Of Goddesses and Bitch Goddesses

A friend ran a recent discussion thread on Sita and the various ways she has been interpreted in the various  tellings of the Ramayana. . Lot of people had lot to say about Sita and many of them nice things. So I went away to ponder over what it was about her that bothered me.  I was surprised by what I discovered.

I wouldn't be so bothered by her if we read Sita like how other cultures read their mythological characters- like how Diana or Athena or Medusa or Venus was read.  Like a mythological god from our collective heritage. Unfortunately, Sita has been read , here, in a prescriptive manner. She has been held up as the image of' the 'Ideal Woman' and either directly or subliminally the message has been  the one that say she is a n aspirational figure, the one to be emulated.

A lot can be said and has been too about how it stems from the Patriarchal Viewpoint and the desire  to perpetuate the  concept of  wife who treats her husband as master and God. There is one side-story in one of the version  of Ramayana,  in which one of Sita's friends call her to the temple to pray and she replies saying that now that I am married ,Rama is my god , I cannot pray to another. It doesn't take a genius to figure why such ideas were fostered and encouraged in the  female mind. This would have been extremely effective  or dangerous. depending on your position in this argument, at a time when education was not accessible to  women.

 I didn't want to be a goddess and lot of  you out there  I am sure must have felt the same. I think the unconscious rebelling against such clever subliminal campaigning  made me think ,'you know what, I don't want to be a Goddess, what I need to be is a Bitch Goddess"

And so Mira was born. Is that the ideal solution? I could answer it,but alas that would spoil the book for you. So we can discuss it after  you read.the book.

A lot of the book is as tongue-in-cheek as the flippant remark I make about wanting to be a BG. So there will be quite a few laughs.
Eager to hear about what you think about Mira's journey.

Maya

A Blog Mention

Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!: Book Preview: Bitch Goddess for Dummies and Love Stories 1-14

Thanks John!

A peek into

Mira's Survival Kit

Did it really help her? could it? There is only one way to know....

My Book and I

are up on my publiasher's page!!
Check this out, people
Cover design and me!!!!

Encounter with a Real , Live BG!

The writing of this book and thinking about Mira’s dilemma had attuned me to the Bitch Goddess out there . I want to share one such story with you.

This was at the security check queue at the airport. We were in queue to place out cabin bags for screening before going through security gate- you know, where they freely frisk you-yeah that one. Anyway- the queue was long and  tempers short . Everybody seemed to have lap tops that needed to be removed from their  cases, handbags and a shoulder bag and all were eager but waiting for their turn. It didn’t help that the queue was getting longer.

I had inched up to the fifth or the sixth place and had glimpsed the baggage screening machine, a sight by then almost as dear as paradise. And as we waited there for our turn, there strode up, oh-so casually, one madam who by –passed the queue and nonchalantly placed her bag on the machine and went in to the security check line.
I saw red. “Excuse me, there is a queue here .” I said.

She turned and said, “So what? If you want , you put your bag here too.”

And walked off. I wanted to fling her bag off the machine and yell. Now. Then of course, I was just fuming and could think of nothing to do or even say.

Needless to say, she got away with her obnoxious behaviour. As you can see, there are lots of inspiration and role models for this book.

What’s your Bitch Goddess Story?

The Book Cover

The cover is up, folks! Tell me what you think of it.

Bitch Goddess goes shopping

It was Diwali and shopping was replacing religion. I was a convert too. And in my multiple pilgrimages to the various malls and shopping centres, I found a Bitch Goddess wardrobe.

I am still looking for the perfect earrings! Any of you have one? Do post pictures and ideas.

A little more about the book...

So, here's a brief synopsis of the story-
Mira Iyer is single, smart and lives  in Singapore. When the story opens, she is angry with herself- because she is a pushover and tired of it. So, she decides enough is enough and embarks on a journey to transform herself into a Bitch Goddess. It is a journey fraught with challenges, in the form of her own internal conflicts, roadblocks thrown up by the Office Bitch Sanya and  her tumultuous equation with the too-good-to-be-true Rohan. As if that was not enough, her so far unknown half-sister turns up at her door-step  leading to an inevitable confrontation with her  estranged father. All this is not helped by the constant nagging her mother manages ,\very effectively , through long  distance. The only bright spot in her life seems to be her best friend and colleague Vinay.
Will Mira succeed in out bitching Sanya? Will she get the best projects? Does she resolve her issues with Rohan? Does she make peace with her dad? Will her handy Bitch Goddess Rules help? Does she finally find her inner peace? Or the perfect Little Black Dress?

And so the tale began...

Admit it- hasn't there been times when your friend/colleague/aunt/classmate  made some snide remark to you and you let it slide because you could think of no comebacks? Only to have that remark play in your mind a few hours  or days or even months later, leaving you muttering ‘I should have said this or I should have said that’ ?.

Or picture this- A not so deserving colleague/ friend/classmate gets the promotion or the coveted role in the school play or the best guy in the class and you find yourself thinking- it true what people say – nice gals finish last.
Did you ever think., at such times,  ‘I need to be a less nice person’?
That is what Mira, the protagonist of this book,  thought when one day she finally had enough of being walked all over for being a ‘nice, good girl.’

So then what did she do? Yes, she did exactly what the title suggests she did.  She decided to become a Bitch Goddess. Once she decided that, what did she do next?  What  happened to her then?  Did she succeed? Is there a hunk in the book?

I will answer the last question for you- oh, yes! For the rest of the answers you have to read the book.

But I have other question for you-

  Was there any incident in your life when you felt driven to do something this drastic? What did you do then?

Do write in your responses and share you stories.

 Looking forward to hearing from you.