Finding Radha: The first truly romantic heroine of India

The book lovers of Jaipur come together for a discussion on Finding Radha: The Quest for Love with Malashri Lal and Namita Gokhale, in conversation.  This was followed by a musical tribute by Jayati Ghosh on ‘Songs of Radha’ as a part of Shayamoli series on Culture. This event took place at ITC Rajputana.

Gokhale and Lal introduced the book and Radha as the first truly romantic heroine of India. A mesmerising three-segment musical tribute by Jayati Ghosh including the renditions of the compositions by Jaidev and Tagore left the audience spellbound.

Namita read through the portion from her introduction in the book recounting how Radha ‘came to her’ while roaming the narrow lanes of Vrindavan. She spoke of the bundle of prasad, the contents of which reminded her of the tradition of ‘shringara rasa’. 

They took forward the conversation discussing the contributors from Devdutt Pattanaik to Makarand R Paranjape. Malashri recited an exclusive except from Dharamvir Bharati’s Kanupriya, translated by Alok Bhalla.

The conversation ended with yet another musical presentation by Jayati, the pieces being popular bollywood renditions depicting both the coquetry and separation shared between Radha and Krishna.