{"id":2299,"date":"2018-01-31T16:30:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T08:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2018-01-29T23:56:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T15:56:33","slug":"more-desi-mythology-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=2299","title":{"rendered":";more desi mythology please"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bookworm<\/p>\n

I’ll be talking more about it in another post, but Pragati @ The InkedIn Book Blog<\/a> and Aditi @ A Thousand Words A Million Books<\/a> hosted a FABULOUS series of guest posts in January where they invited a number of desi bloggers to talk about the representation – or lack of – South Asians in media. If things had worked out for me, this would have been a part of #DesiRepDiscussions, but alas! I had had a medical emergency at the end of December and was unable to take part.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, this becomes a yearly thing?<\/p>\n

But I talked to Pragati about using the idea I had had in another post, because I just wanted to get it out there. Put positive thoughts into the world, and the world will respond positively, maybe?<\/p>\n

\"more<\/p>\n

I have been recently thinking about it and – how have there not been more YA books about or inspired by the very vast collection of desi mythology yet? There are bits inspired by these myths in Roshani Chokshi’s books, I know, and Aru Shah<\/em> is supposed to be about this as well.<\/p>\n

But is that it? Because I cannot think of anything else off the top of my head, but if asked, I could probably tell you three series about or influenced by Greek mythology.<\/p>\n

And that, my friends, is a shame.<\/p>\n

The mythology we have is so rich and intense that it would make for such fantastic story-telling. From the vast epics to the more homegrown legends, there is so much potential.<\/p>\n

I even have two suggestions of epics for authors to take inspiration from! Both very well-known, and both spanning decades of history, so you could take just about any of the stories from these years and spin out a yarn.<\/p>\n

The first, of course, is the Mahabharat<\/em>. You could write about the characters as they are, or you could write parallels with the warring families in perhaps a different setting. Something about Draupadi, who was married to five brothers, perhaps. Or focus on one of the brothers, and tell their story.<\/p>\n

There is so much to tell and take from.<\/p>\n

The other epic I have been wishing for a YA novel inspired by is the Ramayan<\/em>. The story of a crown prince, exiled because of jealousy, and his faithful wife, and a younger brother that treated him as his king and god. Or perhaps Sita’s story after she was cast out herself, and found herself pregnant. Or maybe the story from Raavan’s point of view.<\/p>\n

Again, the possibilities are endless!<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to my question – where are the novels inspired by such a rich heritage and culture? There are parallels to our lives and our worlds now, and there is so much to offer.<\/p>\n

Which myths would you love to see worked into a YA novel? What are your favourite myths?<\/p>\n

\"2016-04-12<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll be talking more about it in another post, but Pragati @ The InkedIn Book Blog and Aditi @ A Thousand Words A Million Books hosted a FABULOUS series of guest posts in January where they invited a number of desi bloggers to talk about the representation – or lack of – South Asians in media. If things had worked out for me, this would have been a part of #DesiRepDiscussions, but alas! I had had a medical emergency at the end of December and was unable to take part. Hopefully, this becomes a yearly thing? But I talked to Pragati about using the idea I had had in another post, because I just wanted to get it out there. Put positive thoughts into the world, and the world will respond positively, maybe? I have been recently thinking about it and – how have there not been more YA books about or inspired by the very vast collection of desi mythology yet? There are bits inspired by these myths in Roshani Chokshi’s books, I know, and Aru Shah is supposed to be about this as well. But is that it? Because I cannot think of anything else off the top of my head, but if asked, I could probably tell you three series about or influenced by Greek mythology. And that, my friends, is a shame. The mythology we have is so rich and intense that it would make for such fantastic story-telling. From the vast epics to the more homegrown legends, there is so much potential. I even have two suggestions of epics for authors to take inspiration from! Both very well-known, and both spanning decades of history, so you could take just about any of the stories from these years and spin out a yarn. The first, of course, is the Mahabharat. You could write about the characters as they are, or you could write parallels with the warring families in perhaps a different setting. Something about Draupadi, who was married to five brothers, perhaps. Or focus on one of the brothers, and tell their story. There is so much to tell and take from. The other epic I have been wishing for a YA novel inspired by is the Ramayan. The story of a crown prince, exiled because of jealousy, and his faithful wife, and a younger brother that treated him as his king and god. Or perhaps Sita’s story after she was cast out herself, and found herself pregnant. Or maybe the story from Raavan’s point of view. Again, the possibilities are endless! Which brings me back to my question – where are the novels inspired by such a rich heritage and culture? There are parallels to our lives and our worlds now, and there is so much to offer. Which myths would you love to see worked into a YA novel? What are your favourite myths?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[319,59],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-post","tag-more-desi-mythology-please","tag-writings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}