The Courtesan and The Saint

The Courtesan and The Saint is a collection of dramatic poems, weaving together the stories of Dushyant, Shakuntala, Draupadi, the Brahmin, the Courtesan, the Saint, and the forces of Change and God. This book hints at what our future might hold, spun from the threads of our past, and crafting the fabric of what is yet to come.

The title is based on an extraordinary encounter between Mohini and Tulsidas, framed within the archetypes of the universal Woman and Man as Yama and Yami—the Heavenly Lawgiver and the Womb of the Earth, embodying the mystery of existence.

This collection mirrors the fractured echoes of time, from ‘Dushyant’ and ‘Shakuntala’ to ‘Draupadi’ and ‘The Spirit of The Machines.’ Though time flows and shifts, the mirror remains constant, reflecting the unchanging truth.

In the ancient court of Hastinapur, where kings and sages once weighed the fate of empires, a new assembly gathers. The ‘Sutradhar,’ the eternal storyteller, weaves threads of the past and present, where legends converge with destiny.

Dushyant, a king heavy with regret, seeks to comprehend the dharma he has shattered in his pursuit of power. Shakuntala, no longer a forest maiden but a woman scarred by betrayal, stands as a testament to love severed by doubt. Draupadi, a queen stripped of her dignity, demands justice, her voice challenging whether dharma was bent to the desires of men.

The Courtesan and the Saint, embodiments of desire and renunciation, sin and salvation, each walk their path—one seeking the true meaning of dharma in the heart of pleasure, the other, in the silence of denial, haunted by the world’s shadows.

The Brahmin symbolises the eternal struggle between wisdom and ignorance, while the Kingfisher, a fleeting flash of beauty, reminds us that life is both transient and eternal.

Change sweeps through like a tempest, declaring itself the destroyer of illusions and the forger of new destinies. Its arrival signals the convergence of fates, where the veil of time is lifted and hidden truths are laid bare.

The collection also ponders the enigma of God—the divine spark within each soul, often twisted by judgment and mercy. It sets the stage for a journey through the human condition, testing the bounds of faith, love, and morality. Poems like ‘The Zoo,’ ‘The Nameless,’ and others, delve into the emerging paradoxes of our time, inviting reflection on the spirit of the age.