T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
Yes.. this new year is to make mistakes and learn from it. :)
ReplyDeleteNice one :)
Only those who don't try anything new can save themselves from mistakes.
Delete"Falling into new traps and ditches.... Writing new stories, Discovering new voices"
ReplyDeleteso true Sir .. will stay away from new traps and ditches,but by the year end the traps will turn out as lost opportunities and the welcoming garden as ditches ! But then let's leave it for the next new year :)
Traps and ditches are inevitable to some extent. They can be seen as opportunities, however.
DeleteHappy new year.
How do you do that Sir? 'Language too renews itself like the proverbial phoenix' - and the ashes of meanings lost, re-interpreted, twisted create a fire in which it will burn and will be re-born.
ReplyDeleteI don't do it, Sunaina. It happens - that's the plain truth. Elsewhere you mentioned the dedication of my book to RSSB. I dedicated the book to them just because it is they who made me write those stories - most of them, at least. It is they who changed my way of looking at life. It is they who killed my old language and made me create the new language.
DeleteOur experiences can be tremendously transforming forces. RSSB transformed me so much that I had no choice but reinvent my language, the narrative of my life....
A beautiful poem :)
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteFalling in ditches, learning from our mistakes and then committing new one... That's what proves that we are still alive. When we are dead, we don't commit anymore mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSo very apt, sir! Wish you a very prosperous New Year! :)
Exactly, Rakesh. When we are really alive, when we venture out in new ways, mistakes are bound to happen. Sometimes other people too will dig ditches for us, especially if we are on the path of success...
Deletehappy new year pictures 2016
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