The Living Legend: Ramayana tales from far and near
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Key information
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- Date
- Time
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6:00 pm
- Venue
- Paul Webley Wing, SOAS University of London
- Room
- SALT
About this event
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Join us for the book event of "The Living Legend: Ramayana tales from far and near" with the book author Dr. Vayu Naidu. The storytelling is followed by a Q&A session.
Told with wit and wisdom, Naidu weaves tales from south and east Asia in the vastness of this epic. Her book "The Living Legend", brings in a new focus about the environment and why this epic is a fight to restore the balance of nature in the world.
"Rama is all of 16 when Sage Vishwamitra takes him to the Dandaka forest, with Lakshmana accompanying them. At first, the spirit of adventure fills the two teenage brothers, but it is a curtain of pitch darkness when they enter the forest in broad daylight.
The smell if decaying flesh, flashes of fire, and the gloom of animals, birds and foliage in terror affect Rama deeply. For the first time, he feels fear. He hears derisive laughter - is it from the forest or within him?
The first lesson he recalls from the sage Vashistha is: What is the task at hand? How can he understand the gravity of what is happening? Is the earth calling out for help? He gathers his fragmented thoughts and, feeling for the arrow from his quiver, shoots at a shape-shifting demon who terrorises the forest. The Living Legend by Vayu Naidu is packed with such twists and reflections and showcases the strength of relationship Rama, Sita and Lakshmana created with nature to restore the very balance of life.
-Deccan Herald (India rating of Read of the Week, 6 October 2024)"
About the speaker
Dr. Vayu Naidu is a PhD scholar in the Epic and Oral traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and is Professor of Practice at SOAS in the School of Arts.
Her fiction is inspired by the unnoticed drama of daily events that challenge and change us. British History and Indian myth are milestones in her landscape. Dualities and paradox shape the characters while irony steers her narrative; the voice switches as easily from first to third person.
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