Darkness

The kind that creeps in and catches you unawares, even as you are naively living your sunshine life, believing that maybe some of it is behind you.

The soft velvet kind that tempts you, pulls you towards itself slowly, compels you to reach out, yields to your touch and dips a little at first, gets even darker, and pulls you in even deeper.

The kind that does not envelop you all at once but slowly erases you from your outer edges, imperceptibly, until one day you're blacker than black like the Darkness itself. 

The kind that shows itself suddenly, makes sure you know it's here to stay, and stays on as your shadow, never wavering, always by your side, always following. 

The kind that has always stayed by your side, just at that blurred edge of your vision, never announcing its presence, never revealing itself, but never letting your forget.

The kind that has always been there, taking you in its arms when you needed it to, enveloping you in its cool yet warm embrace, keeping you safe until the promised dawn.

 🖤

  

 

Chennabhairadevi by Dr. Gajanana Sharma

 

It’s been a full day since I have finished reading ‘Chennabhairadevi’ by Dr. Gajanana Sharma and I still feel hung over with all the emotions the books made me feel.

 

Somewhere along history’s murky depths, the story of this extraordinary queen, the last ruler of the Tuluva-Salva lineage who probably had the longest reign as a woman ruler has been forgotten, except in the memories of people in some parts of her erstwhile empire.

 

Almost all stories of kings and queens are filled with wars fought, kingdoms conquered and the wealth they accumulated. Chennabhairadevi did not care for any of these but the welfare of her subjects. Throughout her rule, her focus stayed on building up her people’s lives and keeping her kingdom together.

 

How many of us is aware now that she singlehandedly kept the Portuguese from occupying all of the land south of Goa? That she provided refuge to thousands of people who were desperate to escape the Portuguese’s forced religious conversions in Goa? She built up the spice trade with Europe, especially pepper, and earned the title “Raina de Pimenta” or the ‘Pepper Queen’ from the Portuguese.

 

The book not only describes in vivid detail the queen’s shrewdness, her idealism and her spiritualism, but also manages to show her sensitive side, and her instinctive way of responding to her people’s needs. Other people in the story like Jinadatta, Shabale and Satrajita have such depth of characters and I will not forget them soon. The way the places, villages, nature, forts and palaces have been described took me straight there and is another reason why I’m still hung over!

 

The last few pages of the book brought tears to my eyes. The scene where the 74-year old queen stands on the balcony of her palace in pouring rain, her hands chained, admitting to her people that she failed in protecting their land, requesting them to remain calm and peaceful and assuring them that they will not be harmed is so poignant, and shows the author’s writing prowess. My only complaint about this book is that I didn’t want it to end. I could have just kept on reading.

 

The book might be a work of fiction, although based on facts and events painstakingly put together piece-by-piece by the author, but the fact shines through that Chennabhairadevi was an extraordinary queen. It pains my heart that even with all my interest with Indian history, I had not heard of this queen until just a few years ago, who ruled almost the entire coastal Karnataka, (the place where my origins lay) for a whopping 54 years!

 

The author has written in detail about why she remained in the shadows all these years in his introduction to the book, and that itself is though-provoking, even before you start reading the actual story.

 

It makes me furious and frustrated that stories like hers are not told, but are kept hidden, deliberately and sometimes with envy and malice. These are the people on whom our heritage stands. THIS is our history, and THIS is what needs to be taught to our children.

 

I hope this book gets translated to English soon, so that more people even outside of Karnataka can read it and appreciate this powerful, brave, benevolent and kind queen.

 

The Last Queen - Rani Jindan

As with almost all books about India’s last queens and kings, this book too made my heart ache with every page I turned. These stories are all filled with lies, deceit, betrayal, oppression, bad decisions juxtaposed with a whole lot of bravery, love and honour, making them very difficult, yet fascinating reads.

In ‘The Last Queen’, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni’s writing as always brings out all these human traits and emotions into sharp focus. Rani Jindan comes across as a beautiful, passionate, stubborn and strong woman who is also as flawed as any other human. Her struggles to protect her son and his heritage against all odds and her acceptance of his choices is heart rending. It’s a beautifully written book, and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. So different from Divakaruni’s usual theme or story telling style, but still as brilliant as any of her other books.

For sure, it’s a tale that needed to be told. How many more queens and kings are lost within the folds of time, whose stories we don’t know? This is why I’m drawn to historical fiction. Real people, real stories, lives so different than ours, yet in so many ways so similar. I hadn’t heard of Rani Jindan before I read this book. And having read this now, I feel hungry for even more stories like hers.