Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

25 Jul 2003, 16:08 p.m.

Nobody Expects a Palace of Wax!

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

I'm reading the Mahabharata in prose form, as edited by C. Rajagopalachari, "popularly known as 'Rajaji' or 'C.R.'" Fantastic stuff. I see the connections among little narratives and anecdotes that I read in Amar Chitra Katha comic books. I see how conflicting senses of duty wrought so much inner turmoil in the characters. Very plotty, with characters malicious, struggling, good, and misguided. Wonderful. The best BART ride read I've had in a while.

And this refresher will come in handy when I write my Monty Python-esque treatment of the epic.