The real yogyatha of Ravana!

Please share this by copying and pasting this as much as possible so that people who praise Ravana that he didn't rape Sita and waited for her consent, will know his real Lakshanam and Yogyatha.

Below, I am presenting the rough translation of verses that occur in Valmiki Ramayanam, Yudhdhakaandam, Sargam 13, Verses 1 to 14.  

(6-13-1 to 6-13-14)

This is where a Rakshasa by name Mahaparswa advises Ravanan to rape Sita and Ravana says why he has considered that option but rejected it, which is due to a curse he got from Brahma after raping an Apsaras. 

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Perceiving Ravana enraged, a very strong demon named Mahaparsva thought for a while and with joined palms, spoke as follows:

"That man indeed is a fool, who after reaching a forest inhabited by wild beasts and vicious elephants and having duly found honey, does not drink it."

"O, annihilator of enemies! Who is a lord to you, who are a lord of all? Setting your foot upon the heads of your enemies, take pleasure with Sita."

"O, ruler endowed with a mighty prowess! Act in the mode of a cock, forcibly against her. Enjoy that Sita, by charging on her again and again and revel with her."

"Kumbhakarna and Indrajit of great might together with us are capable of keeping off even Devendra (god of celestials), wielding the weapon of a thunderbolt."

"Overstepping the methods of giving away gifts or conciliation or even showing dissention being followed by right men, I like accomplishment of actions through hostile means."

Appreciating the words spoken thus by Mahaparsva, King Ravana spoke the following words:

"O, Mahaparsva! Know a little secret about me. I shall tell you an incident, which occurred to me long ago."

"Once I saw a celestial nymph, Punjikasthala(by name) flashing like a flame, concealing herself in the sky and proceeding towards the abode of Brahma."

"She was made unclothed by me and was enjoyed forcibly. Thereafter, appearing like a crumpled lotus, she went to the abode of Brahma."

"I think that the matter was made known to the high soled Brahama and then the enraged Brahma spoke to me the following words:

"From today onwards, if you revel with any other woman forcibly, your head then undoubtedly will break asunder into a hundred pieces."

"Fearing the curse given in this manner by Brahma, I am not violently making Sita the daughter of Videha, to mount on my beautiful bed forcibly."

Please share this as much as possible so that people who praise Ravana will know his Lakshanam and Yogyatha.

A dream!

I had a dream. 

I was a little boy and lived in a desert. There was a great famine. One by one, my villagers fell, dropping dead from hunger and exhaustion. 

After my family wasn't any different, I had no time to mourn. I took my father's spear and sword, packed up whatever little was there and set out. It was a long, desolate walk. The sun was cruel and unrelenting, the glare was blinding, the dunes presented a fearsome sight as they twisted and turned, changing shapes as the wind howled over them. 

As afternoon melted into evening, I was sure, I'd die of thirst, hunger and exhaustion. I looked up into the now crimson evening sky, and for a moment, complained to the Sun, "I have heard you are a merciful God! Alas, all that was a lie". 

As I turned away from the cruel sun, grieving for myself, I saw a hut. A little light flickered in it. With the last of my strength, I wended my way to the hut. 

Inside, there was none. But there was a stove and on it was a casserole full of food and meat. Near it were pots of water - cool, clean and sparkling water. In another corner was a charpoy cot with a couple of pillows and a blanket. 

I wanted to eat, but I was afraid of stealing. And then, a voice said "Eat all you want, drink all you want from the pot, and sleep on the cot." 

I looked around. I didn't see anyone. The voice repeated "Eat all you want and drink all you want from the pot. Fear not, for no harm shall come upon you". 

I did as the voice said. No food that I had ever eaten before was tastier. I slept. 

The next morning, I woke up with no roof over my head. When I looked around, and wondered if it was all a dream, I saw a fine chestnut mare near me, with another horse bearing a load of food and water. 

The voice said, "Ride the mare, and let her take you". And we rode, hours and hours, stopping at noon for lunch under a lone magnificent tree. 

As evening fell, we reached another house. The same voice told me to eat all I wanted and drink all I wanted and sleep on the cot. I did as the voice I had come to trust instructed me to. 

