6 not 8
Update: After several more months of consideration, and a virtual deluge of repeated requests to publish the 7th and 8th parts, I’ve decided that I will submit them for publication–but only after I’m done with at least the first three volumes of my Mba. This is because I want my publishers to first schedule publication of the Mba and only then consider other books by me. The same goes for the five other books that are lying completed with me, but which I haven’t shown to anyone yet. First priority: Mba. Everything else, after. But this is good news for you people! Because while everything I say in this old post (below) is still true, I will be publishing Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita after all, if not as soon as you may like. Sabar ka phal meetha. –AKB, 25th March 2008.
Reader Yutaka Ohshima, who also happens to be the translator of the Japanese editions of the Ramayana series, left a comment that summed up what I felt about publishing/not publishing the last two books in my Ramayana series. I’m pasting my reply to his comment here below, as the last word in the discussion on whether or not to publish Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita.
Dear Yutaka,
You have stated the exact conundrum that I am facing: On one hand, I feel that the 6-book series is complete in itself, and should be left that way. On the other hand, I feel that the last two books help us understand Rama and Ravana and the other characters–particularly Sita–so much better, and take the story to the final, true ‘end’, i.e., the end of Rama’s life, and open the door to the next phase in the overall storyline of the Dashavatar, i.e. his next life-form as Krishna, that it would be a shame not to publish it.
Many readers have taken the time and effort to write in and support publication of the last two books. But many, many more readers have not written in at all. As Vinod Joseph pointed out, most of my readers may not be on the internet at all. Many more may not have found the time to visit this website recently. Several might simply be conflicted just as you and I are.
But I also have to take into the account the threats by some NRI extremists to sue me because my Ramayana doesn’t meet their idea of what “Hinduism” ought to be. There’s also the fact that while sales figures in India continue to spiral for the series, internationally sales have tapered off and plateaued of late. It’s highly unlikely that the seventh and eighth books would be published outside India anyway, as publishers of the earlier books have since been bought out, merged, taken over, or otherwise changed so much in the past few years, that almost nobody still working there has any knowledge of the books or interest in Indian culture! (Recently, I noted that the UK publishers don’t even list the books on their website–perhaps because they are in the process of reverting rights to me.)
Of course, the Indian subcontinental readership of the series is considerable and I would be willing to publish the books just for them alone. But even considering all factors, I don’t see a majority of them truly keen on reading two more books in the Ramayana series.
Therefore, I’m going to take the decision to leave them unpublished for now. Perhaps someday in the future, they will see the light of day. I’m tempted to say “More likely, not.” But after a comment by Aditya Sadhotra I am amending that nihilistic statement to “Someday.” Most likely, after the publication of my Mba series and Krishna series, at which point these final two Ramayana volumes will have more poignancy and impact, and will seem less commercially exploitative.
For now though, the Ramayana has ended. It’s time to move on–even though there won’t be a new book from me for a while yet, it’s still necessary to move on.
Ashok
Willow-Watching
Willow was sick for the first time in her short life (which is all of 11 weeks so far). Just a stomach infection which passed, thankfully, in 24 hours. But it was a nerve-wracking 24 hours, especially because my daughter, Yashka, was away at horse riding camp, my son Ayush was still recovering from surgery on his dislocated shoulder, and I was just trying to get back to work after dealing with Ayush’s surgery and the hospital stay.
But we got through it–and most important of all, Willow got through it. (Ayush is fine too, by the way! Although for that one day he was more concerned about poor Willow than himself.) We had a great vet, Dr Shefali Shah at Lokhandwala, which was a huge help. She was always on call, and willing to come at a moment’s notice, even though it was Christmas Day and the whole city seemed to be either coming from one party or going to another.
Anyway, she’s past it now, and already starting to gain the little weight she lost that excrutiating (am tempted to spell that ‘excretiating’) day, and it’s so nice to see her bounding about the house, yelping and playing ‘donkey’ with Ayush and me and her fuzzy black-n-white ball. She always ends up making a donkey of us, being the smart Basset Hound that she is, and we’re constantly amazed at what a strong personality she has, and how intelligent she is. Her capacity for understanding and communication seems infinite, and already at barely 11 weeks, she’s more obedient than I ever expected. Goes to show that you don’t need a whip and police training to teach a dog to behave: just love, caring, affection, and clear, simple communication and respect for the dog is enough to earn you her undying affection and loyalty.
For that one day that she was painfully sick, she would only eat and drink out of my hands–literally, with me dripping water into her mouth and holding out mouthfuls of pureed apple and dahi for her to lick. And I tell you, it’s no different from having a little child sick at home. My son tells me that he now understands what it must have been like caring for him 18 years ago–or Yashka 14 years ago. Having barely slept for 36 hours–I even had to stretch a mattress on the floor in Willow’s room (aka my office by day) to comfort her and watch over her all night–I couldn’t agree more. Four legs or two legs, a baby is a baby!
Anyway, I didn’t have the heart to take a single picture of her sick, but I did put together a little collection of pictures from the past few weeks, including a whole series showing her befriending a quartet of Pekinese in the nearby Municipal Garden. There are a couple of her sleeping, including one of her sleeping in her favourite place–at my feet, in the well of my desk while I write. A couple of her staring. Eating. And if any or all seem a bit out of focus, that’s because she’s almost never still for even a second. You can even see that other objects around her are in focus, but she’s ever so slightly blurry.
That’s how she lives life–blurry. And so be it. Family pictures should be about love, not perfection.
Check out the Willow-watching photo gallery here.
Wiki-pedia or Wiki-Fiction?
A question by a reader on the Readerswrite page led me to take a dekho at the Wikipedia page titled ‘Ashok Banker’. I was more than a little taken aback at what I found there.
As you probably know, Wikipedia is an open encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, add to, or revise. It’s been accused more than once of providing a forum for net-savvy people to promote themselves and/or their businesses–as is evident from the sheer excess of information about virtually unknown individuals (including most Wikepedia editors and contributors, please note) and an utter paucity of information on many famous and important personalities. Even so, I often use Wikipedia myself to check a quick fact or two, and tend to trust their information usually. At least, I did trust it. Until I read what they had to say about ‘Ashok Banker’.
For starters, the section called ‘Biography’ consists of a single line stating when I was born. In 43 years and a long career as a professional journalist, advertising copywriter, scriptwriter, and author, I’ve certainly done a lot more than just been born! You can find a lot more than that at History: A Life in Progress or my Official Bio on this website. But even if Wikipedia didn’t want to believe my version of my story (every detail of which is verifiable, by the way), well, there are any number of respectable media publications that have profiled me over the years, and it would be easy enough to cull hard, verified facts from those publications and websites. So it’s very odd to summarize my entire life with just a single line stating when I was born! Apparently that’s what constitutes a ‘biography’ on Wikipedia.
