Readomania announces another book with Mona Verma - Scent of the Himalayas - Stories from the Mystical Mountains.
The heart of every culture beats with its folktales. But then, just like the moods of hills, there is no definitive narrative of these stories. Although the centuries-old traditional stories share the same overarching plot, variations are delightfully surprising. Numerous versions around birds, animals, harvest, love, deceit, sorcery, and forces of nature are sung or form the themes for dance forms. But what remains constant is the belief. With every telling, the legends are restored, and thus their umbilical is once again anchored to their land.
Mona Verma is an award-winning author of 8 books and over a dozen anthologies. Her books are the subject of thesis for many Research Scholars and also included in the ICSE ELT series. She has edited various science journals, self-help books, and biographies and specializes as a Haiku, Limericks, and Tanka poet. Listed as one of the 50 Iconic Authors 2022, she is a Paul Harris Fellow, Chief Coordinator for FLO FICCI UK Literature Committee, and member of the Asia Development Bank. She co-owns DISHA, which trains in MNCs, PSUs, and Universities for EPT, FTP, PEP, PSI, and OB programs in India and abroad.
Listed in India Today's March 2023 issue amongst the Top 8 evolving women of India, she is also the co-founder of House of Harmony- a literary initiative to curate and design literary conclaves.
Verma says, 'Having grown in the foothills, the imposing Himalayas held an indelible charm for me. As nerve- shaken urban plain-dwellers, we looked at the mountains to soak their calm, quiet and pristine energy. When life demanded more from its hill folk, the working class landed in the plains but not alone! They carried with them, their folk tales and timeless legends and we felt a mystical connect with the wilderness. As the day ended, the retellings became a yearning, a necessity. Soon we realised how effortlessly those enchanting stories lent credibility to the prevalence of cultures and faiths that dwell in the hills.
I have tried to recreate that magic in my book, Scent of the Himalayas - Stories from the mystical mountains wherein I have written from every state in India that the ranges span. And despite the myriad cultures, we are bound to find that one shared thread, that all the folk tales have in common - Faith.'
Two of her previous books have been big hits.
The Daivya Sutras: Stories from the Puranas
Stories have been told for as long as we have had language. When it comes to mythology, storytelling is perhaps the most powerful way that human beings understand their cultural bearings.
Puranas have fascinating tales of the Trinity, valour of the warriors, the ethereal beauty of the goddesses, love, and longing of the nymphs, and penance of the sages.
Thus, the Puranas have an enchanting story for everyone! The Daivya Sutras invites you to lose yourself in this world of surreal imagination and magic.
Lost and Found in Banaras
Banaras celebrates death, but what does it do to the living dead?
When three-year-old Brinda is widowed after being married for a few hours, her family refuses to take her back in. Deemed ‘munhoos’, she finds her way to Nirmala Ashram in Banaras where she leads a life of child widow under the watchful eye of Vasanti Bua and her friend, Debi. She and Debi are just another shade of white in the city’s numerous ‘white shadows’ until Sia and Uday return to Banaras. As visitors to the ancient city, they assumed that the unfinished stories of their past were long behind them. Little did they know that Banaras was waiting with its unspent debt and the dishonest voices would find their way back to them in Brinda and Debi. Will Banaras, standing at the crossroads between the ancient and the modern, help them expiate? Will they find what they once lost—love, longing or perhaps nirvana?
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