What Am I Reading – Chapter Sixteen

Hi Everybody,

I hope all of my American readers had a great 4th of July! I know I did with some water sliding, fireworks, and three rounds of desserts!

Since the last chapter, I actually finished two books – the ones from Chapter 14. I will also be done with Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars: Making a Legend by Simon Van Booy and Harvey Briggs very very soon.

By the next chapter of this series, I will have a nearly new batch of titles including this one:

Love, Pride, Virtue, and Fate by Bharat Krishnan is a collection of 25 tales in Hindu mythology that explores the traits mentioned in the title.

The author strives to make connections between these stories to those in other mythologies. For example, much like the Greek gods taking sides in the Trojan War in “The Iliad,” the Hindu ones fought alongside both the Pandavas and Kauravas during the Kurukshetra War in the epic poem “Mahabharata.”

As someone who knows very little about Hinduism, I find the book very accessible so far. Most of the tales are no more than 5 pages long, and the language feels elevated while also believable, as in anyone from the present day would say them, hence making them timeless. Each of the stories always end with Krishnan explaining why he included it in the collection. This is easily my favorite part because of not only how he connects these to those in other mythologies, especially the Christian one, but also because he thoughtfully explains how each of them reflect a part of the Hinduism mentality and its values.

My favorite tale so far is the one that involves Shiva – the Hindu god of destruction – cutting off the head of his son Ganesha after the latter prevents entry to the former. It didn’t help that the former didn’t know that he had a son. As a result, his wife the goddess Parvathi refuses to speak to him until he finds their son. Luckily, Shiva is able to find an elephant and place that on Ganesha’s head, and makes him the remover of obstacles.

Occasionally, Krishnan will mention some thing politics-related due to his experiences in that field, but he does it in a way that doesn’t distract the reader from the overall themes.

I look forward to reading more of this title!

We have now come to the end of the sixteenth chapter of “What Am I Reading?”

For any Hindu readers out there, have fun with Puri Ratha Yatra and Guru Purnima!!

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