Skip to main content

Ravana



Fiction

Anand Shankar was trolled mercilessly in social media when he posted his story ‘Ravana’ in his blog.  He was a little known blogger and hence the tremendous attention that his present story drew came as a rude shock as well as pleasant surprise at once.

His story ended with Sita longing to return to Lanka because Rama suspected her chastity.  No, she didn’t return.  In fact, she didn’t even want to return.  A painful conflict arose in her consciousness.  This man, Rama, the Maryada Purushottam, the hero of a whole country, god incarnate, this man faltered when some silly gossip monger raised a question about my chastity, Sita reflects at the end of Anand’s tale.  Ravana emerges as a far better hero in her consciousness.  Ravana who stood before her in Ashok Vatika with love and admiration in his eyes.  And reverence that did not at all match his royal narcissism.  When he knew that his love for her could never surpass her love for Rama, he surrendered himself in devotion to Rama and begged to be killed by none other than his rival.  Ravana sacrificed himself for me while my husband is seeking to sacrifice me for his honour, Sita sat pondering at the end of Anand Shankar’s story.

Trolls marched in hoards accusing Anand Shankar of blasphemy, irreligion, demon worship, secessionism, anti-nationalism, and all sorts of things.  The euphoria over the attention his blog received soon gave way to jitteriness.  Anand wondered what his crime really was.  He contemplated for days and days.

Ravana’s ten heads appeared to him with various colours and expressions.  Anand saw his own blasphemy, irreligion, and other evils on those faces.  But very often he saw his trolls, the numerous nationalist organisations and their fanatic supporters, on Ravana’s faces.  Anand was confused.  Who is the real Ravana? 

Sita will be sacrificed again and again until the real Ravana is discovered, Anand Shankar began his next blog post.




Comments

  1. Rakhi JayashankarMay 12, 2017 at 8:14 AM

    Why do people react so mercilessly to imagination while they have nothing to do when 'seasoned' rapists go scotfree on grounds of minority.
    There have been many books which found mythology in different light Like Anand Neelakantan's books which were bestsellers. Then why this pseudo tears now? Is there more to it than we see on the periphery

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 12, 2017 at 8:20 AM

      I'm afraid there is more, Rakhi. There's a whole gang of paid trolls who work for a particular political party whose goal is to eliminate those who question the party's goals and objectives.

      Delete
    2. Rakhi JayashankarMay 13, 2017 at 8:38 AM

      Horrible. Can't explain this in better words

      Delete
  2. Rajeev MoothedathMay 12, 2017 at 9:00 AM

    Different viewpoints have become very difficult in the present times. Sad...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 12, 2017 at 9:06 AM

      Sad indeed. This zeal for suppressing dissent and diversity is taking the nation back by centuries.

      Delete
  3. Ravish ManiMay 12, 2017 at 9:18 AM

    Thanks for sharing this. I was expecting a link to Anand's said post. As these days I'm writing on slut-shaming, I see Sita's case as a victim of slut-shaming who committed suicide later.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 12, 2017 at 9:34 AM

      Didn't you see the first line: 'fiction'? 😑 Well, the reality is even more sinister.

      Delete
  4. Pranju chakrapaniMay 13, 2017 at 5:22 AM

    Hmm...a case study of Ravana, Sita and Shankara...oh I am heavily influenced by Dan Brown to see this initials everywhere nowadays.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2017 at 10:45 AM

      Even before Brown, a Malayalam novelist M T Vasudevan Nair rewrote the Mahabharata from the perspective of Bheema. It's good to see the other side too 😑

      Delete
  5. Rakhi JayashankarMay 14, 2017 at 6:58 AM

    Exactly. I have always felt M.T wrote the first mythological fiction in India. Anyways, waiting to see Randamoozham on screen

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...
8 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more

The Life of a Courtesan

  Book Review Title: The Last Courtesan: Writing my mother’s memoir Author: Manish Gaekwad Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023 Pages: 185 Writing the biography of one’s mother who was a courtesan is not quite a pleasant task. Manish Gaekwad undertakes that arduous task in this book and does a fairly eminent job with it. ‘Courtesan’ may not be quite the exact translation of ‘tawaif,’ which is what Rekha, Gaekwad’s mother, was. A courtesan is essentially a sex worker whose clients are wealthy men. But a tawaif is primarily an artiste, a singer of ghazals as well as a dancer. Sex is part of that job, no doubt. When a woman sings lines like Apna bana le meri jaan / Haye re main tere qurbaan [Make me yours, my love / I am your sacrifice] to a man, sex becomes a natural climax of the show. Rekha is a tawaif. She tells her own story in this book. The author writes the narrative as if his mother is telling him her life’s story. Towards the end of the narrative, Rekha asse...
4 comments
Read more