But that’s not all…
The ‘Bibliography’ lists several titles that are not published books by me. The Ramayana series listing contains a fourth hardcover omnibus that neither I nor my publishers know about and which isn’t contracted yet, nor submitted or even discussed, let alone published. Even if the hardcover is supposed to contain my unsubmitted manuscripts Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita as the listing claims, how did they come up with a title for the hardcover omnibus? Even I haven’t thought of a title for the hardcover yet–and my publishers don’t even know that these books exist! There are also mentions of other stories and even a TV serial I wrote the script for, all listed as part of my published books. It’s really bad fact-checking on their part.
There are also several mentions of other projects that I’ve discussed on forums, as well as an alleged dispute over a comic that, again, I have no knowledge of. I was never supposed to write any comic based on my “Devi� stories for Virgin Comics–you can verify that by asking Virgin Comics if you like. If Wikipedia is referring to my “Kali� comic for Vertigo Comics–Vertigo, not Virgin, please note–then again, I don’t know how they could make such a ludicrious mistake. And what’s this legal notice they’re talking about? The people at Vertigo and I are on the best of terms and as far as Virgin Comics goes, they’re not publishing any comic by me, and all I’ve written for them is a couple of issues of a comic titled ‘Sadhu’. I can only suppose that some bright phan editing the Wikipedia page on me confused Virgin with Vertigo, “Devi� with “Kali� and someone else’s legal dispute with the whole mishmash.
There are several more obvious errors in their brief and unsourced text about me, and I noted that none of the statements had links to any sources, reliable or otherwise, nor did they offer any verification. Very disappointing, considering that even though I don’t do interviews anymore, there have been, at a conservative estimate, several hundred articles and profiles written about me in almost every major publication in India. Even a few minutes browsing on media websites–easily found through a Google search on my name–could have yielded more reliable facts than the oddball mishmash of fiction and tripe that Wikipedia has on me. I guess that’s the pitfall of having an open website that any Tom, Dirk, and Hari can edit.
My only suggestion is to ignore their page completely. Instead, check out the bio and life-story I provide on this website–every detail of which is verifiable through reliable, respectable sources, by the way. In any case, at the bottom of their page about me, Wikipedia lists only two links: One is to my Epic India website and the other is to this very website! So, you’re already in the right place, getting it all straight from the horse’s mouth–or, in this case, the Banker’s mouth.
UPDATE: After I posted the above, apparently Wikipedia has marked the ‘Ashok Banker’ page as needing references and citations. Someone has also removed mention of the fourth Ramayana hardcover omnibus. Hopefully, they will see fit to correct the rest of the glaring errors and either rebuild a factually accurate page based on verifiable sources–and those sources should consist of more than just my own website!–or consider deleting the so-called ‘profile’ on me altogether. Meanwhile, I browsed through a few other Wikipedia pages and was dismayed to see how much of idle gossip and completely unverified rumours are passed off as fact on the Wikipedia site, particularly with regard to film/media personalities. The sheer number of ‘crystal ball gazing’ pages and mentions remind me of the gossip pages in Bollywood film magazines–is this really supposed to be the most reliable online encyclopaedia?
Becoming Kali:A Vertigo Comic…coming soon!
Some die-hard phans of my work will recall that back in 2005 I was approached by Vertigo Comics, a division of DC Comics USA, to write an original graphic novel series. Some of you who’ve known me personally also know that I’ve been a lifelong die-hard phan of comics.
And when I say phan, I mean phanatic, really. As a kid growing up, I was so passionate about graphic storytelling–or sequential art, as it’s also known–that I actually set up a publishing company to publish original Indian comics.
I’d even gone to the extent of registering three titles for periodical publications with the Registrar of Newspapers at Esplanade Court, Mumbai. Because I was too young at the time–this was in 1979, and I was 15–I had asked my friend Cyrus Kalwachia’s older sister Roshni, who was the only one above 18 in our ‘company’ to put her name as ‘publisher and editor’ for registration purposes.
I registered three names: Zone, Titan and Valentine. Zone was to be a monthly comics magazine which would vary its content each time: one month it would be an all-fantasy comics anthology, another month it would be packed with science fiction comics stories, the third month horror, then noir, and so on. Depending on that month’s content, the name would be enhanced to Fantasy Zone, SF Zone, Horror Zone, etc. The tagline for the magazine was to be “The Fantasy is Real!” (I was 15 at the time, yaar, what do you expect?)
Titan would be an all-story magazine containing only genre stories, with plenty of gritty B&W illustrations and at least one monthly comics serial. Valentine was to be a romance comic anthology, which Cyrus’ other sister Nargis was to co-write.
As with most adolescent dreams, this one never worked out.
I never lost sight of the dream itself, and about a decade later, an ad film maker friend of mine, Uday Bhandarkar, and I tried to ressurect the comic publishing plan. We had a perfume and attar exporter for whom we’d done a ‘fantasy’ ad commercial who showed keen interest in backing us financially. We had some really talented artists eager to work on original desi comics that weren’t the usual ACK-type stuff. I even had pages of several stories in progress, at various stages of completion–and I don’t mean just scripts, I mean art and lettering. I even brushed up my non-existent drawing skills if only to outline and breakdown my scripts and communicate them better to artists. We were poised to revolutionize the comics world in India.
The attar exporter backed out at the last minute. And when he did, everything fell apart. Nobody wanted to work on speculation, least of all the printers and paper suppliers. In time, we all moved on to other things and the dream lay by the wayside.
But I never stopped reading graphic novels and comics. In fact, I’ve followed the runs of some comics for over 30 years and even today, try to keep up with all the latest developments in the field. This past year, 2007, I read close to 75 new graphic novels, and over 300 comics, and my TBR (To Be Read) pile is about twice that much.
So, in 2005, when a veteran comics writer named J.M. Detteis sent me a long, passionate fan letter, and began a correspondence with me about my Ramayana books, he was pleasantly surprised to learn of my lifelong passion for comics. He mentioned the fact to Karen Berger of Vertigo, who immediately jumped, and contacted me, asking me if I would write an original comic series for Vertigo.
What do you think I said? I said YES, of course. Okay, so I wouldn’t be publishing it myself, and it would be released in the USA, and would perhaps never see the light of day in my own country. But it was a real honest-to-goodness comicbook, and that too for one of the greatest comics imprints in the world.
Those of you already into comics know that Vertigo is the ‘mature’ imprint of DC Comics. They don’t do superhero comics, in fact, their readers are the kind of readers who don’t touch superhero comics with a barge pole. They publish a kind of mature no-holds-barred graphic storytelling genre that is to comics what Alt Rock is to Pop. You can look them up at The Vertigo Comics website and learn more about them if you’re interested. You can even read some of their free sample issues online to get a taste of their cutting-edge comics work.
