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
