The story starts as Krishna Dharabasi’s curiosity increases when he notices in spite of Radha-Krishna’s great love tales, Radha is nowhere mentioned in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata. It portrays the same story of Radha-Krishna by combining the traditional plot with a tranche of the modern world. It is a metaphysical novel assorted with a few portions of reality and a few portions of supersensual aspects that transcends the real world. In Nepali Literature such novels are called “Lila Lekhan”.
In the novel, we can sense Lord Krishna and Radha’s friendship and their inquisitiveness towards each other since their childhood. But as they grew older, they drift apart as Krishna has to leave Vrindaban to accomplish the purpose of his birth. Radha’s divine love towards Krishna made her wait for him but he seldom returned. This book presents Radha-Krishna’s ideal love, the circumstances they faced and yet the love between them never stumbled, all from Radha’s perspective.
Also, in this book, Radha though a traditional character possesses qualities of a modern woman. She has different shades. Somewhere she is portrayed as a stubborn woman as she doesn’t accept Krishna’s invitation to Dwarika while she is also portrayed to have a wise conscience. We can see Radha is constantly trying to make an equal space for women as that of men which extrapolates the feminism inside of her.
How earnestly Radha awaited for Krishna’s retrieval but he never did. Krishna was obliged by his duties and responsibilities and wanted Radha to come to him but she reluctantly, abandoned Krishna and his request that led to the nascence of their separation. It pictures the same story of Krishna and Kansha as in Mahabharata and how the former saved his people from evils of the later. Also, it entails stories of various characters of Mahabharata who touched Radha’s life in different ways.
The novel also depicts about the agony of females in the ancient as well as a modern patriarchal society but their painful acceptance. This book depicts stories; how a female herself is adding poison to another female’s life. Women suppress women despite the fact that all of them have confronted same pain at some point in their lives.
Further, Radha’s sacrifice, exorcism and her long voyage to different places as a Yogini in search of freedom and meaning of life where she faces a lot of hardships along with her friend, Bishakha. On the other side, Krishna who had been married to so many women is still searching Radha in each of them. He seems unable to erase the memoir of Radha from his mind and soul. Krishna was not faulty in his place as he was confined with the responsibilities of his kingdom and the people around him nor was Radha who always loved Krishna no matter how harsh the situations were.
Throughout the Radha novel, we can see a perfect blend of friendship, love, devotion, war, responsibilities, feminism, freedom and wisdom.
If you’re admirer of history and love, then this book is your cup of tea.