Karen Berger and I began a dialogue back in 2005 that continues to this day. It’s been great dealing one-on-one with a genuine legend in comics publishing and I can clearly see why she’s a legend now. She has a way of drawing out the best from a writer and artist, infinite patience, and an eagle eye for quality. I’ve probably never had to rewrite anything in my life as much as the first few scripts for the comic, and each time, I did it willingly and happily, because I could see that it was making the script better in immeasurable ways. I never thought I’d say this of any editor but she makes revision more pleasurable than the writing itself!
And if you think I’m brown-nosing here, that’s because I’ve worked with editors who are not a pleasure to deal with, and I’ve learned the difference between them and a Karen Berger. I’ve also corresponded a great deal with other writers and artists who work with other comics publishers, such as a certain Indo-US comics publisher that’s been in the news recently (and only been in the news, with nothing really to show for all that hype) and the fact is that they work like creative sweatshops, using Indian writers and artists like outsourcing slaveships, working under dismal rights-sharing agreements that force them to sell everything including their soul, while the company owners wax eloquent at media meets about their great Hollywood film production plans and their slew of great film projects–all based on the comics created by those some slaving writers and artists. Unlike such firms, Vertigo publishes only creator-owned properties, which means that the writer and artist own and earn from every copy sold of every issue of the comic and graphic novel, as well as from other rights sales.
For instance, Warner Bros. has already taken a pre-emptive option on media rights for my Vertigo Comic, and I’ve already been paid for the option (back in 2006, in fact). Maybe there’ll never be a movie or TV series based on the comic, but if and when there is, both the artist and I will be paid our fair share of the royalties.
Speaking of the artist, his name is Peter Gross. He’s best known for his really brilliant work on the Lucifer series (written by Mike Carey). You can check out Peter Gross’s website here. In time, of course, you’ll see art from our collaboration up there too. He’s made the process of writing my first professional comicbook series a great experience, and over time, we’ve developed our own working style that’s neither entirely the Marvel approach, nor wholly the DC/Vertigo approach, but is a combination of the two, and then some. He’s not just the artist on the book, he is truly the co-creator and while I have invented all the characters and story and written every line of dialogue and panel description in the script, I couldn’t imagine the finished book without Peter’s invaluable touch on every page, panel, illustration and hairline.
I can’t wait to show you the finished art from the first four issues, which are ready as of this writing, but Vertigo has a policy of not showing any work-in-progress until the book is published. Which it will be shortly. As of now, in late December 2007, the comic is scheduled for mid-2008 publication. I’ll post the specific month once it’s officially on the Vertigo schedule, and at that point, I’ll post some sneak previews of the first issues too. Meanwhile, here’s some concept art from Peter’s early sketches. Almost none of these made it into the final book, which gives you an idea of how much work goes into the making of a comic, especially at a publishing house like Vertigo which is willing to spend years in concept and development alone!
The associate editor on the book, running the day-to-day editorial matters that Karen can’t always handle because of the demands on her time (she isn’t just the seniormost editor at Vertigo, she runs the whole company), is a great guy called Pornsak Pichetsotte. We finally spoke in realtime in a long hour-plus telephone conversation a couple of weeks ago, after almost two years of email correspondence (Karen and I have spoken several times), and it was nice putting a voice to the name. Pornsak is a combination nursemaid, handholder, and creative guidance counsellor, and he’s been invaluable to the project too. Working on this book has really given me a great sense of the power of collaboration and as a writer who’s been accustomed to working alone on long multi-volume projects for years, it’s actually been refreshing to work in a collaborative medium with such terrific people, and to see the results reflecting the genuine joy of that camaraderie.
So what’s the name of the comicbook? The working title upto now has been Becoming Kali. It’s possible that may be the final published title, but it’s just as possible it will change to something completely different. But you can be sure it will have the word Kali in the title for sure.
What’s it about? Well, it’s a contemporary story set in present-day India, about a teenage girl who unwillingly becomes the host for the avatar of the Goddess and gets caught up with an unlikely bunch of other characters–including a horse, a four-faced vagrant who turns out to be the Creator of the universe, a talkative and erudite Sikh private-taxi driver, a pimp from Dharavi, a sleazy agent named Guptaji, and various other bhadralok.
That’s all I can tell you about it now. But watch this space. Because once I get permission to share more–art, story details, character sketches, et al–I’ll be introducing you to the world of Becoming Kali (or whatever we finally decide to call it) and a whirlwind fantasy-mythological-adventure of epic proportions.
Meanwhile, enjoy these sketches and colour tests. Don’t miss the psychaedelic colour effect Peter used on a couple of them. Aren’t they cool?
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“Hold my brain to the fire…”
The text quoted below consists of select excerpts from Reader R. Bharathram (alias “Hawkeye”)’s long, erudite, beautifully reasoned and analyzed series of essays on the Ramayana, posted on his blog. I’ve only quoted some paragraphs which relate to my Ramayana series, but you should check out the full four-part essay, which is truly worth a read. Thanks to another Ramayana reader Dee, for sending me the link to Hawkeye’s blog.
Banker’s book presents Rama as a human being: A very relatable human being who is vulnerable to a variety of emotions. This was quite refreshing. As much as I loved N.T. Rama Rao and thought that NTR was the best Rama on TV, he was a pre-determined winner. All Ramas I’ve seen or read would come in with divinely grace and would conquer everything with a smiling face. The god-like attribute in them diminished every other attribute. I never remember the valor, dharma or toughness as Rama’s attribute. It was just his divinity. The staid face and the constant habit of being correct in everything. Banker presents a Rama who is angry, scared, romantic, forlorn, tough, skilled. He presents a warring kshathriya with extraordinary tactical acumen, a playful person, a confused person – in essence a exemplarary human being. While this ‘human mode’ is good, I wouldn’t say this was the best aspect of the book. There are two aspects to Banker’s book which really made me a fan of his work. These are two aspects which no grandma story, TV series or movie ever touched upon.
1. Cultures & People: This book widened my perspective towards life. It really put to me, in proper context, the philosophy surrounding judgmental attitudes and responsible criticism. This book juggles with a variety of cultures with diametrically opposite viewpoints. It has a very clear way of showing differences across cultures, opinions, people and ways of life. It shows that different cultures might not hold the same opinion on even fundamental things. The same culture will change its morals and opinions on a single issue over time. Quite simply, what we hold as fundamental or common sense is just an opinion that might change over time. And, without being judgmental, it beautifully drives home the point that different opinions on the same subject are valid under their own individual context. While many people verbally assert that there is no one way to live life or that there is no one truth, this book very clearly shows how we could view this information. Saying so is very easy. Showing through a believable example is another job.
