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...
We visited Bhoothathankettu last week only. It is one of the three places that we keep visiting, Bhoothathankettu, PaniyeliPoru and Ezhattumugham are those three as all three of them are easy to reach and so similar. Bhoothathankettu, due to its proximity, is like the first real tourist place I visited multiple times during childhood.And that tree is quite the one to catch one's attention, so is the cave and the swing, right? Is the fallen tree also there on the way?
ReplyDeleteYes, the tree is still lying on the way though not obstructing the path.
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