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4 oeuvres 141 utilisateurs 6 critiques

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Crédit image: By Author - Daughters of the Sun (2018), CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89128621

Œuvres de Ira Mukhoty

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female
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India

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This book by Ira Mukhoty is fascinating. The book features eight women - of myth and history. The question we ought to answer is: where did these women disappear? The book starts with Draupadi, and this was eye-opening for me. I had never thought of Draupadi as a fiery, independent woman. I was glad to read the chapters on Raziya Sultan, Jahanara and Begum Hazrat Mahal. These women deserve greater appreciation than we have accorded them. She humanises Rani Lakshmi Bai, which is good, without taking away any credit from her.
The other chapters, for instance, on Meera Bai and Radha, will force you (hopefully) to change your perceptions about these women.
This book should ask us to change our society and respect women.
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Signalé
RajivC | Jan 10, 2024 |
This book by Ira Mukhoty is excellent. I will go further and say that it is an excellent history of Akbar. She has done a lot to bring Akbar to life, describe his challenges, and give insight into the times he lived in.
While reading the book, I realised he relied on his mother, Hamida Banu Begum. I must clarify that she did not make this point explicit: I derived it from her writing. I am surprised she did not write in any history of his two principal wives, Salima Begum and Harkha Bai. They were strong, influential women.
She described the struggle between Akbar and his sons perfectly.
What made Akbar great despite his flaws? I believe she missed this crucial element while writing the book.
Overall, it is an excellent, very readable book.
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Signalé
RajivC | Jan 9, 2024 |
Most often, history is about kings and generals, with few stories of the women who have walked the paths of power and learning.
We, in India, only know of Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal and a little bit about Jahanara.
In this book, Ira Mukhoty introduced us to a host of fascinating historical figures - Gulbadan Begum, Bega Begum, Hamida Begum, Jahanara, Zeb un-Nisa. Their lives were fascinating, and they were strong, independent, educated women.

This book by Ira Mukhoty brings them out of the shadows and places them in the sun, where they belong.

Excellent book, and well written.
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Signalé
RajivC | 2 autres critiques | Dec 3, 2023 |
Book Title: Song of Draupadi
Author: Ira Mukhoty
Format: Kindle

Review:
This is the 21st Generation, and we have Gen X and the next generation citizens reigning the world. But what remains unchanged is the ever debatable books or epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Also, it is to be observed that the women characters of these epics that were once confined to only the tales and the books are now being studied in detail. There have been many books in the fiction genre emerging with this as the central topic. The female protagonists of the stories are the reflection or the mirror images of the then women characters but in a new avatar! Be it queens or princesses or warrior princesses, many of them are inspired by these two epics.

In this connection, talking about Ira Mukhoty's book - Song of Draupadi, stands apart!. Apart from the mentions of the ever talked superheroes of the epic story, the main focus on the character of Draupadi is something worth reading. Mahabharata itself is a massive treasure box of tales in it, and weaving them together with Draupadi as the central character makes the book interesting.

Ira Mukhoty is one of the celebrated writerauthor for her previous works and exclusive characterisations. Though they may not please profound literature acumen, the detailed writing and sub-stories written out of fiction will surely entertain the readers who look for novelty in old stories. This trend is quite popular in today's Indian fiction writing. Many other contemporary authors took myth-fiction as the main subject and woven iconic stories that went on to create a tide for nearly a decade. There have been new women authors who focused on the women characters from the epics, and Ira joins the group of these writers who primarily focus on the women characters.

There is a lesser book that discusses or talk about the women characters who took life-changing decisions, who were strong enough to hold the significant loss that occurred to them and their families, who were brave enough to fight with the most demonic men, who were brutally virtuous to defend their integrity and many such. Though these women are merely mentioned, there are certain women characters who are never even discussed. In this book, Ira Mukhoty also focused on Drapadi's mother and her helping-aid in detail that is worth mentioning.

The book cover is an intense art of Draupadi depicting many emotions in her face. The magic of modern art in showing Draupadi will surely make the readers pick up the book. The language in the book is simple and straightforward. Though the vocabulary seems not to make a great impact or is pleasing, the grammar is fine. The narration, which is as smooth as water, also illustrates Draupadi's longing and unconditional love towards Arjuna. The ever debatable system of patriarchy is logically yet thematically described through many eventsincidents.

The narrative of Mahabharatha takes a new face when the story is re-told from a woman's perspective, and this is proven here. This talks about the amount of research and study that the author has done for the book. In one of her previous interviews, author Ira Mukhoty said that when she checked on the female characters from epic books like Ramayana, she wanted to explain to her daughters and was astonished that no such study in details was present. These women from the warrior lineage are often portrayed as submissive, weak, and male-obedient characters. Taking into account then and now prejudices, situations, could-have-been-the-reason type decisions, physical and appealing descriptions, this book - Song of Draupadi is an assertive expression of Mahabharatha.


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Signalé
BookReviewsCafe | Apr 27, 2023 |

Statistiques

Œuvres
4
Membres
141
Popularité
#145,671
Évaluation
½ 4.5
Critiques
6
ISBN
6

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