The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,94
her in beautifully complemented her hair and eyes. “She’s confused; she’s not even sure why she’s here. Are you guys even friends?”
“Well, she’s on the fencing team with you, isn’t she?” I grinned, taking my friends’ hands. “I’ll explain later, but I’m really glad you’re both here.”
“I am too. These outfits are tremendous!” Jovi spun around, her green skirts spreading dramatically wide. “And everyone here seems awesome!” she said, giving Priya a little wave. It must have been a good wave, because the rakkhoshi Priya, who had been super embarrassed about her whole Princess Petunia episode, actually smiled and waved back.
The sangeet was amazing. No one wore disguises, so the rakkhosh clanspeople danced in their full fangs and tusks, twirling their wings and tentacles to their hearts’ abandon. Singing and dancing weren’t the only thing on the performance roster, though. Some of the PSS girls did a skateboarding show, setting up a half-pipe, and proceeding to drop, whirl, and fly for the roaring crowds.
The last performer at the sangeet was quite a surprise. It was Neel’s mom, the Demon Queen, decked out in her elaborate wedding finery. Her red silk sari was heavily embroidered with gold, her sparkling nose ring connected by a gold chain to the shining butterfly clips in her dark hair, her ears and neck dripping with jewels that sparkled like the stars.
“I needed a place to wear this, right?” she explained with a snap of her teeth and a righteous belch. “But before I go onstage, Kiranmala, find me an antacid, won’t you?”
The humans in attendance were a little nervous at first, but Pinki’s song-and-dance number was a huge hit. There were strobe lights, images projected behind her, and a huge entourage of backup dancers in elaborate costumes.
“Everything is connected to everything,” she sang.
“But how?” sang her backup dancers, doing super-coordinated twirls and jiggles.
“By the love of those who came before!” crooned Ai-Ma in our hearts.
“But how?”
“By the love of family,” sang Ma and Baba.
“But how?”
“By the love of community,” said our extended friends and family.
“But how? But how? But how?” asked the backup dancers, swirling and leaping, sashaying and flossing, step-ball-changing and doing all the jazz hands.
“By love,” I told Neel, smiling.
“By love,” he agreed. All around us, I noticed, were the blue butterflies, dancing as if to their own magic rhythms.
And as the festivities continued, long into the night, we felt the multistoried multiverse pulsing and swirling all around us, in an ever-expanding cosmic dance. Because there was love, there would be more stories, and a multiverse that kept growing and thriving. Love and stories, stories and love, these were the stars that lit our way forward.
The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Book 3) is an original story that, like the first two books in this series (The Serpent’s Secret and Game of Stars), draws from many traditional Bengali folktales and children’s stories. These are stories beloved in West Bengal (India), Bangladesh, and throughout the Bengali diaspora. I’ve used many of these stories as a basis for inspiration while writing the books in the series, and as a way to tell my own story as an immigrant daughter.
Thakurmar Jhuli and Rakkhosh Stories
Folktales involving rakkhosh are very popular throughout all of South Asia. The word is sometimes spelled “rakshasa” in other parts of the region, but in this book, it is spelled like the word sounds in Bengali. Folktales are of course an oral tradition, passed on verbally from one generation to the next, with each teller adding spice and nuance to their own version. In 1907, Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar collected, wrote down, and published some classic Bengali folktales in a book called Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s satchel). This collection, which involves separate stories about the Princess Kiranmala, the brothers Neelkamal and Lalkamal, and the monkey and owl princes Buddhu and Bhootoom, is also full of tales involving rakkhosh and khokkosh, as well as stories about the Kingdom of Serpents. The giant birds Bangoma and Bangomee make an appearance in the story of Neelkamal and Lalkamal, as do pakkhiraj horses. The Demon Queen appears in the original Neelkamal and Lalkamal story, as does the lovably goofy rakkhosh grandmother, Ai-Ma. Lalkamal and Neelkamal never meet Kiranmala in their original stories, but brave Kiranmala does have two brothers named Arun and Barun whose lives she must save. A version of the Serpent King appears in this collection as well, although not exactly as he appears in this book. Of course, a magical version of Thakurmar Jhuli