Saturday, September 04, 2010

Why I Don't Want To Be Rama

For the past two days I have been reading and rereading a fascinating travelogue called An Indian Odyssey by Martin Buckley.

In the book, Buckley traces the journey of Lord Rama, as described in the Ramayana, right from his birthplace Ayodhya to Sri Lanka, where he defeated demon king Ravana and rescued his wife Sita but put her through the famous fire-test before taking her back. In tracing Rama's footprints, he tells the story of present-day India and the conflict in present-day Sri Lanka. What an idea!

Reading his book, I got to learn more about what is contained in the Ramayana than I ever got to know from the sugary episodes dished out on Doordarshan by Ramanand Sagar. Oh, those interminably long scenes that showed Arun Govil, playing Lod Rama, smiling forever. Several precious minutes would be consumed by that supposedly divine smile before Rama would proceed to mouth a dialogue. By the time he opened his mouth, the serial would be over and one had to wait until next Sunday.

Ramanand Sagar, needless to say, died a rich man. I know of women -- my mother included -- who had orgasms, of the devotional nature, by merely watching Govil's stupid smile. For them, it was not Govil but Lord Rama who was smiling. What the fuck.

But despite all the devotion, I wonder how many Hindu families actually possess a copy of the Ramayana. Even if they do, how many have read it and enjoyed it like a novel? Most of us are only aware of the select, cliched anecdotes that we have gathered from sources other than the Ramayana. But in reality, if Ramayana were to be made into a movie that strictly followed Valmiki's script, word to word, it would be given A-certificate.

Buckley knows his Ramayana. With the Westerner's curiosity, he has read and reread it. Throughout his book, he punctuates the accounts of his journey with relevant tales from the Ramayana, and in the process, summarises the epic for us in a lucid, matter-of-fact manner. Initially I skipped the Ramayana bits and stuck to his travels, but once I started the Ramayana part, I found it even more gripping.

So in the end, it always takes a Westerner to show us the way to the lanes and bylanes of our own country, our own history, our own mythology. Well why not, they have the passion, and when they pursue it, they pull out all stops. Had I hit upon such an idea, the first thing coming to my mind would've been: "But will I get such a long leave? And where will the money come from?" We Indians, like Rama, are tied down by duties and responsibilities. And the Buckleys, like Valmiki, get to write the books.

8 comments:

Sepiamniac said...

oh interesting...You must also read Palace of Illusions by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni... It is Mahabharata from Draupadi's perspective...

Soumya said...

C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) has written the complete versions of the Ramayana & the Mahabharata (in English), with all the sub-plots, etc. close to the original. He must have written them more than 50-60 years ago.Voluminous, no doubt, but, the language is very simple and easy to follow.

Ammallu said...

Frankly, even I was addicted to Arun Govil's plastic smile as a kid. I also thought the Ram and Sita pair were awesome. In fact, I think they even went on to do some movies together.

Anonymous said...

It is not the western , who open your eyes for every indian thing, it is the leftists, who closed their eye for every indian things. and I think you are one of them. leftists culture has been institutionalized by communists in every nook and corner in india like university, journalism etc. If you open your eyes about the real facts, you will find all the things in india.

Alchemic Reaction said...

Frankly, I don't have suggestions on which books you should read :) but nice post and eager to buy the travellogue! :) not 'chai chai' but the one mentioned here! :)

Anonymous said...

amidst ur blogs....dont forget my birthday..make it my first call at midnight

Anonymous said...

Darling, who's that bitch above? Btw, when is our next meet? Looking forward to "it."

navsingh said...

Mine is valmiki's ramayana...