So if you're familiar with the Ramayana, chances are some anecdotes and details may be missing or reimagined in the version I created.

With this same spirit in mind, I wrote a much shorter and surmised version of the mythology. Since most people aren't inclined to sit through a thousand-page-long adaptation, I relied on graphic storytelling to capture peoples' attention and imagination and convey large chunks of the plot. The more I began to understand the Ramayana, the more inspired I felt to carry on the tradition of retelling the tale by creating an illustrated version. But the story didn't really come alive for me until I picked up a book and read the entire saga. As I started researching Hindu mythology for my first book, I began to scratch the surface of the Ramayana. I tossed around a lot of ideas, but once I picked up on the Ramayana, all other potential book proposals hit the back burner. I was so inspired by the experience that I decided to make a second book. I ended up creating something that, hopefully, little kids growing up in between Indian and American cultures could relate to and feel proud of when they showed their friends.

And believe it or not, people actually liked it. I illustrated it and wrote it, and it actually got published as The Little Book of Hindu Deities. After doodling them and developing a few solid sketches, one day I decided I was going to create my own book. I started to become interested in the Hindu deities - both as a part of my cultural heritage, but also from an artistic standpoint.

All I really wanted to do was watch cartoons.įast forward about twenty-five years. As a kid, I accepted these practices and references, but didn't understand them, and was often frustrated by them. Or why my dad made me count mala beads while chanting Rama, Rama, Rama. Just like I had no idea why we had a framed illustration of a giant monkey carrying a mountain. For instance, every time I sneezed, my mom or dad would say, 'Sita Rama.' I had no idea what the phrase meant. The world of the Ramayana was ingrained in me in the same way, through the cultural nuances of living with Hindu parents. This made for an interesting childhood, to say the least, made even more bizarre by my father's daily devotional practice, which involved a morning puja during which he bathed a collection of murtis (idols of the Hindu gods) and stuck marigold petals to their foreheads with a dot of red paste. They immigrated to the US, via the UK, in 1980 and have spent the last thirty years living in and running a motel off Route 66. My parents are from an area of India called Gujurat. Growing up in San Bernardino, I was immersed in the rituals and mythology of Hinduism. But for me, the Ramayana is part of my cultural identity, though until recently I wouldn't have been able to explain what it meant if someone asked. I'm certain that for most people, 'Ramayana' (RHAH-mah-YAH-nah) is just an unpronounceable word.

Ramayana by Sanjay Patel