2. Upholding Dharma: The second aspect was in showing Rama’s sense and unwavering intent of upholding dharma. The key does not lie in merely telling us Rama held on to dharma under even the most trying of circumstances, the key lies in creating situations, those trying circumstances, where it is tough for the reader to determine what the right path is, forces the reader to guess and guess incorrectly. This is really different from typical Rama stories of ‘do good be good’ – where it was plainly obvious to everyone as to what the right path was. If the common man completely ‘got’ Rama’s sense of dharma there would be no difference between him and Rama. I wouldn’t be interested in that kind of Rama. I don’t want the plainly obvious, I can get that somewhere else. I want the subtly obvious. Like many excellent opinions of any time and age, I would expect the common man’s agreement with Rama’s actions to be inversely proportional to the purity of the said action’s value. Hold my brain to the fire, make me flinch, make me disagree and call the author a fool and then make me realize I was wrong, I’d love you as an author. This book brings all this out wonderfully.
Maryada Purushottama:
There is a segment in Banker’s book, where hanuman meets Rama for the first time, which left me very impressed. They get into a cultural-difference discussion and Hanuman is offended by Rama’s suggestion that Vanars and humans are similar. He argues that humans are barbaric and vanars are better because a Vanar female can choose to procreate with any male without her husband having any say in it. Hanuman is dumbfounded as to how a human male can have so much say in a human woman’s biological behavior. Hanuman is also offended when he is called a monkey. He questions Rama if humans can also be called monkeys just because they share the same ancestors as monkeys. These are delightful discussions and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
Rama gets the highest honor a man can get by being called, not just a yoddha – a supreme warrior, but a Maryada Purushottama, as he is a person who upholds his dharma under all circumstances. Under the direst of circumstances, under the severest of threats and under no practical obligation to follow the rules, Rama is shown to abide by dharma. Usually this concept isn’t presented well in religious discussions. It is wrapped in gooey sentimentality. Valmiki wasn’t maudlin when he wrote this. It is simply a term to suggest fastidious adherence to dharma ( that depends on Manu Vaivastva’s code of life). It might make as much sense today as IPC would make in Aranya Khanda, but it is a dharma based on the kshathriya way of life as Rama knew it. That his contemporaries neither understand the dharma nor expect Rama to follow it make both dharma and Rama more interesting. The contents of the dharma maybe regarded as an anachronism now but it is interesting to see Rama follows it with a rigor and discipline that borders on maniacal obsession to follow rules. This aspect, understandably so, has never been shown in Amar Chitra Katha or TV. That’s why I love this book. Read it and see the way it presents Rama’s profile.
Rama is presented like a rule-following robot, intent on executing the task. But in following the rules he is presented as more ‘deep’ than a typical ‘Rules Ramanujam’. He is not interested in loop holes, exceptions to the rule or an easy way out. He wants to follow the real philosophical intent of the Dharma regardless of whether people consider some terms of the dharma as ‘subject to interpretation’. The real intent is also not very obvious. It has to be found. If the substance of Dasaratha’s promise to Kaikeyi is that he has to go in exile, it does not matter if he can still be king by exploiting a technicality. Similarly, it does not matter if you hold an opinion on him and don’t express it. Not verbalizing an opinion is a minor technicality when your opinion is known to him. He will go for the substance of the rule. The form that the substance is wrapped in is immaterial. He will go after the value of your opinion regardless of whether it is expressed in verbal form or not. This is often frustrating to his contemporaries and the reader. It should be so. Adherence to rules isn’t easy to explain as the violation of it is. This is a hard concept to put one’s hands around but if you do get to understand this and get a sense of the philosophy behind Rama’s actions, it is a wonderful experience. The consistency of his actions is unbelievable.
Banker’s class lies in creating a situation where we can see an apparent contradiction on the surface and a consistency several layers beneath. This was Valmiki’s area of expertise and Banker does well to understand that and recreate this important aspect in his own book.
Banker’s Books and his writing style:
If I was asked to rank the number 1 segment in all of Banker’s books, I would choose the description of Seetha’s kidnapping by Ravana. I think if there was a segment where Banker outdid Valmiki, Kamban and everybody else, it was this segment. It is hard for me to imagine that a reader would not be brought close to tears when reading that segment. There were several segments in Banker’s books that brought a lump to my throat. I was so close to tears that I would look up and find myself in a flight or van or train – and feel all embarrassed that someone might’ve seen me. Every time Hanuman weeps for Rama, I’d get throttled. Banker evokes, in me, a resonation with Rama’s plight better than any other author. I never thought I could be emotionally moved, so easily. I have to shamelessly admit that Banker got me maudlin several times.
Banker writes 6 books in all. They are Prince Of Ayodhya, Seige of Mithila, Demons of Chithrakut, Armies of Hanuman, Bridge of Rama and King of Ayodhya. I somehow thought it mirrored the 6 Khandas of Ramayana (Bala Khanda, Ayodhya Khanda, Aranya Khanda, Kishkindha Khanda, Sundara Khanda and Yuddha Khanda – with Utthara Khanda excluded). Well, it was only partially true. The books aren’t strictly arranged as per the Khandas. Some Khanda’s name is mentioned by its original name, suddenly, in the middle of the book and some Khanda names aren’t mentioned at all. Banker displays a fantastic writing style. He mixes one word sentences and long sentences very well. His writing style is flashy, descriptive and very much like a screenplay for a movie. You don’t have to imagine a lot because the scene is vividly described to you. Initially, I got a feeling the series was like Lord of the Rings look alike and I can see the comparison to Tolkien’s book arises in many people (more on this later). I was terribly wrong about that. Banker’s books are really fast paced. Unlike the steady pace of Tolkien, he explodes into dimensions beyond story narration. The first 50 pages of the first book will be the most difficult. I took a year to cross those first 50 pages. I read the other 5.9 books in 1 month. It was that “unputdownable”. Given all this, when I progressed to the book – Bridge of Rama, I couldn’t help but look forward to Sundara Khanda. Sundara Khanda is really an acid test for any reteller of Ramayana. Its the phase where Hanuman goes in search of Seetha, Rama awaits his return, Seetha suffers in Ashokavana and Ravana debates with Hanuman. Kamban’s Sundara Khandam is simply an extraordinary literary effort. It communicates so many different emotions in such colorful language. It takes you to that pleasant mental spot and carries you to so many different moods. I was somehow expecting Banker to take me through a similar journey. While, he maintains his high standards through Sundara Khanda, he does not make the leap that Kamban makes. I know it is an unfair comparison but I can’t help but make that.
