This book captures the shades that help us understand a Woman, looks into her mind, her thoughts and values. Amongst the many thought in her mind, it covers :-
- So, what if you are King? I am the King Maker.
- Mother Kunti why was your love conditional?
- Women don’t need umbilical cords to be mothers.
- Draupadi tells you why your wife may not love you.
- The Other Woman – How to deal it.
- Married me? Did you want me or my baby?
- You can take my body; but you have to win my heart.
- Want your shoulder, not your solution.
- Weak! Six pack abs can’t do what the womb does.
It provides an understanding of a woman’s mind from the time she enters puberty to her last moments. This enormous and complex task was achieved by placing the women of the Epic in unique circumstances, events and timelines that were neither repetitive nor overlapping. This was done so that the reader could understand women from their responses. This guidance was artfully scattered over the entire epic and must be segregated and aggregated for an understanding of the persona of a woman. They have covered her in her various roles as daughter, sister, friend, lover, wife, daughter-in-law, mother and of course as a mother-in-law.
The Kurus had an ugly history of unfair and reprehensible conduct towards women. Breaking promises, abducting women, forcefully impregnating childless widows, forcing women to marry unworthy males, exploiting women emotionally for personal gains, objectifying women, staking them in a wager, violating a women’s modesty, resorting to polygamy, cursing a mother are amongst the many examples of their brutal and mindless behavior. These atrocities on women across the Epic appear to be timeless as these continue to this day in some form or the other.
Yet, Mahabharata is also about a woman’s love, motherhood, her emotions, her infatuation, desires, loyalty, devotion, commitment, possessiveness, jealousy, ambition, determination and duties towards family and country. Not all women are submissive, there are some who stand-up, demand answers, challenge and do not relent. These women are also like the woman of today, they can row the boat all by themselves, they are independent and focused.