Jagadamba – The Kasturba Story - Softcover

Bhatkal, Ramdas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857422979 ISBN 13: 9780857422972

Publisher: Seagull Books, 2016

Synopsis

While Mahatma Gandhi is hailed across the world as a champion of humanity and nonviolent struggle, the struggles of the woman who accompanied him closely all his life, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, remains untold. This playtext, Jagadamba, rights that wrong with a long monologue in which Kasturba speaks from her heart about the different facets of her life an often difficult marriage, the great man's selfless immersion in politics and its consequences for their family, their troubled sons, and, most importantly, her own desires and hopes. Originally conceived in the Marathi language for actress Rohini Hattangadi, who received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Kasturba in Richard Attenborough's classic biopic Gandhi, this play charts the journey of a simple girl who went on to become "Jagadamba," or the "Universal Mother," as the wife of the Mahatma. As Shanta Ghokale writes in her introduction: "Wives of great men have hard lives, often lived in negation of values they hold most dear. Jagadamba is the personal feelings of a devoted wife who had held her own in a life made mentally, physically, and morally turbulent by her husband's ideas and political work."

About this title

About the Author

Ramdas Bhatkal has published books in English, Hindi, and Marathi. Author of Mohanmaya, he is also an Indian classical vocalist. Yashodhara Deshpande Maitra taught natural sciences at the National Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York. The translator of several major works of fiction and non-fiction from Marathi into English, she has also performed as Kasturba in recent productions of Jagadamba.

Edition details

• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857422979
• ISBN 13: 9780857422972
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140