The Force of the Brahman
Banker, overall, weaves a wonderful narration. He sticks to the framework of Valmiki with rigor (credits Arshia Sattar’s translation of Valmiki’s book for helping him Navigate). But while doing that he makes his own leaps into imagination without losing integrity. A key piece of narration, which I think is Banker’s own interpretation, is the imaginative influence of ‘force of the Brahman’ on the key characters of Ramayana. This by far is my most favorite aspect of the book. Brahman is the vedic term that represents the monotheistic ‘god’ of the Vedas. Brahman, as per the Vedas, is a continuum that pervades all the beings of the world (a concept debated fiercely by the proponents of a/vishishta/(d) vaitha). Force of the Brahman, is used similar to the way the ‘force’ is used in the Star Wars (I don’t mean to compare or equate but just trying to give a frame of reference to the modern reader). The use of the Brahman force in narrative segments serves as an excellent tool. In that – through this tool Banker reconciles a lot of ‘cosmic’ things more elegantly than it has ever been done before. What can I say to this piece of imagination – hats off!. Banker does not leave many loose threads hanging. As you read it you will realize that all loops are closed properly, all loose ends are tied and there is a meaning to every character, event and principle. It is done very elegantly. I mention is casually, but I can imagine this is not an easy to end to meet. However, Banker looses steam in the last book. His description of trivial battle situations was so fantastic that the ultimate Ravana-Rama conflict promised to be larger than life. Let us just say that I was disappointed in the end.
In the narration, preface, the prologue and epilogue, one gets the sense of the kind of person that Ashok Banker is. I had this paragraph in rough draft but decided against posting this after Banker made an appearance in the comment section. But dash it. I have to mention this. Authors who discourage readers from buying their book don’t come knocking every day. I was surprised by Amazon’s classification of Ramayana. One can debate this for years together, but I have nothing more to add on the topic beyond what the author has already said. I can see many authors take such a marketing ploy in their stride and count the sales money. But I respect Banker’s letter to buyers in Amazon.com. It is easy to regard him as eccentric, tough or high maintenance, maybe he is. So be it. To me it was a rare purism that is less understood. Whatever term you use to describe that attitude, I like that. It is very impressive (btw – a non-Thamizh who spells the language as ‘Thamizh’ always has my admiration).
Banishment of Seetha and The Ambush of Vali
Ashok Banker does have his failings though. He portrays Ramayana as a love story much the way Kamban did. However, he becomes too attached to his Rama. Banker strongly believes his Rama will never banish Seetha. Banker’s Rama is so much in love with Seetha that he is unable to bring himself to write Utthara Khanda. Kamban also did not write the Utthara Khandam. Maybe Kamban also couldn’t bring himself to write it. Valmiki could. Valmiki wasn’t required to be concerned about acceptability or believability. He could see (in fact saw) the character in the character’s setting. Banker sees Rama through today’s eyes. I am a big fan of Utthara Khanda. To me, the banishment of Seetha was the most logical and obvious aspect of Ramayana. Rama’s obsession towards rules and principle points to it, Banker’s description of the Rakshasa cruelty points to it, they way he factors in Seetha’s pregnancy points to it. So, I was disappointed that Banker did not cross that bridge and bring himself to see why Rama could have done that. I wonder if he read what Mr. Tulsidas had to say about the whole ‘Agni Pariksha’ episode. His handling of the Vali episode also disappointed me. Vali is not ambushed by Rama in Banker’s book, but is killed (albeit nir-ayudha-paani) in reflex. Banker has a dying Vali arguing with Rama, much like Valmiki’s narration had. But the subject of Vali’s argument in Valmiki’s book was the ambush. It was all about the ambush. In Valmiki’s version and Kamban’s version, Vali after an extended argument finally concedes that Rama had not violated dharma by killing him – and then dies. Banker’s book focuses on Vali’s counter offer to help Rama regain Seetha. While Valmiki’s version covers it – this to me was a moot issue. Banker had this wonderful opportunity to weave a thread surrounding the sparing of Ravana’s life the day-before his death, Mareecha’s death, and Vali’s death (all three have a dialog with Rama as they die) and he misses it.
Banker’s Deviations From Valmiki
Banker’s deviations from the original book have been collected in Wikipedia. I’ll mention a few that I deduced myself, some of it is not in wiki and a few is there. People who have seen Crazy Mohan’s drama “Crazy Kishkintha� will recollect that Angada, son of Vali, files a case in Madras high court against Rama for the ambush 
. In Banker’s book Angada is son of Sugreeva. This to me was perplexing and seemed like a basic error. The killing of Ravana’s sons was (he had several) not handled well. Lakshmana’s role in Yuddha Khanda was minimal. His duel with Indrajit is absent. Kumbakarna, in Valmiki’s book, is actually a very good person, very benevolent and Hanuman is defeated by him many times. Kumbakarna gets fleeting mention in Book 6. It was almost as if Banker had to stop with book 6 and had run out of space. The whole 9-day war, Sanjeeva Mountain has been abridged and changed. Sugreeva’s ability as a warrior in Banker’s book is a pale shadow of the superman he was in Valmiki’s book. These to me were understandable deviations. I also did not mind Surpanaka’s extended (she gets more space than Seetha) role, Manthara and Vali’s cooked-up connection to Ravana etc. However, I was not impressed with the pre-swayamvara courtship period of Rama and Seetha. I am okay with deviations but this one did not appeal to me.
Saptha Rishis and Veda Vyasas
Agasthya, contrary to what A.Banker says in his book, is not one of the seven sages/Saptha Rishi (although I’ve heard that Mahabharatha mentions that he is). Atri, Bharadhvaja, Gauthama, Jamadagni, Kashyapa, Vashishta, and Vishwamithra are the seven rishis as per the upanishads and brahmanas. Sometimes even Vishwamithra isn’t considered to be among the Saptha Rishi (much to the anguish of Kausiga Kothram folks). Vashishta’s role is vital in Ramayana. Velukudi Krishnan, in his upanyasam, informs that Vashishta was the first Veda Vyasa. During Ramayana the vedas were a single unit but geographically fragmented (Banker mentions this in his book). Vasishta began the process of dividing the vedas. ‘Vyasa’ means ‘to divide’. Veda Vyasa means the classifier/divider of Vedas. Vasishta was Veda Vyasa I. Vasishta’s son Shakthya continued the work, later Shakthya’s son Parashara continued to divide and categorize Vedas. The final categorization into 4 vedas was finally completed by Parashara’s son Krishna-dwaipayana (who wrote Mahabharatha). Krishna-dwaipayana’s son was Sukha, who wrote Srimad Bhagavadham.