The next morning, the same thing happened. I woke up to a bare sky and the mare and the horse waiting. The voice told me to ride the mare again, which I did, with a break for lunch, under another tree. 

That evening, I reached a village. The villagers welcomed me and offered me a house and slaughtered a deer in my honour. Tummy full and made comfortable, I began to speak to them. 

The voice told me, "These are your people. Live with them. You'll have many wives and many children. Indeed, you shall be a mighty man who helps all people". 

Just as this was heard, the village chief, a female, came to see me. She asked me about my land and I told her of my famine and why I came there and how. 

I asked her what I could do for her. She told me to stay with them and tell stories of my land. As I was about to bow to her, she stopped me and asked me to marry her along with all the 60 young women in the village. I hesitated as they were a little older than I was and polygamy wasn't something I had seen. 

She told me that all their men had died in the battle, not a groom could be found for the maidens and a voice had told her that I will come to be their husband. 

I was wondering about the voice. Sure enough, the voice told me "Marry them all, O gentle child, and beget good children. You shall be the king of this land. Fear not, for no harm shall come upon you". 

And I did as instructed, my wives loved me much, took good care of me both as their husband and as their little boy that wandered into their homes, and the voice guided my life. As I grew older.. I became curious as to who the voice was....

I asked the voice who he was. 

The voice replied "I, O gentle child, am the Sun".

My tryst with feminism...

I and my three sisters are the best of friends. Between us, our genders have never mattered. I am not ashamed of saying we 3 are quite staunch feminists. Not feminazis, mind you. Feminists.

Or rather, we are advocates of equity, to put it in a term bereft of gender. Penning this doesn't make me any less of a man.

Feminism is not about building walls between families. It is all about setting boundaries.

Feminism is not about hating men. It's equally empowering to men, as it is to women.

Feminism is not about the bad daughter in law. It is about making a daughter in law feel welcome and safe.

Feminism is not about divorce. It is all about the option to exit with your head held high, if that's the only way to escape toxicity.

Feminism is not about power being surrendered to the female. It's about recognising that she has a choice to choose.

Feminism is not about loss of morals. It's actually about having a moral high ground.

Feminism is not about females. It's all about treating humans as equal humans. Its about people - men, women and children.

Feminism is not about shirking responsibilities. It's rather about letting people know that there's a right to choose and also consequences with the choices we make.

Feminism is not about the mother in law. It is rather about making people realise why she needs feminism the most, sometimes more than the daughter in law.

Feminism isn't about patriarchy. It's only about oppressive dominance vested in one party.

Feminism is not about female domination. It's about not letting anyone dominate.

Finally, feminism isn't at all about females alone. It's about humans. It's about treating humans well and fairly. Feminism is, humanism.

The sooner we realise this, the better it will be.

PS: I love my pink turban.

K9 friendship :-)

This is one of my best kept secrets :-)

When I was an undergrad student, I used to walk my way from the bus stop to home - a distance of about 4.5 km. Not for some exercise but simply because it was a picturesque walk through the fields and woods where I grew up as a child.

There was this little pup - a stray dog - who would sit near a tree and a mound of sand. She knew me coming there everyday, so she didn't mind me at all.

Those days, my mother used to pack a tiffin box with lunch for me. One day, I hadn’t eaten my lunch at all in the college and ate in a restaurant with friends. I gave my lunch to this little dog because my mother wasn’t a big fan of me eating outside.

She ate the lunch with relish. The next day, she was there and she wagged her tail in expectation. I didn’t expect that, I just petted her and walked home.

But from next day, I started telling my mom I needed some more lunch. She was super glad and like most Indian mothers, obliged. So every evening for the next 2 years and 9 months, I shared my lunch with this dog.

Then I left for my graduate studies. She’s there even today, but not the young pup I once fed. And she recognizes me even today and runs to me wagging her tail, when I go there. She’s made some new friends and is healthy.

That’s a friend if ever there was one :-)

Jallikkattu and Tamil culture?

100 years ago Tamils wore no shirts. Today we do. 100 years ago Tamil ladies never wore blouses and both sexes were bare chested. Today we say that's obscenity. 1000 years ago there were neither rapes nor false cooked up complaints of rapes. Today we have. 60 years ago Bharatanaatyam was considered a Taboo. Today not learning it in Mylapore is a Taboo!!!!

