Review of "Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don't Tell You" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Fascinating and a crisp read. I am very new to the rabbit hole of Devdutt Pattanaik and his works.
This book is a collection of short stories from Hindu mythology. It shows how fluid is gender and how it lies in a spectrum instead of being strictly defined like other myths.
I have always been fascinated by the birth of Aiyappan (Hari-hara sudhan), born between Vishnu, who temporarily turned into Mohini and Shiva. So I enjoyed all the 30 such short stories in this book. A king, becoming pregnant, and bizarrely delivering a child. A cursed person, turning male in the waxing moon period and female in the waning moon period. A bromance story.
I found the footnotes in every story fascinating and making to dig deep into every one of them. Highly recommend it.
