again and engender new perspectives that make us better and more empathetic human beings. First, The Liberation of Sita and now this. A good year for my mythology readings :)

[Sunandita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although, I appreciate Anita Sivakumaran's effort to redefine history/mythology by viewing it through the lens of the women characters, I daresay it backfired badly. Most of the retellings were of superfluous sexual nature that seemed to be put in just for effect rather than being important to the storyline.

Out of the multiple stories in the book, I really only enjoyed reading Sitai - the dynamics of Sita and Ram's duty laden codependent marriage,the feisty feminist Surpanakha, Lakshman's adulterous hunger and ultimately, Sita's liberation. It was fairly written, however, I didn't care much for the jumping perspectives (Sitai to Surpanakha and back again) I guess that is crucial to the narrative Anita Sivakumaran went for so I shall not criticise it. The other story, worth a brief skim, would be the torturous tale of Kannagi's anklets.

Rest all were written badly. I struggled to finish the book and had to abandon it in the penultimate story.

[readers creators · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author presented most epic tales of Hindu mythologies from a women’s point of view; in a sarcastic yet respective way.

The Ramayan and The Mahabharat ; royal tales of Ayodhyaya king Ram & brotherhood of five Pandavas and hundred Kaurawas respectively. But what if these tales were told from the Sita’s or Draupadi’s point of view, what Sita felt in fourteen years of banishment or what Drapaudi felt during her harassment in a room full of men, including her own five husbands.

Author so beautifully carved out the daily sacrifices a woman make, which are negligible to notice for other person. Either it was Surpankha or Sita, either it was Amba or Drapaudi; they all had their own stories too besides stories of their lordly husbands or brothers.

A short, informative, necessary read.

[Juhi Bansal · Rating 3 out of 5]

We have always been hearing stories about Ramayan and Mahabharata from our grandparents and we have been made to believe those without questions(I never got the answers of why something happened the way it did). Anita Sivakumaran comes with a fresh idea of what might have actually happened during that time. I loved the versions of the Lakshman Rekha and the Ahalya story!
Accept the fact that none of us have ever seen the Valmiki version of Ramayana or VedVyas's version of Mahabharata through our own eyes.
Experience someone else's ideas and thoughts around these!

[KRITIKA JOSHI · Rating 1 out of 5]

If it was possible to give a negative rating, I would have done the same as this book deserves exactly that. I am all for revisualizing our mythological texts and interpreting them in your own way, but unnecessarily sexualizing every character and incident is really offputting. The sole aim of the book seems to scandalize and create unnecessary controversy. It reads more like an erotica than reimagining of mythological stories.

[Nethra Ram · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this collection. Some of the narratives were excellent, and some bizarre, but overall something that thankfully treads a path that is off the well-beaten contemporary Indian Mythology track.

[Meenakshi Rawat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think young writers should take some responsibility before writing history especially when you are coming with a strong title on the cover page. I am very disappointed with how she described Sita...

[pankhuri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible writing. The book no where makes sense. While writing a mythological books one must be pretty caution of not altering the story. The writing is lame and certainly makes no sense. Its hard to follow the author.

[Avishek Bhattacharjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ordinary.Volga's Sita was much better.

[Kiran Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers a different perspective in few of the narratives.

[Anupriya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly a book I would recommend, even if a difficult read for the ‘believer’, it is a brilliant set of speculative fiction for the thinking reader interested in mythology and feminist narratives.

[Garima Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisted tales of mythology. Fresh writing.

[विकास 'अंजान' · Rating 2 out of 5]

The birth of Kali had a mixed bag of stories for me. Some i liked and some i didn't. I'll post my thoughts about them later.

[Aashi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazing start, but looses interest in between

[Sirisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is just...terrible

[Vinita · Rating 2 out of 5]

A compilation of mythological stories from another viewpoint. I think it could have been a bit better.

[Radhika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea was intriguing and the first few chapters were good but it seems like the author lost the vision midway.

[Vani Kalra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The small piece on draupadi is very powerful and has a fabulous feminist twist to it

[Sachu Jothi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to the women's point of view take on the mythology, except for Sita's story which I enjoyed, the rest were disappointing and felt like it was written in a hurry.

[Raeka Dawar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a good book but I would recommend you to know all the stories of Hindi mythology before picking it up, I knew about Mahabharata characters and Ramayan characters but this book focuses on the hidden characters and the only drawback of this book is that it does not start anyones story from the beginning or doesn’t explain anything about the thing being talked about, except for Mahabharata, I did not know anything about the other stories and this book started off each chapter with just the middle of a mythology not explaining who is it talking about.
If you know the deeep down hidden mythology stories then it’s a perfect read, written beautifully.

[vidhya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of Sita and Birth of Kali 👍👍👍another telling and fresh view point

[Divya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot from this book but I was not at all satisfied, I really wanted to complete the book but half way through the book I was bored.
Coming to the story I know that it was written on women's perspective but the whole story itself was changed and definitely didn't make sense to me.

[Deesha Manjrekar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though it give a prospective from female side which never said before, it could have been better with the language used in the book