Ever since I started writing my blog a lot of people have been curious about what attracted me to mythology at such a young age. Then, I found myself pondering over the question of when I discovered myths, how I came across them and where I got engrossed in the world of mythology.
My interest and initiation to mythology, was sheer coincidence. During my summer break in May of 2015, my mother, sister and I had gone to visit our father in Delhi. One day, I felt extremely weary, as I had nothing to do. Since I liked to read a lot, I had gotten a few books for myself to keep me entertained, but I had already read them all, twice!
My father, seeing that my little sister and I were bored to death, put on a movie for us; it was 'Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters'. Although I could not understand the entire movie, I was very intrigued by the various monsters in it. There were huge metal bulls, Cyclops (people with one eye), a hippocampus (a creature with half fish and half horse bodies), Centaurs (creatures with the upper body of a human and lower body of a horse) and last but not least, satyrs (creatures with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a goat). I knew about centaurs and satyrs because of the 'Harry Potter' series and 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series (they are known by their Roman name, fauns, in the Narnia series) but, I was very curious about the other creatures. Then my father told me that there was a book series which he had on his kindle. I wasted absolutely no time in appropriating that Kindle and making it mine.
I started reading the 'Percy Jackson & the Olympians' pentalogy (5 books) in June and finished in the first week of October. I was so enamoured by the captivating storyline and the inspiring characters that I reread the series thrice the next year and what remained of 2015. The author Rick Riordan had such a unique way of writing that even if you hated reading once you picked up this book you won't be able to put it down. He made the characters relatable and his writing was easy to understand if you had just entered the wondrous world of reading. It felt like I was with Percy, Annabeth and Grover every step of the way. This series on my father's old kindle, which was now mine, kindled the flame of my interest in mythology and resulted in my reading many more books on mythology.
Another author, whose books I enjoyed reading is Devdutt Pattanaik. He writes about Indian mythology and its parallels with other countries myths. Some of his first books that I read were 'Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik' which gave you the basic insight of the Hindu / Indian pantheon and 'Olympus' which was an Indian retelling of the Greek Myths from the author's point of view. He has also written a few books like 'Jaya- retelling of the Mahabharata' and 'Sita- retelling of the Ramayana' which are illustrated retellings of great Indian scriptures. All the illustrations in his books are made by him. He even has his own tv show which is available on Netflix, it's called 'Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik', same as his book since he discusses about Hindu mythology on his show.
If I had to thank someone for introducing me to mythology it would have to be my Dad because without him I would have not discovered books written by authors like Rick Riordan and Devdutt Pattanaik. I would also like to thank Rick Riordan and Devdutt Pattanaik for making the concept of mythology interesting and easy to understand for an 8/9 year old child.
I hope reading about mythology introduces you to the same wondrous world that it I discovered, hidden in the pages of these amazing books.
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