00:00 This week of Outlook is in fact has two cover stories.
00:04 We were working towards since the festival season is upon us.
00:08 So we were actually initially working towards a package
00:10 as a series of articles on the women characters in the Ramayana,
00:15 in the epic, the Ramayana.
00:17 You know, we know a lot about the men, you know,
00:19 the male characters like Ram himself, Lakshmana, Bharat Chaturgana,
00:25 Bali Sugri, Hanuman.
00:27 But what about the women?
00:28 You know, they've always been sort of on the margins,
00:31 you know, they've never been really etched that well.
00:34 So we wanted to look at this and we, you know,
00:37 started asking people, you know, writers, authors,
00:42 who have dwelled on this subject and who have written books, etc.
00:45 So that is what we were working towards.
00:49 But then, you know, this tragedy in the West, in West Asia happened,
00:53 took place and we couldn't ignore that.
00:57 So we had to also look at, you know,
01:00 the human tragedy that is going on there in the Gaza Strip.
01:03 So this, the conflict between Israel and Hamas, we had to address.
01:08 So we also got a lot of very, very interesting pieces from,
01:12 you know, on both, from both sides, from the Israeli side and from Gaza Strip.
01:17 So the issue actually is very, very rich in content.
01:21 There are lots of interesting articles to read.
01:24 I mean, to begin with a few of them that come to mind readily.
01:28 Devdutt Patnaik, I think the person who must have written
01:31 the most number of mythological books in India, he, you know,
01:35 he writes about marital fidelity in the Ramayana.
01:39 You know, how important, you know, that aspect is there in the epic,
01:44 which is very interesting.
01:45 Then Koral Dasgupta writes about, you know,
01:47 the leadership quality that many women did have,
01:51 which the retellings, many retellings of the epic has, you know, brought in for.
01:55 So that is, that's there.
01:56 Then Kavita Kane writes a very interesting piece about the four sisters
02:01 of the four brothers, you know, their role in the epic, which is interesting.
02:06 Manini Anandini Singh writes about the women characters in the epic.
02:11 Then our, my colleague Abhik Bhattacharya, he writes about,
02:16 he, you know, he talks to experts and, you know, historians and mythologists
02:20 about Mandodari, Ravana's wife, who's such an interesting character.
02:25 Tanul Thakur, he looks at the representation of Sita in various films,
02:31 in Hindi films, which is very interesting.
02:34 These are, these are, of course, the articles to do with the, you know,
02:39 with Ramayana and the women characters in it.
02:41 Apart from that, we have fantastic pieces, very, very insightful pieces
02:44 from both, you know, inside Gaza Strip and Israel on the conflict in the zone.
02:52 Outlook editor Chinkee herself has written this very interesting piece
02:55 about her own travels and stay in Israel.
02:59 We have Iftikhar Gilani putting the whole thing in perspective, you know,
03:03 like how the conflict, the origins of it, where it, what happened in the middle
03:09 and where it is leading towards.
03:11 It's a very interesting piece.
03:13 We have Sophie Ernst, we have an excerpt from a book on home and memory,
03:19 which is also very, very interesting.
03:22 And then we have a brilliant, apart from this, this is about the conflict there,
03:26 but apart from that, in another feature, we have Naveen Kishore,
03:31 publisher and photographer, who's done a marvellous poem and, you know,
03:36 a selection of photos on the Durga, the idol, the making of the Durga idol
03:42 in near Calcutta, which is also very interesting.
03:46 So, as I said before, it's very rich in content.
03:50 It's got a lot to read and a lot of insightful pieces, you know, to understand,
03:55 you know, both the women characters in the Ramayana, as well as, you know,
03:59 the conflict that is taking place in between Israel and Hamas.
04:04 Do pick up a copy.
04:05 Thank you.
04:06 [ Silence ]