Ravana
To conclude, Banker is a fantastic author and a convincing debater. He has a segment in ‘King of Ayodhya’ – which like Valmiki’s version has demons taunting, teasing, abusing Seetha every minute of the day for days, weeks, months together in an attempt to wear her down (Both versions have Ravana showing a fake dead body of Rama to Seetha) . There is a 2-page segment which has a demoness retell Ramayana, to Seetha, in a way that shows Ravana to be the just person and Rama as an annexing ruffian. This was simply an awesome segment. In two pages, the author makes a fantastic concise argument that is as convincing on the surface as the entire book was for Rama. One needs considerable talent to do this. This indirectly credits the will of Seetha. It is not easy to not believe such a forceful argument. Ravana gets significant space in Valmiki’s book and was not all that bad as he is made out to be on TV. It is good to see Banker describe Ravana (physically and otherwise ) and devote so much space for him. I was very impressed by the importance given to Ravana and the integrity in dealing with Ravana. Banker has 2 more Ramayana books coming up beyond the six. While, I am happy to see Banker change his mind about Utthara Khanda, I am skeptical about his book on Ravana. He can’t beat his high on Ravana. Then again it is perplexing to see him skim over the departure of Vibishena from Ravana’s camp. This was a mega event in Valmiki’s narration and its neglection was disappointing. Ravana, to put it simply, was on the side of a-dharma and was up against a person who would even sacrifice himself to uphold it. As our dear Velukudi says,� when you are on side of dharma even monkeys will help you, when you are on the side of a-dharma your own brother will desert you� .
Retelling the Ramayana: Author’s Introduction to the Indian Editions now online!
I’ve finally been able to post the full text of The Author’s Introduction to the Indian editions of my Ramayana series online.
Just click on the link above.
Those of you who have read the Indian editions of the paperback or hardcover versions of the series will find the text almost exactly the same, barring a couple of corrections.
Those of you who have read editions other than the Indian ones–well, you’ve not actually read the correct text of the books themselves then, and should correct that oversight soon–will get your first opportunity to read this personal essay. It tells you about some of the choices I made when attempting my retelling, and my approach in writing the books.
The essay is in fact only an excerpt from a much longer essay titled ‘Retelling the Ramayana’ which I intend to collect someday in a book of personal essays. The book will describe several interesting experiences in writing, publishing and in the aftermath of publication of my Ramayana series, as well as take long meandering side-trips into my own career as a writer, my personal life and thoughts and views, and several other related and unrelated topics. It’s one of the several titles I hope to see published under my forthcoming //epic india// label.
Meanwhile, read the essay and it may help you better understand why and how a former journalist, scriptwriter and crime novelist decided one day in his mid-Thirties to attempt the most ambitious English-language retelling of the Ramayana ever attempted. It won’t tell you a lot of things, such as the struggle to get the books published, the personal attacks by Indian critics on me (rather than crticial appraisals of the books themselves), the difficulties I faced with the American editors of the first book and their subsequent cancellation of the series when I refused to give in to their demands, and a whole boat-load of other problems and conflicts that were involved in simply writing, and getting published this six-book series. All those will have to wait for another day.
Another Ramayana film in the making
I found this fascinating web page on the website of a UK-based film production company called Film Partners.
Go to the official Film Partners website and click on the extreme top right-hand link called “Valmiki”. That page will give you the basic details of the project.
These are serious professionals with a good track record. Michael Radford, of course, is the highly acclaimed director of a slew of excellent films, including the wonderful Il Postino. It will be very interesting to see what they do with the Valmiki Ramayana on film.
Should Ashok K. Banker’s Ramayana series be banned?
Not only that, should it be banned without even being read by the persons threatening to file a lawsuit against me? Because that’s what a group of NRIs calling themselves the ‘Ram Setu’ group are saying.
Check out the comments by one ‘Atul Kumar Jain’ on the Readerswrite Page. Please search back through the comments to find the earlier complaints.
Here’s the second-last comment by Mr Jain:
“Dear Sri Banker,
Thanks for your prompt and detailed reply.
Now I have no complaints personally against you since you have clarified that the US edition was not authorised by you and that your Indian edition is generally free from the aberrations pointed out by me.
I appreciate the expression of your deep respect for Lord Ram and your offer of all help to get the US /UK publishers proceeded against under law.However,since the US copy-right holders have reverted it back to you,a law suit against them alone will have no legs to stand on.
Atul Kumar Jain”
And here’s the latest one from the same person:
“Dear Sri Banker,
I am sorry you have neither acknowledged nor replied to my last two letters requesting you to confirm that the excrepts objected to by our group here do not appear in your Indian edition.
We have therefore decided to lodge a case against the publishers, distributors and yourself in the District CJM’s court for hurting the religious feelings of Hindus in general and followers of Lord Ram in particular.”
The person in question, as well as the group he represents, had earlier complained about some points in the US/UK edition of the books, which I pointed out to them I had similar objections to as well, and that was one of the main reasons why I had asked that those editions should be discontinued. The US edition has since been put out of print and the rights reverted to me, while I am still waiting for a response from the UK publishers. At that point, Shri Jain seemed satisfied by my response (as you can see from his comment above), but later he wrote back on the Live Chat Box demanding to know if the same ‘offensive’ errors appeared in the Indian editions as well (although I had already clarified that they only appeared in the US/UK editions).
He also demanded to know where to get copies of the Indian editions, which I found strange since they’re available everywhere in India. I replied saying this, and thought the matter was over.
Now, without even having tried to buy the Indian editions (presumably because the complainants are living abroad and don’t have access to Indian bookstores), he says his group is going to file a complaint against me, my publishers, distributors, etc. for hurting the sentiments of Hindus! (This is after my Ramayana books have found over one million readers, almost all of them Hindus.)
Shailendra Modi, another reader, wrote this comment in my support:
“Dear Ashok please do not remove this post eventhough it may not strictly conform to your guidelines for posts in this forum. This has reference to posts 315 and 316.
I feel that if someone’s bent on feeling offended there, is always a cause waiting nearby. I would recommend Atul to read the books (all 6 already in print) before jumping to conclusions.
Also it is to be remembered that it is easy to file a lawsuit and have summons issued, and thereby derive satisfaction out of it. (This country has seen summons issued to the President of India for payment of a suitable sum). But that’s about the end of it. Thereafter you have to prove, on basis of hard facts, that not just your feelings, but the feelings of a sizable population of Hindus, are hurt. Let me be the first Hindu to state on this forum that my feelings are not hurt. It would also like to state that I do not derive any pleasure in Hindu bashing but I simply liked the way Ashok has retold the story. I personally feel that nowhere has Shri Ram or any other figures of reverence, been depicted in bad light.
