The Curse of Gandhari

by Aditi Banerjee

  My deepest gratitude and love to my family – my grandfather, who promised me that I would one day be published when I was less than ten years old; my grandparents and elders, at whose feet I heard the stories of the Mahabharata for the first time; my mother, Shubhra Banerjee, brother, Amit Banerjee, sister-in-law, Shilpa Banerjee, and twin nephews, Avi and Aneesh Banerjee, who have always been there for me and encouraged me to follow my dream.

  And, last, but definitely not least, I could not have written this without Biswajit Malakar, who was my first reader and gifted me a statue of Ganesha reading a book to keep as my muse. I touched the feet of that Ganesha deity before each writing session for his blessings and to remind myself of my true audience – Ganesha, the devas, and most of all, my ishta devata, Sri Krishna –

  Mookam karoti vachalam

  Pangum langhayate girim

  Yatkripa Tamaham Vande

  Paramananda Madhavam

  (I salute that supremely blissful Madhava, whose compassion makes the mute speak and the lame climb mountains.)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Aditi Banerjee is a practicing attorney at a Fortune 500 financial services company. She is currently an executive MBA student at Columbia University. She co-edited the book, Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America. She has published several essays on Hinduism and the Hindu-American experience in publications such as The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America since 1945 and Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America: A Short History (Religion in American Life), Oxford University Press. She earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and received a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University. In her free time, she enjoys wandering the Himalayas and watching Chinese xianxia (Buddhist/Taoist influenced fantasy) dramas.