The cadence is comfortable, but also slightly unfamiliar. Reading it is like listening to the ocean, humming a lullaby, or listening to crickets and tree frogs in spring - but not quite. I cannot read the Mahabharata in its original language, but I like to think that Buck did something very right in the way he chose to translate it. I could reread the whole book, or the 30 page story within the book, or the 11 page story within the 30 page story, or the 2 page story within the 11 page story. I loved the stories within stories within stories. I did not stop at whatever arbitrary page had been chosen on the syllabus, but continued on until I had devoured it in full.įor a long time after that, I carried it with me to revisit. Buck's words washed over me, through me, surrounded me, engulfed me. For the first time in a long time I was transported somewhere else. (There is always a liquor store across from the church, isn't there?) Nor could I feel the weight of all the things I needed to do but hadn't yet done pressing down on me. I could no longer hear the soft snoring of my son, the whisk of cars along the highway outside the window, or the steady crunch of gravel as people pulled in and out of the liquor store across the street. As I began reading, though, something magical happened. So, late one night as my son lie sleeping on a mattress in one corner of the room, I curled up with a lamp and Mahabharata in another - ready to get my assigned reading done for the week. It was assigned reading for our Honors Humanities Project - basically a four semester course that combined World Literature, World History, Composition, Religions (and a bunch of other things I am sure I have now forgotten). Needless to say, I had little enough time for school work, and even less for reading for pleasure. I was trying to juggle a 21 hour semester at school while simultaneously only having my toddler in daycare for half days.
#The mahabharata tv series full
My husband was working nights while going to school full time. We lived in a large room that was a sort of add-on to the side of my parent's church and doubled as the nursery on Sundays. It was my first semester back to school after taking time off to have my son. Needless to say, I had I still vividly remember the very first time I read Buck's translation of the Mahabharata.
I still vividly remember the very first time I read Buck's translation of the Mahabharata.