Ramakrishna Ramesh Menon (born 20 September 1951) is an Indian author. He has written several literary renderings in modern English prose of classical works from the ancient

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

tradition. His books include: *
The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic
' (

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

and HarperCollins India) *
The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering
' (two volumes) * ''Krishna: Life and Song of the Blue God'' *
Siva: The Siva Purana Retold
' * ''Devi: The Devi Bhagavatam Retold'' * ''The Bhagavata Purana'' (two volumes) * a new translation of the '' Bhagavad Gita'' * twelve-volume retelling of
The Complete Mahabharata
' (as writer and series editor) – all published by

Rupa Publications Rupa Publications is an Indian publishing company based in New Delhi, with sales centres in Kolkata, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kathmandu. Genesis Rupa Publications was founded in 1936 by D. Mehra and R. K. M ...

. All his main books, apart from the latest Complete Mahabharata series (finished in September 2017), have gone into many reprints in India.

Early life, education and career

Born in New Delhi, Menon studied at St Xavier's High School and St Stephen's College, where he read history honours (1968–69) and then philosophy honours (1969–70), but left college without taking a degree. Reading the ''

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

'' at this time was a life-changing experience for him. It was the seed from which all his later work emerged. He developed an informal guru-sishya relationship with the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

novelist

O. V. Vijayan Ottupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (2 July 1930 – 30 March 2005), commonly known as O. V. Vijayan, was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel '' Khasakk ...

, and translated two of his master's novels into English: '' The Infinity of Grace'' (Penguin) and ''Madhuram Gayathi'' (yet to be published by Vijayan's estate after his death in 2005). In addition to Delhi, Menon has lived and worked in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

Kodaikanal Kodaikanal () (English: ) is a municipality and hill station in Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated at an altitude of in the Palani hills of the Western Ghats. Kodaikanal was established in 1845 to serve as a r ...

and

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

Critical response

In a starred review,

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

described his ''Ramayana'' as "A masterpiece made new for a generation of readers who ought to be very grateful indeed to Menon". British theatre director

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

called the book ''A beautiful new rendering of an inexhaustible theme''. His two-volume rendering of ''The Mahabharata'' is his most read and reviewed book.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, Ramesh 1951 births Living people 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian translators 21st-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian translators Hindi–English translators Hong Kong writers Kodaikanal St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Translators from Malayalam Writers from Bengaluru Writers from Delhi Writers from Chennai Writers from Jakarta Writers from Thiruvananthapuram

Early life, education and career

Critical response

See also

References