The adage goes ‘Look before you leap’
Shailendra”
I’m very moved by Shailendra’s comment, just as I’m perplexed by Atul Kumar Jain’s grievance. I’m also curious about the group’s name ‘Ram Setu’.
I welcome all comments from readers of my Ramayana books. If you have read and liked (or loved) my books and want them to stay in print–and want me and other writers in future to have the freedom to write more such books on Indian myth, itihasa and culture, then now is the time to speak out. Leave your comment on the Readerswrite Page and tell everyone you know who might be interested to do the same.
But no matter how strongly you may feel on this matter, please take a deep breath and think carefully before you express yourself. I know the internet is notorious for ‘flame wars’ and the most uninhibited comments, but I will not permit any personal attacks against any person, not even someone who’s threatening to sue me. Whatever his issues, he is also a fellow Ram-bhakt and I am sure he has good intentions at heart, even if he is clearly acting rashly and wrongly.
To phrase a lesson I’ve learned by my close study of Rama himself these past several years:
The true measure of a person is not how he treats those closest to him, but how he treats his worst enemies.
Once a book is written and published, it no longer belongs to an author–it belongs to readers. This is now your cause as much as mine.
And above all, as I am fond of saying often,
This is not your story.
Or my story.
It is History.
If Rama wills it, his story will be told. If he does not will it, how can anyone even dare to attempt such a task?
Dog Day Afternoons…
And evenings. Nights. Mornings. Entire days, in fact. Eleven, and counting.
Training and caring for a 2 month old puppy takes some doing, I can tell you. Especially with my son Ayush nursing a dislocated shoulder and preparing to go in for surgery, my daughter Yashka currently sitting for her exams, my wife busy teaching at a montessori school. Which left mostly me, most of the day, almost all of last week, to care for Willow. And since she’s such an intelligent and responsive little thing, I try to make that time a combination of play, walking, a few puppy-level training exercises, timely and nutritious feeding, and of course, sleeping–a LOT of sleeping, which she loves to do, because she is, after all, just a 2 month old ‘baby’.
What amazes me and the rest of the family is how well she’s responding to training–she’s actually enjoying it! She now sits when told, stays when told (though not for long, which is okay), comes to heel when summoned, is making excellent progress with the toilet training, and has even started training us now. For instance, when it’s time to go downstairs for a toilet break, she goes to the shoe cupboard by the door, whines or barks once, then sits before the front door, facing it, looks at one of us, barks or whines again, and waits for us to get the message. She goes through a similar routine when she’s really really hungry too–which isn’t often, because we feed her on time without fail, except she does the routine in the kitchen, and her focus there is the gas stove and platform.
She’s so obedient and responsive that I actually dread the time when I’m going to have to put her on a leash. But it’s inevitable because although she only sniffs people, never bites or nips them, most people assume she’s going to do so, and some react really badly. Mostly overweight women who have a tendency to leap high in the air, probably much higher than if they were at an aerobics class, and squeal. Men tend to shuffle their feet frantically or threaten to cuff or kick, or sometimes, mime throwing a stone at poor little Willow.
Like the dog training expert Cesar Millan says, bringing up a dog correctly is really all about ‘training humans, and rehabilitating dogs’. Because ninety nine percent of the time, dogs (as puppies) come to us with good habits, and it’s we humans who treat them badly, or wrongly, or spoil them, and it’s we who really have to learn how to behave around them if we want to bring them up well.
I find the whole experience especially fascinating in light of my ongoing Mba, because, as you surely recall, the Mahabharata story begins and ends with a dog (different ones). And it’s a dog that is responsible for Yudhishtira’s entrance into swarga at the end.
So it’s well worth the effort and sleep-deprivation and cleaning up after, and now we’ve fallen into a comfortable routine wherein I manage Willow all morning while I manage to write as well (she’s taken to sleeping at my feet while I write, is doing so as I write these words now, in fact), then Yashka takes over after she comes home in the early afternoon, and evenings belong first to Ayush, then to the whole family, at which point Willow is so ecstatic at being with the whole family that she’s quite literally in dog swarga!
A Banker & A Barker
That’s the newest member of the Banker household, cradled in my arms. The picture was taken by Rohan More of Japalouppe, on the day I took her home. I picked her up to get into the car, when he said, ‘She’s so cosy in your arms, I must take a picture’. I offered him my iPhone. Since then, I’ve shot several dozen more pictures of her, and perhaps I’ll post some of them here too, at the risk of seriously exceeding the cuteness quotient of this blog.
Who is she? She’s a pedigreed Basset Hound puppy, all of 2 months old. After considering several hundred names, including Sanskrit and Scottish ones (Basset Hounds are a Scottish breed) we finally all liked the name Willow, because it just seemed right for her.
I think she’s adorable, and since I work from home, she spends most of her day with me. My son Ayush and daughter Yashka can barely drag themselves away to go to college and school respectively, which shows you how addictive she is. Currently, we’re trying to housebreak her and that’s more easily said than done, since she’s very intelligent, wilful, and has the famous basset hound stubborn streak. But she’s such a sweetheart, I don’t mind cleaning up after her and giving her time to learn the basics–which, by the way, she’s learning amazingly fast and well. She already responds very well to me, sits when told, jumps when told, and has even started to use the toilet a fair amount of the time. At this rate, she’ll be growling at me to leave the toilet seat down in a few days!
We have a nice garden in our building compound, which is wonderful for her. I find it cruel to keep a dog cooped up 24/7 in a flat, so I take her down several times a day, for play, exercise, training, as well as…ahem, using the public toilet. She loves her ‘down’time, as I call it. We’ve bonded beautifully and I can’t imagine not having her around now, and it’s only been ten days.
I had a puppy when I was a boy, a beautiful luxuriant-haired Cocker Spaniel I named Tippu Sultan (it was my mom’s idea, but I thought it was a cute name too, and you can see my fondness for historical characters even then!). He died of tick fever in less than six months, which broke my heart. This is my first dog since then and I cherish every moment with her. I guess I’m also at that age, 43, with two almost fully grown-up teenage kids (18 and 14) where it’s nice to have something this young and small to take care of. I miss having little kids around me, and taking care of them, and sometimes think that I wouldn’t mind adopting someday. But until then, Willow is a baby doll on four legs, and a whole individual person in her own right, with a distinct personality, traits and a fierce intelligence all her own. Did I mention how smart she is? Can’t say it often enough.
I’m neither a ‘dog person’ or a ‘cat person’ and to some extent, even feel that keeping pets is a uniquely human form of cruelty. After all, these are animals meant to live free in the wild, not be trained to do things on command, and obey us tall bipeds and be their pets. I remember writing a poem titled The Kingdom of Beasts as a young boy, it was published in a magazine when I was 14. It was written after Tippu died and it was about the sadness and anger I felt then at us keeping pets and caging them in our houses for our own selfish pleasure.
