Introduction

Welcome to the beautiful land of India and I am glad you were able to make it! Did you know, people all over the world keep some of their deepest emotions in little books? The three women that wrote these little books are no exception.

I am Alakshmi, or the Goddess of Misfortune. You may know my dreadful younger sister, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Good Luck. Well, I have been sent to dwell amongst the people like me, wicked and deceitful, to make them poor and miserable. While that is fun and all, I do have a more tasteful hobby I like to partake in on my off days from grief-giving. I have been recovering some of those scandalous thoughts from some of India's most well known women: Sita, Manthara, and Mandodari. For such public and known women they have to have some dirt that I can dig up. Well, more so on Sita and Mandodari, because we all know Manthara was a crotchety old humpback to begin with.

Have you ever heard of a juicy little thing called the "Burn Book"? Well, if you have, perfect! Strap in and get ready to be immersed in some exciting gossip. However, if you have not, well... let me clue you in to what I am talking about. It is a book filled with mean comments and innermost thought about people you may have a distaste for. In our case it is collection of angry and nasty hate comments. Doesn't that sound fun?! Sadly, I'm just the collector of all these little rifts in history. Maybe one day I can have my way with some of them.

This is a book by women for women because do not even get me started on how the epics everyone all know and love are basically by men for men. Let's get one thing straight: women are wicked, especially when it comes to their tongues and pandulekha (a writing material similar to chalk used in the times of Indian Epics). The scariest part is, is that you may never know the feelings they harbor deep within themselves in regards to you. They unleash their fury in lines upon line and pages upon pages. Lucky for us though after scouring the world I have managed to get my hands on some juicy gossip.