As a kid, I enjoyed reading
stories from the Indian lore. If I were to narrate the same stories to kids
living in metropolitan cities today I doubt they will relate to these stories.
These old tales need a retelling. So here goes…
Shravan Kumar
On behest of his old and
blind parents, Shravan Kumar attached two large straw baskets on a pole and
carried his parents on a journey of pilgrimage.
Tell this story to your kids
today and they tell you that the story is a psychological trap and you are just
trying to insure your own future in a Machiavellian way!
In modern times, you need a
new version of Shravan Kumar’s story. A story that appeals to today’s
generation and gives them hope.
ver 2.0
Once upon a time, in the not
so distant future, there lived Sophia, a kid who grew up unemployable.
Artificially Intelligent machines had taken all the jobs she was capable of
doing. So Sophia’s parents agreed to support her all her life. With her
parents’ money, Sophia got married, had kids and this big, joint family lived
happily ever after.
Bhasmasura
Another story I read as a kid
was of Bhasmasura Praveen, a devotee of Shiva, who performed great penance and
Shiva agreed to grant him a boon – anyone whose head Bhasmasura touched would
immediately turn into ashes. Upon being granted the boon Bhasmasura tried
putting his hand on Shiva so that he could annihilate Shiva and marry his
consort, Parvati. To help Shiva out, Vishnu, disguised as beautiful Mohini,
told Bhasmasura that she would marry him if he would follow her every step in a
dance. While dancing Mohini mesmerised Bhasmasura and placed her hand on her
head. Bhasmasura imitated, and immediately turned into ashes. The moral of the
‘Bhasmasuri Vardaan’ (Bhasmasura’s Boon) story is that if you have power, use
it with discretion and self-control.
ver 2.0
Savvy Smith was a precocious teenager.
He impressed his parents with good marks and great behaviour. So they agreed to
grant him a boon. He asked for a smart-phone and his parents said, “Tathastu”
(so be it). In no time, Savvy Smith discovered Whats App, Snap Chat, Facebook,
and Vine. And then… sports became virtual, nature looked better on the screen
without that irritating cold wind or sticky sweat, relationships were never so
easy to make, or break, then remake, only to repeat the cycle, and Savvy Smith
forever lost touch with the real world.
Karna
To learn the invocations for
using the Brahmastra, the ultimate weapon, Karna had lied to his guru,
Parshuram about his lineage. When Parshuram found out, he cursed Karna that as
Karna had learnt the Brahmavidya (divine knowledge) through deceit, at the
critical hour, he would forget it. Parshuram’s curse became Karna’s undoing. At
the epic battle of Mahabharata, when Karna came face-to-face with his foe,
Arjuna, he forgot the Brahmavidya and Arjuna defeated him.
ver 2.0
Markus Maximus had always
focused on securing good marks in the exams. To do so he had mastered every
trick in the book – diligently practicing past year question papers,
meticulously reproducing mugged up answers and litigiously retaliating if even
one single question was 'out-of-syllabus'. These best practices held him in
good stead and made him teachers’ pet, school’s pride and even got him
admission into a good college, and later still, a decent job. Few years passed.
Markus Maximus found that promotions and salary hikes were hard to come by. His
annual performance appraisals would always state, ‘lacks the creativity to come
up with innovative solutions to challenges and problems’. He realised he should
have made the effort to deeply understand the knowledge being imparted during
those formative years. Alas!
Abhimanyu
When Abhimanyu was still in
his mother’s womb, he would listen to stories, his uncle Krishna used to
narrate to his mother, Subhadra (Krishna’s sister). Once Krishna was telling
Subhadra about his war adventures and how to penetrate the Chakravyuh, a
seven-tiered, spiral, defensive army formation. Half-way through the story
Subhadra, fell asleep and Krishna stopped narrating. So Abhimanyu knew how to
penetrate the seven-tiered formation but he didn't know how to come out. During
the great war of Mahabharata, the Kauravas formed the Chakravyuh and since
Arjuna, who knew well how to penetrate this formation, was fighting elsewhere,
brave Abhimanyu ventured forth. He managed to penetrate the formation but
because his knowledge was half-baked he could not come out and died fighting.
ver 2.0
Ever since she was a little
girl Lucky Lucy had always been enamoured with all that glitters. Then one day
she won the ten million dollar jackpot! She was absolutely thrilled! She could
now buy all that her heart desired – a convertible, diamond jewellery, dream
cruise… A year passed. Things that gave her a thrill earlier no longer held the
same charm. To get the equivalent high she now had to possess that bigger
bungalow and that flashier car. Totally unaware, Lucky Lucy was stuck on the
hedonic treadmill – she had to run faster and faster to get the same level of
thrill. The society she grew up in had told her only half the story, omitting
to tell her that she first needs to fix the inside so that whatever be the
circumstances outside they don't impinge on her ability to live a joyful life.
Lucky Lucy had entered the Chakravyuh of life half-prepared.
The old tales still lure me
and beyond retelling them in a modern context, I hope someday I am able to
really experience the cosmic dance and truly understand the meaning of Shiva’s
Tandava, much like physicist Frijit Capra, who wrote about this epiphany in his
book The Tao of Physics.