And yet here I am now, keeping a pet puppy and ‘training’ her. All I can say in my defense is that I respect her as much as any person, and will do my best to make sure she never completely loses her sense of being ‘born free’ and ‘living free’.
And as the headline above suggests, I’m now seriously considering changing the ‘n’ in my surname to an ‘r’!
Free Rice
I found this really fun yet simple online word game, courtesy of another author’s blog.
It’s similar to the Reader’s Digest Test Your Vocabulary game, except that each time you get an answer correct, the organization donates 20 grains of rice to a needy person!
I managed to donate 1900 grains of rice and reached a high of 45, in my first session. Will try later. It definitely beats playing Solitaire in your ‘off’ moments (which, by the way, I never do, and have never been able to figure out why playing Solitaire on a comp is such an addiction–at least Sudoko is mentally challenging.)
Try your hand at it. And help feed a few hungry mouths. Sort of like the Sudama Ke Chawal story in Krishnavatara…
“Is he white?”
I should be used to this by now, but then again, can you ever get used to racism? I don’t think so–in fact, I don’t believe we should ever get used to racism or accept it. I disagree with people who shrug and say, ‘Oh, it’s a part of life’ and do business with racially biased or bigotted people anyway. Their excuse being, ‘Business is business’.
In that sense, the business of Hollywood is largely about racism. Until fairly recently, most American movies didn’t even portray non-white characters. So you had cowboy movies with almost all white faces, historical dramas where the only non-whites were lackeys, servants, butlers, maids, etc, and even the ‘token’ inclusion of non-white characters on TV shows were in minor parts or roles that were inconsequential to the main story. You could count the non-white protagonists in major mainstream Hollywood movies and American entertainment on the fingers of one hand at any given time.
That hasn’t really changed much. Sure, we now have a number of non-white movie stars making it big in the USA, but they’re still few and far between. Most non-white actors still get typecast in typical ‘gangsta’ roles or as drug dealers, pimps, convicts, and the like. Real non-white protagonists like the character Will Smith plays in The Secret of Happyness are rarer than black apples.
So it shouldn’t have surprised me when I discovered that even Indians working with Hollywood can be racist.
For almost six months, I was pursued by this production house based in LA and Mumbai.
They were fans of my Ramayana books. They wanted to work with me. They believed my stories and my style of storytelling were ideal for the big screen. They pursued me relentlessly by email, and later, when I gave them my number, by phone, until I agreed to drop by their office for a cup of tea.
I did. Thinking, after all, that it couldn’t do any harm to have tea and see what they were like up close.
After a couple of tea sessions, where they were really really nice to me, they even opened their hard disks to me, showing me various content they had created for foreign Hollywood studios on outsourcing contracts. They showed me samples of some terrific work they’d done, including a major feature film franchise they were working on for the world’s largest film studios.
Then they started asking if I had anything I wanted to do in the medium of film.
I did. I do. Not because I want to get into film production as a business but because I have stories that I feel could be best told as feature films–others as comics, some as videogames, as TV shows, and so on. I don’t care if I don’t make those films, because nothing gives me more pleasure than writing books, but if someone’s willing to back me, and I don’t have to go out and sell my soul to get a good deal, well, why not? If nothing else, it could be a great way to tell my kind of stories in an exciting medium.
So I told them the gist of a couple of concepts. One was a concept called Sword of Dharma which I’ve been working on for a while now, as some of you know. It’s part of my overall ‘Epic India Library’ and at some point I may write it as a series of books as well. But I’ve always felt that it’s one of my stories that’s most ideally suited to film. So I talked to them about it.
And they jumped at it. Very were excited in fact. They called me back with what seemed like a fantastic offer. I thought, well, why not? And we talked some more.
At which point, the ugly side of Hollywood reared its head. Out of nowhere, with no relevance to any part of the discussion, the President of the company asks me, ‘Is he white?’ He was referring to the protagonist of Sword of Dharma.
I thought that was a really odd question, because it was like asking me after the whole Ramayana story is told, ‘Is Rama white?’
And that’s where the ugly truth began to peep out from behind all that Hollywood glamour.
Even though three-fourths of the company’s ownership was Indian, they still cared only about doing business with Hollywood. Which, apparently, meant ‘white’ heroes, white stars, and by extension, white scripts. They tried to impress upon me the importance of the script and eventually, the film, being tailored towards the ‘audience’ to ensure firstly, that we got the funding we were seeking, and later, the kind of box office success that the project deserved. They were confident that if I took their ’suggestions’ on such matters, we would all make buckets of money together.
Well, there are some things more important than making buckets of money. And resisting racial profiling of the kind they were talking about is one such thing.
It’s one thing for us Indians to do outsourcing work for western companies just to get business. It’s also marginally acceptable (just) to take on such contracts at lower rates than what western companies charge–although I think even that stinks of cultural and racial disparity.
But it’s a whole different ballgame to change the race of a story’s lead character, and manipulate the story and script and film to make it more ‘white’ in order to get funding more easily, and sell more tickets at the B-O.
To me, at least, that’s unacceptable.
So I said no to them. And continued to say no, even after about thirty-odd more emails and phone calls.
In fact, I’ve now stopped reading their emails, even the ones that claim to be apologizing for those racist questions and suggestions.
There’s no apology for racism throughout history, none at all. And especially none in these supposedly enlightened times when we all should know better.
And if my attitude costs me a few million dollars in potential earnings, so be it.
I’m brown, my stories are almost always about brown people–or green, or blue, or red, if that’s what they happen to be–and there’s much, much more to them than just their race and the colour of their skin. And I truly believe that someday, audiences the world over will watch such protagonists and characters like Rama, Krishna, Buddha, etc on movie screens and not care a whit what race or colour they are, only about their actions and words, which transcend all these petty details.
And I’m willing to say no to all of Hollywood, rather than compromise.
Does that make me some kind of hero? Or martyr? Not really. Maybe it makes me some kind of a fool, for not just grabbing such a great offer with both hands and cashing those fat cheques that are likely to follow.
But I believe we all can end racism if we just have the courage to say no at such times. Not when it’s convenient and doesn’t affect our business or life, but when it’s most inconvenient, when it actually costs us dearly, because such attitudes should not be tolerated by anyone, not for all the money in Hollywood, or the world.
The irony is that the lead protagonist of Sword of Dharma isn’t white, brown, black or any other colour on Earth. He’s blue. Because he’s an avatar. In fact, he’s not just a he, he’s sometimes a she, sometimes a child, even an animal at other times…
And the person who asked that question and started the whole racial profiling argument? Brown. At least on the outside.
Sold out on pre-order! 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 