Samhita Arni’s graphic novel presents a woman’s perspective on war; Pic by Jagadeesh NV

B angalore-based author Samhita Arni is desperate to get back to her writing schedule. However, her phone won’t stop ringing and the requests for interviews keep piling up. “All I’m doing these days is giving interviews. There is no time to write, which is what I miss the most,” says Arni.

The 27-year-old author who published her first book, The Mahabharata — A Child’s View, at the age of 11, is basking in fame after her graphic novel Sita’s Ramayana won rave reviews and made it to the New York Times bestseller list for graphic novels. It hit the 7th spot on the list and stayed there for two weeks. For Arni the success was totally unexpected.

So what made the book a winner in the US? “I think there’s a lot of interest in India, plus the traditional artwork with a contemporary presentation worked for the book,” says Arni.

She is quick to give credit to Moyna Chitrakar, the Patua artist from Bengal on whose scroll paintings the graphic novel is based. Tara Books, a Chennai-based publishing house invited Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar to Chennai and came up with the idea of a graphic novel after seeing her work.

Patua art is created by Bengal’s Patua community. “Patua artists are singers and story-tellers who go from house to house with their scrolls and tell stories from epics through their art work,” says Arni.

The offer to write the book’s text came Arni’s way when she bumped into Gita Wolf of Tara Books at the Jaipur Literature Festival, three years ago. “I was looking for a publisher for a book of mine when this offer came my way,” says Arni, who has been a big fan of mythology since childhood. Her job was to do the text for the graphic novel based on Chitrakar’s illustrations of Sita’s captivity in Lanka.

What makes the graphic novel different is the fact that Sita is both the narrator and observer. It opens with her weeping while in captivity and the garden flowers empathising with her. “The book presents Sita’s side of story, a woman’s perspective on war, her sufferings and her strengths,” says Arni.

Chitrakar’s illustrations and the focus on Sita make it relevant to the contemporary world. “I have voiced Moyna’s interpretation of Sita through text,” says Arni who feels most women can relate to Sita’s suffering and courage.

Designed by a Japanese-Brazilian designer Jonathan Yamakami the book was three years in the making and was launched on July 30 this year. By October 16 it was on the New York Times bestseller list.

For Arni the most challenging task was to weave the story around the artworks already created by Chitrakar. “We kept the language contemporary however,” she says.

Another challenge was that Sita had to describe the war — even though she wasn’t present on the battlefield. To get around this problem, Arni introduced Vibhishana’s daughter Trijata who looked after Sita in her captivity and was gifted with a vision to see the war (like Sanjay of Mahabharata) and narrate it to Sita.

For Arni, the classics are old friends. Her first book The Mahabharata — A Child’s View had an anti- war perspective. The book was published in 1996 and was translated and published in German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan and Greek.

This book questioned war and was the result of her background. As a diplomat’s daughter she had a trans- national upbringing and grew up in countries like Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Italy.

The most difficult country to be in was probably Pakistan. She was four when her family went there and she had to lead a highly cloistered life. “I was an awkward kid with no friends so I spent most of my time in the library reading books and writing stories,” chuckles Arni. She became obsessed with mythology and wrote about the Ramayana and Mahabharata in her diary and drew illustrations of the characters.

Arni has recently finished her third book, tentatively titled Sita, which is a speculative fiction thriller, in a contemporary setting based on the Ramayana. “The book will be out next year,” says Arni.

But the young author is looking at changing tracks. She now wants to focus on short stories. Also, she is one of the editors of Out of Print Magazine, an online magazine which encourages new writers of short stories. “As a short story writer I realise how hard it is to get stories published, so our online magazine is a platform for such authors,” says Arni. She hopes to publish a compilation of her short stories soon.