A collection of stories with a mythological backdrop to it has the potential to attract readers from diverse age groups, especially those who have had a taste of such stories in their childhood. The stories are written in an interactive manner and the connectedness between each of them takes the reader back and forth, weaving into a universe of the epic Mahabharata and sometimes drawing from the Ramayana as well. However, some of the stories are also much more than that and stand independently, such as the story of ‘Por Kai Pandian, The King with a Golden Hand’.
Targeting young readers, the stories of magnificent gods and kings are retold with interjections from the author. At the end of every story, an epilogue shares additional information about the story, extending the universe of the story and sometimes references reality, for example, the story of ‘Queen Meenakshi of Madurai’ which refers to the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. On the one hand this adds to the experience of reading the stories but on the other, it conveniently blurs the lines between mythology and reality. The liberal transversion to reality therefore needs to be looked at critically.