{"id":4509,"date":"2019-07-01T20:16:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/?p=4509"},"modified":"2020-02-19T19:38:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T14:08:44","slug":"indian-sff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/indian-sff\/","title":{"rendered":"Two South Asian SFF Books\u2014Angry Goddesses, Witch Parties & Reborn Poets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Talk of vegan witches, statues that come to life, puppets, courtesans from 1800s, and tattoos. Creation has a handbook in Rulebook for Creating the Universe<\/em> by Tashan Mehta<\/em> and obedient weavers create whole universes. But there are rules (A girl cannot stitch the sun but can weave forests, Follow the blueprint, Don\u2019t follow the girl who tried to steal time and created a world where they call god a woman etc). This was such an original and charming look at how new worlds are created. Goddesses make appearances in many stories, mostly bickering, often tired and with a determination to set things right. I enjoyed most of the stories in the collection. They felt cohesive as an anthology and fitted together like pieces of a puzzle even though the writers worked independently.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first story that I read was Nikita Deshpande\u2019s<\/em> The Girl who Haunted Death<\/em>. I loved it! Satyavan-Savitri (a wife winning back her dead husband from the god of Death) is one of my favourite stories and Deshpande gives form and voice to Death who often remains as a shadow in the stories. I found this utterly captivating. The Rakshasi\u2019s Rose Garden<\/em> by Sukanya Venkatraghavan<\/em> was absorbing; about a rakshasi, an unmarried woman actually, who has a beautiful garden in her balcony and is subject to the gossips of the aunties in the neighbourhood. The story moved fast enough to shock, touching on sensitive themes of abuse and women standing up for the powerless ones.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n