A Divine Coincidence: When “Ram” Met “Hanuman” in Delhi — On a Tuesday

New Delhi :It was one of those moments that fall into place without design — and yet feel predestined. On an otherwise ordinary Tuesday, Delhi witnessed a quiet but telling convergence of two new works on Ram and Hanuman.

At the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ Azad Bhavan headquarters, the much-discussed Hindi title Ram Sabke Hain found itself sharing a table — and a conversation — with the freshly published English edition of The Hanuman Chalisa (2025). The coming together wasn’t planned. It simply happened, and carried its own symbolism.

Harendra Pratap, senior journalist and author of Ram Sabke Hain, handed his book to Abhay K., Deputy Director General at ICCR and translator of the new English Hanuman Chalisa. Abhay, in turn, offered him his translation — a brief exchange that lent the afternoon a certain devotional warmth.

The new Hanuman Chalisa presents all forty verses composed by Tulsidas — set out with the original dohas in Hindi (Awadhi), printed in both Devanagari and Roman scripts, and the English translation on facing pages. The format is clearly designed to take the centuries-old text to a wider, global readership.

Pratap’s Ram Sabke Hain approaches Ram through a democratic, inclusive lens. Its two central chapters — Ram Sabke Hain and Kalyug Mein Ram Ka Avataran — examine Ram as a moral and social idea rather than a distant divine figure. The book rounds off with 38 essays touching on contemporary concerns and debates.

That both books — one on Ram, the other on Hanuman — appeared in the same year, and crossed paths in the last month of 2025, gives the coincidence an added charm. A small meeting, a brief exchange — yet enough to leave the sense that something larger had aligned.

Special Report by Manjari