Book Review: The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni
Quote: Kaikeyi leans close to me. She reeks of tobacco. I can feel her hot, fetid breath on my skin. 'What's her story? That's a story that the loyal citizens of Ayodhya and your puppet newspaper may have trouble swallowing'.
A nameless TV journalist, dares to do the impossible, on national television, she asks 'Where is Sita?' From then on the cat and mouse game of seeking the truth begins. Set in the city-state where Ram is the beloved king who is trying to bring Democracy. Ayodhya is an ever-growing kingdom that ate up Lanka's resources after defeating Ravan. In its omnivorous quest to be the shining example of development, many have been trampled.
Our journalist keeps discovering secrets and ends up connecting dots to the other side of the story. From queen to princess she meets them all in her search for Sita.
The book begins with Kaikeyi, within the first three pages I was glued. But I resisted, I savoured this book for almost two months, I read it super slow because I didn't want it to end.
Every queen and princess has something to say; Surpanakha, Urmila, Trijatha. I badly wanted Mandodari to get her to say too. I loved the history behind Black Shirts and LLF because they resonate so much with conditions and histories of North East India, and Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh
I have a soft spot for Samhita Arni, her Sita's Ramayana and Mahabharata: A Child's View was intriguing and I love rereading them. The Missing Queen surpassed her previous storytelling in the matter of language and political urgency. The book is definitely a retelling of Ramayana, but it's so much more! The book is so small and well written but also so well edited, the use of em dashes made me so happy. This is iceberg style at its finest, so many things are implied but never forced fed to the readers. Any reader young or old would understand what the author is trying to make us see through this story.
The book is a feminist story and a suspense novel that brings out the horror of mass denial and self-induced cultural amnesia. It also is an environmental story, as it keeps asking it's readers what is the price of development that we crave so badly?
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