Tamil culture seems to change every 5 years. Is Jallikkattu that important?

How many of these people who defend Jallikkattu can write a proper sentence in Tamil? How many of them can speak good Tamil devoid of English?

We won't protect Tamil literature. We won't take the good etiquette of our ancestors. Merely hanging onto Jallikkattu is not a big deal.

Today India indulges in symbol worship than worshipping the spirit of things. Tamil culture does not need Jallikkattu to survive. It needs more Tamils to learn Tamil and pass it on to the mext generation.

Kambu, cholam, varagu etc disappeared from our diet. We took to Pastas and noodles and rice.... that's a greater threat than losing Jallikkattu.

For that matter, Jallikkattu is not a very Tamil thing either. It's imported from North, to speak the language of the divisive fools. Krishna had to tame bulls to marry one of his wives.

I am not saying ban jallikkattu. But just saying that if we are so bothered about Tamil culture, there are higher and bigger issues to tackle than raging bulls.

The same is happening in Kerala also. My ancestors used coconut oil for cooking everyday. Today the doctors (read oil company lobby) keep screaming that it's bad. I've never seen a physically active Malayalee die of heart attack because he used coconut oil.

How many of these modern people who protest against the ban and are up in arms to protect culture can actually cook even puttu/olan/vathakozhambu at home?

They fought for entry to Sabarimala. How many of them, I wonder, even light a sandhyaadheepam at home?

Funny, are the ways of our people.

So my point is, if each of us takes care to learn family traditions and hand it down to our kids and let them know why it's important, culture will take care of itself. Some aspects will be weeded out if irrelevant. That's the way natural selection works.

Sepia tones!

I had gone out on a walk to meet a very dear school friend of mine. It's been nearly a decade and half since we last met. A bit of background is, this lady knew me from the time I was in Class 4, and she was a ravishing beauty with big talking eyes in Class 6. I remember falling asleep in the school bus over her shoulders or lap. A big bully for my age, I always spoke of studying abroad in the states and taking her with me wherever I went!.... That's what childhood was all about - dreaming, fantasizing, loving, holding hands, fighting and forgetting all about it. Coming back to today's meeting, she asked me to explain my "New found patriotism" and my reluctance to leave India. All I could tell her was this - I felt secure here. She gasped. What security was I talking about? Well, it's the same security you feel when you pace up and down your own portico. This is MY LAND. Yes, it's got all the flaws it has got, but then this is my backyard. I can do what I want to, live the way I am used to and be happy. I need not have the feeling that I am on permission to be here. I need not protect my passport here as if that were my license to live here. Here, I am the alpha male. "You seem to measure your words better now. You know how to talk, but then kiddo, you always did" - was her observation. Perhaps that's what experience does to a person? You talk a lot when you're young, learn to shut up as you grow older, and when you cross 30, you figure out how to use your silence to get the best out of what's around you. But we didn't change a few things! She still sat to my right today (mine was the left window seat in the school bus back in the day), and she did hold my hand. The same warmth was there, but it wasn't so tight as it used to be while crossing the roads. Perhaps, she now knew she could let go a bit now! It was like we had parted ways yesterday and met today. I remarked about a few silver strands already showing up despite she being under 35. She brushed it aside - literally and metaphorically. She was, if anything, more beautiful now - in flesh and as always, at heart. And did I tell you? For once and for the first time, I paid the bill. And felt so good about it :) As I prepared to bid good bye, albeit reluctantly, she looked into my eyes and said "You've grown up kiddo"! This was her remark after she gave me a half hug. If eyes could kiss, this was it. I knew I was a kid reliving his charmed days from an age almost 2 decades ago. As she waved from within the cab, I realized she was holding her daughter much the same way she used to hold me in the school bus. On her left, head over shoulder. Perhaps, she mothered me at that age? Perhaps, I am indeed her kiddo? I'd never know. I don't want to know either. I'd take her for what she is - a sweet lady who loved me in my childhood.

உயிர்க்கும் புத்தாண்டு ....

மெல்ல மீண்டும் உயிர்க்கிறது
சென்ற ஜனவரி இரண்டில் இறந்த
இதே புத்தாண்டு தினம்......

(புவனேஷ்வர்)