"The Princess and the Forest" was cool because it concerns a modern (more or less) woman drawing on the stories of the epic in her own life. It's powerful in much the same way that Sita Sings the Blues is powerful, by showing the bonds that people often create between literature and their lives, especially in times of turmoil.
still from Sita Sings the Blues
"Sarama" was interesting because, once again, the point of view shifts from the usual Ramayana characters to those on the "bad" side. It's a good reminder that there's always at least two sides to every story, and that nice people get caught up in terrible events.
The last story in this section, "Regressions," was my favorite, possibly out of the entire book so far. The world that emerges in the background of the plot is drawn tightly and concisely, not to mention it's a futuristic all-women's utopia (named for Amba from the Mahabharata?) waging a time-traveling battle against their fundamentalist peers. Ties in a lot with the issues I've been reading about for my history capstone class, actually. Anyway, the ideas of revisionist stories and hundreds of Ramayanas both come through in this tale, and I wish it was a full novel rather than a mere 20 pages.
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