Meera pretended both children were hers and cut off communication with Leela before her death when the “twins” were toddlers. The two girls were inseparable until Meera fell in love with the young professor Vyasa, a proponent of free love attracted to both Meera and Leela he unwittingly impregnated them both. A poor orphan, she was adopted by Meera’s parents and raised as Meera’s sister. But she has never told Hari, a sweet-natured businessman, that she knows Vyasa, or anything about her past. After 20 years of self-imposed exile, Leela returns to Delhi with Hari to attend the wedding. Meera’s adopted sister Leela lives in New York City with her husband Hari, who happens to be Shiva’s brother. Now his son is marrying the daughter of a reactionary right-wing Hindu named Shiva, whose moral rigidity is pure hypocrisy. He has raised his twin son and daughter alone since the death of his wife Meera, whose poetry he published posthumously to great acclaim. In his current incarnation, egotistical, womanizing Vyasa is a professor, internationally famous for his controversial take on ancient texts.

He summarizes the original epic while explaining how its composer Vyasa, Vyasa’s second wife Meera, the slave girl Leela whom Vyasa impregnated and a slew of secondary characters have reappeared through the ages, reliving the original story of egotism, sexual conquest and intrigue, as well as love and loyalty. Elephant-headed Ganesh, the traditional scribe of the Mahabharata, narrates. The author makes the epic accessible to less knowledgeable Westerners while keeping its large scope. British travel writer Albinia’s ( Empires of the Indus, 2008) first novel retells the Mahabharata in present-day Delhi.

Leela's Book by Alice Albinia