It’s the end of the year but not yet.. Anita Nair, the author of the best-selling novels The Better Man, Ladies' Coupe, Mistress and a short story collection, Satyr of the Subway is busy planning the launch of her new book, The Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths, on January 9 in Bangalore.

A treasure trove of myths from India, it has stories on how, when Surya the sun god got married, his wife could not bear the heat of his rays and ran away. Surya was heartbroken and the world plunged into darkness.
How a dwarf asked a king for some land, which he measured with three footsteps, and ended up claiming the earth and the sky and how aage Daksha got his daughters married to the moon, but later, in a fit of rage, cursed the moon with consumption, making it wax and wane.

There are some 50 myths from India recounted in the book. From wise sages to demonic asuras, beautiful river deities to arrogant kings, wayward gods to brave princes, this collection of myths showcases the most enchanting and magical stories from Indian mythology.

The book is a companion to her earlier published book — The Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends, published in 2003.

Anita had earlier this year released her book Living Next Door to Alise, about a child, considered an outcast and his beautiful relationship with an elephant next door.

The book, she says, took her five years to complete, not in terms of writing, but because of the 100 “stunning” illustration, done by Atanu Roy of Delhi.

She said the Magical Indian Myths, should have been ideally published before the Book of World Myths and Legends, in 2002 but the illustration took that much time. “It’s going to be out only now,” she said. Regarding the book, she said she chose to write on mythology because of her “great fascination and love” for it.
“But I didn’t want to write on the classical rendering of mythology; that gods are white and demons, black. I wanted to write on the grey spaces that gods and demons inhabit.”

“I wanted to get into lesser known spaces, not just of Rama, Krishna and the Dashavatar,” said the Bangalore-based author.

Anita said most of her stories are drawn from the Puranas. “Maybe one per cent of the population know about them. I also took the help of dictionaries of world myths and Indian myths. Sometimes, I got a line from them and built the rest of the story on it,” she added. The book is for children above 12 years. “It’s not just for children alone,” she said.

Apart from the books on mythologies, Anita has also written — Adventures of Nonu, the Skating Squirrel, also for children.

“All my children’s books I’ve written in definite circumstances. I don’t see myself as a children’s writer. When I write for children I keep in mind that I shouldn’t talk down to them or get moralistic. I had to be self conscious in the reverse direction; I thought let me not put curbs on the way I write,” said Anita.

Priced at Rs 499, the book will be available in book stores from January 9. “It’s a hardbound book and a collector's item,” said Anita.