This book is ‘Ramayana’ told from Sita’s point of view. I started reading this book expecting pretty much the same male chauvinistic version I’d read growing up. But the author’s note in itself surprised me and enticed me at once with its beguiling honesty and daring voice. I endured on, with fingers crossed.

The scenes of the original story weren’t altered to make sense of all the unfairness in it. It was portrayed with brutal honesty, sparing no detail, however unflattering. Sita told her story without omitting her pride, stubbornness, and the unfairness of her beloved husband. But she didn’t consider herself superior for her talents or good-heartedness either.

Sita was a patient girl- well-versed in politics, self-defense, and herbal medicine. From childhood, she was more at home with trees and plants than people and didn’t ignore her calling. She made a home in the middle of the forest, healed plants and humans alike, was beautiful and kind- qualities that made her feminine and endearing to Ram. But he always considered her skills domestic and suitable for a girl. But when Sita operated the flying chariot when everyone else, including Ram, had failed to do so, he looks at her with new respect in his eyes, the way one might gaze at an equal. Sita realizes that when she had accepted his admiration for so many years, it had been just an indulgence, the way one might appreciate a child for childish achievements. Ram never understood that the qualities he considered womanly were indeed intricate, important and were the intellect of the heart. She consoles herself by saying that even love can’t change a person’s thoughts and beliefs and that one can only change themselves. Was that when the bitterness in their failed marriage begin to seep in?

It is scary to imagine that there existed a world at some point in time, where the victim of kidnapping was asked to jump into the fire to prove to the world that she wasn’t raped. What was disheartening was that she forgave her husband even that. She compromised, allowing the next unfair deed to be committed against her. Ram banished his fully pregnant wife to the forest because he was scared of gossipmongers attacking his wife’s honor, the one person who should have stood by her side even when the entire world was against her. Worse, he did it all in the name of duty and righteousness. If he cared so much about his subjects, why didn’t he give up his throne again, the one he supposedly never coveted in the first place, to accompany his wife into the forest?

He probably deluded himself into thinking that he was the one true king leading his subjects into the light of justice by committing injustice towards his own wife. How right the Joker’s words from Batman movie is: “Heroism is just a misplaced sense of self-righteousness.” Ram, disappointingly, turned out to be the world’s most desperate people-pleaser in history.

Sita’s enlightenment amidst the greatest sorrow of being abandoned by her husband, the self-righteous, was illuminating. I always wondered what her thoughts then could have been. I had badly hoped it wasn’t still unquestioned devotion and blind love towards her husband. To quote Divakaruni, “Endurance doesn’t mean giving in. It doesn’t mean being weak or accepting injustice. It means taking the challenges thrown at us and dealing with them as intelligently as we knew until we grew stronger than them.” She focused her energy on bringing up two just and fair future kings. Even her last words to them were, “My dearest boys, balance duty with love. Trust me, it can be done.”

Sita was always portrayed as meek to give space to the ‘actual hero’ of the story to shine. But she had always been headstrong in achieving what she wanted.

• She decided on her own and accompanied Ram to the forest in an era when the women were excluded from the ‘Men only’ club, which made decisions autonomously.
• She somehow managed to even keep the terrifying villain of the story away and at bay during her time of imprisonment.
• She wanted Lanka burnt and refused even Hanuman’s help to escape and saw the city get obliterated.
• She wanted her sons on the throne, and she achieved it.

This silent and yet strong-willed woman needed to be heard, and thanks to Divakaruni, the world heard it.

Hinduism was the religion I was brought up in. I’m always in search of alternative explanations of the crimes committed against women in the holy scriptures that my faith holds in such high reverence. I still want to believe that Ram’s story must have some convincing justification that was conveniently omitted. Or I simply hope that it was just a story cooked up or twisted by a sexist author of an abominable time in history. Or if what is written is what is right, I pray for the wisdom to one day understand it.