The multiple truths of author Amish Tripathi

Writer Amish Tripathi is two months away from releasing his fifth mythological fiction but the anxiousness is already palpable Caught between heavy promotions for Sita Warrior of Mithila the second book in the Ram Chandra series Amish reveals that hes not worried about the book doing well as much as hes concerned about meeting the expectations of his publishers Theyve invested so much money Its my duty to make sure that they make some profit out of it he saysThe response isnt surprising Exactly four years ago the writer had been in the news for receiving an advance of 5 crore for a series that he was still to pen But bagging the title of Indias milliondollar author and then translating that into attractive sales figures isnt as easy as it seems And Amish is aware of this Despite his books being bestsellers mdash his Shiva trilogy sold over 35 million copies mdash the author doesnt believe in taking things easy The only time he is relaxed is when he is writing Its a spiritual exercise for me I love spending time in that parallel universe I can actually see these stories play out in front of me and I record all of that in my book Its as real as this world for me he says of his fictionHis new novel revisits the story of Sita the wife of Ram The expanse of this story will cover Sitas life from her birth till before she is kidnapped Interestingly this book doesnt take off from his last Ram Scion of Ikshvaku which told the story of Lord Ram from his birth to the kidnapping of his wife Similarly the third book will begin with Raavans birth and again end with Sitas kidnapping These three stories will come together in the fourth and fifth book says Amish adding What I have done here is followed a multilinear narrativeThe idea of experimenting with the storytelling technique came to Amish many moons ago while watching Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawas crime mystery Rashomon This narrative works for us Indians because we are intrinsically comfortable with the idea of multiple truths he says Its this notion of multiple truths that validates Amishs understanding of Sita as a warrior In the recent past one hasnt seen such an interpretation of Sitas character he admits But thats the popular imagination of one of Indian mythologys most revered female characters This idea has been fed to us by a 1980s television serial he says while referring to Ramanand Sagars Ramayan 1986 That serial was largely based on Tulsidas Ramcharitramanas which again was a modern 16th century interpretation of Valmikis original textIn Valmikis Ramayana Sita is a far stronger character says Amish She isnt a physical warrior but has a mind of her own and will only do what she thinks is right And that spirit to fight for what she believes in makes her a powerful person For instance he says that when Ram tells Sita that he is leaving for his vanvaas alone the wife doesnt agree She argues with him and asks him how dare he leave without her adds the writer In another version called the Adbhuta Ramayana also credited to Valmiki Sita plays warrior There the elder Raavan there are two in this version is killed by Sita when she takes on the form of Goddess KaliAmishs Sita is probably more empowered than any other version She wields weapons fights battles and also braves hundreds of soldiers singlehandedly before she is kidnapped The writer wouldnt like to call it a deviation from truth because Sita he says has already donned multiple personalities over the centuries And all are as true as the other As mentioned in ancient texts truth is one but the wise speak of it as many he saysLiving with multiple truths however didnt come easily to the former banker In maths we only believe in the absolute truth And considering I was this leftbrained banker that was definitely a challenge says the IIM Kolkata alumnus and mathematics graduate from St Xaviers College Mumbai Then as a teenager he rebelled against faith and became an atheistI was a believer when I was young before I turned to atheism in the 1990s But when I started writing my first book The Immortals of Meluha the core philosophy reeled me in and I slowly returned to faith Today there isnt a day when Amish a Shiva worshipper does not pray Life comes a full circleHaving said that we were curious if the author thinks that his take on the Ramayana would some day come to play on the collective consciousness of the people Here he quickly adds No I hope not Honestly my books arent that good he says selfdeprecatingly The ancient texts have so much to offer People should go read them and understand it for themselves There is still so much to discover Mine is just a small contribution