New Delhi, Sept. 7 -- Can mythology still speak to a generation that questions everything?
That was one of the provocative questions emerging from the Delhi conversation around Sohini Roychowdhury Dasgupta's 'Love, Life & Drama' at Quill & Canvas Art Gallery & Book Store.
The evening, moderated with intelligence and warmth by Ishita Bains and thoughtfully put together by Shobha Sengupta, moved beyond the predictable language of mythology to examine the women within these stories.
Kali smashed boundaries. She challenged containment, convention and the idea that feminine power must always be beautiful, obedient or acceptable. Ahalya presented an altogether different image: a woman trapped in silence, judgment and a narrative largely written around her rather than by her.
For Gen Z, perhaps the task is not to either worship mythology or dismiss it. It is to interrogate it. To ask who had power, who had a voice, who was silenced and whose version of the story survived.
The discussion also confronted 'India exotica', the seductive international packaging of India as mysticism, colour, gods and spectacle. Against this sit 'India idiotica', a deliberately provocative phrase describing what happens when a complex civilisation is reduced to exotic cliches.
Delhi provided the perfect setting for such a conversation: a city where ancient histories constantly collide with contemporary questions. The takeaway was simple but powerful. Mythology doesn't need protection from questions. It needs questions to remain alive.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.