Sumitra, princess of Kashi was the second queen consort of  Dasharatha, the king of Kosala, who ruled from Ayodhya. It is said that Dashrath married Soumitra for her kindness and her sensitivity was always in control of her emotions.  Soumitra was younger than queen Kausalya and older than queen Kaikeyi. King Dashrath was worried that he did not have an heir and on the request of Rishi Vasistha performed a Yagna to plead the deities. At the end of the ceremony he  had to share the prasad with all his three queens. 

King Dashrath first offered it to Kausalya then Kaikeyi. Noticing that he had forgotten Soumitra, Kausalya and Kaikeyi removed a portion from their plates and offered it to Sumitra. All the three become pregnant at the same time.  Kausalya and Kaikeyi who consumed one portion of the prasad  delivered Ram and Bharat, while Sumitra who consumed two portions of the prasad delivered twins, Lakshmana and Shatrughan.

Historians attribute utmost importance to the sacrifices made by Sumitra and her daughter-in-law Urmila because unlike Sita who had Ram beside her all the time, Laxman was always alone. 

To be continued

Kausalya was the senior queen-consort of Kosalain the Hindu epic Ramayana. The senior wife of King Dasharatha and the mother of Lord Rama, who ruled Kosala from its capital of Ayodhya. There are many interesting stories about why she was chosen to be the mother of Ram. As per the legend Kausalya in her earlier birth (Shatrupa) was a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu. She had no children, so Shutrapa and her husband Swayambhumanu did intense penance for years pleading the deity to grant them a child.

When Lord Vishnu finally granted them darshan, he said they were destined to be childless. But Shatrupa wanted Lord Vishnu as her child and Vishnu said Tathastu. “I will come into your life in your following births but it will be a relationship of longing and separation” Shutrapa was too happy to be a mother and without thinking it through, agreed. Lord Vishnu kept his promise. The first time he was born as Lord Ram to queen Kausalya and the second time as Lord Krishna brought to his foster mother Yashoda.

The epic says that Kausalya ascended to heaven after Lord Ram’s return from his exile but another story says that when Lord Brahma told Dashanand/ Ravan that the son of Kausalya and Dasharatha would be the cause of his death, Ravan abducted Kausalya before her wedding, and placed her in a box on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. How she got out of the ocean and married King Dashrath to give birth to Lord Ram is a story that will unfold in the forthcoming episodes.

To be continued

As the day of Ram wapis draws closer, there is excitement all over India. All the temples in all the regions all over the country are gearing up for a big celebration.

In Mumbai Iskcon Temple has been sparkling since a few days and most residents in the area I live in have decorated their homes and gardens with fairy lights.

The building I live in is hosting a party to celebrate the big day together and the women are planning a dress code. The excitement is palpable. 

In so many years of my growing up I have never experienced such  bonhomie. It is collective feeling and it is special.

Everything auspicious in most Hindu families  is  initiated post  Makar Sankranti. Up North Lohri is celebrated to bid farewell to winter and welcome harvest. It marks the transition of the sun into the zodiac sign of Capricorn.

As a little girl I have vivid memories of my mother preparing a large plate of til ka laddoos  that we children polished it off in no time. She always drew a swastika at the door on this day and hung a fresh flower toran on the main door.

My father encouraged us to start a new chapter in our school studies and extra-curricular activities. “Whatever you begin today will be accomplished without  interruptions”.

I have remembered that and always started a new book or project on this day. Most people do that, celebrating the festival in different regions by different names. Poush Sankranti in Bengal, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Magh Bihu in Assam and Makar Sankranti in North India.

This year I am going to explore the stories behind the many Indian festivals, the origin, the customs and the significance. Watch this space for more…

I remember the title of the cover but I will share it here. I don’t want to open old wounds and revive painful memories. If the actor wants the bygone to be bygone then so be it. Rekha being featured on the cover has to be justified however and all I will say is that it was a difficult phase for the actor. When things go wrong, they go terribly wrong and then the horror stories grow and grow. Speculation, conjectures because nobody knows the truth.

There were pressures on me to opine on what had happened, analyse, I did not. I preferred to wait and maybe that is why she chose me to make her one and only public statement. It was brief, guarded but from the heart and honest and I believed her. The stunning closeup for the cover is shot by the one and only Gautam Rajyadhaksha.

After ‘jumma chumna de de’/ Hum Kimi Katkar was the new glamour star on the block and big banners planned mighty proposals featuring Bachchan and her but Kimi shocked all by announcing that she was quitting films post marriage. Insiders said that Kimi’s fiancé, photographer Shantanu Shorey did not want her to continue acting and. Kimi offered no explanation.  I was surprised when Shantanu Shorey agreed to do an interview discussing Kimi and their relationship. 

The fabulous cover picture with streaming sunlight against palm leaves was shot by the much in demand Rakesh Shreshtha at his newly launched studio. This was probably the last photo session Kimi Katkar shot for the tabloids.  It is now 33 years but nobody has ever seen Kimi Katkar in all these years.

Our premier issue featured Amitabh Bachchan on the cover and we desired to feature him on our anniversary cover as well but Bachchan was not speaking to the media those days so getting through to him was not easy. Our office sent him a copy of the anniversary issue though and he surprised us with a congratulatory note.

This was the time Parveen Babi had resurfaced after a long exile and was lambasting Bachchan in every tabloid and magazine. I asked Bachchan if he was open to the idea of an interview with me and he agreed spontaneously. There is a possibility that he was deliberating a truce with the media for some time and I was the catalyst. Whatever the reason I was the first journalist he spoke to.

To make the cover picture special I sought ace cameraman Ashok Mehta but still photography was not his forte and the pictures were not up to the mark. The cover was a sell-out though and now all the stars wanted to shoot their family pictures with us.

In the 70s and the 80s film magazines were described as yellow journalism because they elaborated on the private lives of film stars. In 1989 Chitralekha dared to launch a glossy magazine that was not only different in size but also in spirit and content. Superbly designed by artist PG Ghawali the magazine was a dream for all photographers and fashionistas. The overheads were enormous and our detractors gave us a year to close down. We sailed through 12 months and celebrated our anniversary with a big bash.

Come 1990 and we were the talk of the town. The biggest and the brightest stars opened their homes for us and we shot intimate portraits of family members. Anil Kapoor featured on our first anniversary cover and Sunita Kapoor designed his ultra glam jacket and the prop he held in his hand. It is the first time Kapoor wore blue contact lenses and the effect was magical. The cover picture was shot at Kapoor’s home by the very imaginative and my favourite Jayesh Sheth.