When Ganesh meddled with the Mahabharata

Author Alice Albinia is nearly convinced that Ganesh was not just a scribe to Ved Vyas when the epic was being written. She tells a contemporary tale through the eyes of Ganesh

Have you ever wondered about Ganesh, the elephant headed god's role in the Mahabharata? Author of the well-known title Empires of the Indus, Alice Albinia did and also imagined Ganesh had his own additions to make while Ved Vyasa narrated to him the text of the epic that he had created in his mind. This strong notion mixed with Alice's experiences of having lived and worked in Delhi resulted in a contemporary story with Ganesh as its narrator, Leela's Book. Leela, the protagonist lives with her husband Hari in New York having cut herself out from India for nearly 20 years.



Her sister was once married to a Sanskrit scholar named Vyasa. Their lives intertwine again when Hari's niece decides to marry Vyasa's son. Leela must return to India. Meanwhile, Ganesh narrates his own story as a writer and how he playfully indulged in introducing characters into the epic Mahabharata while Ved Vyasa narrated. The story merges seamlessly, borrowing heavily from mythology. While Ganesh is the narrator of the story, the author explains the book is as much about Ganesh narrating Leela's story as his. The use of names from the epic also draws parallels amongst the characters despite being in different eras. In a telephonic interview with Alice Albinia, she talks about bridging the gap between the contemporary and the mythological, her criticism of Ved Vyasa and more.

Why do both of your books use India as a central point?
I come from a small place and I wanted to move to a bigger place. India always fascinated me.

Why did you choose to live in Delhi? Why did Leela's Book have to be set it Delhi?
I began working in Delhi nearly ten years ago and then I had decided that the book had to be set in Delhi. Delhi itself contains an entire ancient city and it is a very interesting place. Besides, the Mahabharata was central to my story and Delhi was the natural location for that.

When did you first encounter mythology? When did you decide that the Mahabharata was going to form a part of your writing?
My first memory of mythology, the Mahabharata is of watching it on TV in the 1980s. I could think it off then that it could be part of my writing. My next-door neighbour at Cambridge was an Indian and I found an abridged version of the Mahabharata in his room. That is when it came back to me. Also, I studied Greek mythology in college and one of the things I would easily turn to otherwise was the Mahabharata.

What was it about Ganesh that fascinated you? Why did you choose him to narrate your story?
Every translation of the Mahabharata that I had read didn't have Ganesh's perspective. I did not know much about him and had sympathised with him. He was not just a scribe to Vyas, there must have been something he felt during writing the epic.

What makes you so condescending of Vyasa? Would you ever tell his story?
I thought Ganesh didn't like it. I was critical of him. He has already written his story, in the form of a whole epic, nobody needs to do it.

Were you afraid of the reaction the book might receive in India?
I wasn't afraid. I don't know what the reaction will be but there will be people who will hate it. Like with any novel, there are people who love it and others who absolutely hate it.

What was the most challenging part of the book?
Learning to write fiction after a non-fiction book. It was an exploration, every novel is. I was forced to think about a lot of things and hopefully, find something.

How did you balance the mythological and contemporary parts of Leela's Book?
In some ways it was simple, Delhi is still very similar, everyone is connected in Delhi. It was like a natural mapping of Delhi on the Mahabharata.

Leela's Book by Alice Albinia, Rs 499, Random House India. Leela's Book releases today at Crossword Bookstore, Kemps Corner, 7 pm. The book will be available at leading bookstores.

Empires of the Indus
Winner of the Jeerwood Award by the Royal Society of Literature in 2005, this book covers the author's travels from Tibet to Karachi, which is along the natural course of the Indus River. The adventurous historian follows the river upstream and takes the reader back in time across two thousand miles of geography and five millennia of history.

Extract, Pg 30
Vyasa, like all dictators, was paradoxical. He guarded his story jealously, refusing to let it be published during the lifetime of his grandsons, for they, of course, were in it, and reading it, would have known what is going to happen next. And yet, despite keeping a very strict eye on the whereabouts of the manuscriptu00a0-- regulating exactly who could learn which sections whenu00a0-- he never once stopped to check what I had written. Perhaps, having thought through those one hundred shlokas twice already, he hadn't the energy to read them again.

Maybe, illiterate bard that he was, he had no way of checking. Or possible he credited me with more godly honour than is my divine due. In short, I would still be feeling guilt today, were it not for the fact that, without my specific actions, certain important peopleu00a0-- the top quality fabric of the story I am about to unfoldu00a0-- would never have seen the limey light of the day. So there we were. Vyasau00a0-- with his version of events. And meu00a0-- all outward concurrence and inward dissensionu00a0-- with mine. And Vyasa never noticed my interpolations until it was far too late.