‘The Forgotten and the Fantastical 2’ illustrations – ‘Jungle Goddess’. What is a Goddess? A symbol of hope? A nameless power without need of compassion? Or a young girl, with her own personality, her own soul and her own name? Anuradha Gupta’s tribal tale plunges the reader into the mystical depths of the jungle. The full moon is rising, superstitions and expectation hum in the air and the hopes of a village rest on the shoulders of a young girl, a young girl who must sacrifice everything she is in order to become the Jungle Goddess and bring good fortune to all.
In 2013, Anuradha published a collection of her own poetry and artworks entitled ‘New Moon Rising’ and she writes regularly about her heritage on her blog.
‘Jungle Goddess’ is her first fictional piece and appears alongside 16 other short stories in ‘The Forgotten and the Fantastical 2’ published by Mother’s Milk Books, available from their online shop.