Ram, ram- pinkish saffron

If I were to write about naan kadavul (pronounce it any way you want- that’s what happened in the trailer of the film) or if I were to write on the pink chaddi (written as jatti in tamil), I would have got more readers, hits and responses than if I were to write about eelam again. I shall be the most hypocritic hypocite if I were to declare that I do not care about hits and readers. I do. It gives me a sense of satisfaction- useless though it may be, it still is an ego massage that the mind does not decline. I am yet to see the film so I cannot write about it. Pink chaddi- I hope that even my corpse would not be adorned with such a sensually assaulting apparel. So what do I write about? I want to write about Ram! The one who engineered the non-existent bridge, the one whose heroism made him deified, and the one in whose name chauvinism is unleashed,is always a matter of interest.

RAM! Is supposedly the last sound that emanated from Gandhi (conventionally the mahatma and as I saw in a video in which Jk corrected himself on the usage and called him mr.Gandhi) and  there is nothing wrong in calling him Mr.Gandhi. He was not given honorary doctorates like the many stars that abound Indian filmdom. On Gandhi perhaps someother time, now it is about RAM- (incidentally according to the manufactured horoscopes, he is not an aries ram), and his `culture’.

There is a view that the story of ram, has been a well compiled gist of the existing folklore of the times, still it IS an epic. So, ram is a hero. He is so much a hero that he is a god. The Indian public is so much into the story that they believe the narration is a report. Even after seeing all the news channels of today, there are people who believe that reporters always present facts and only facts as facts! Ok, so what about ram? By now it will be obvious that I do not subscribe to his divinity- but this is not to debate on the godliness of a hero. This is about the culture that was prevalent at the time of ram.

Culture is tradition and heritage. In heritage we carry old blocks chiseled in those time which we parade with pride as treasures that can never equal modernity’s machinations. In tradition, we trade old ideas to get new ones. We use bulbs in place of lamps. Ram-culture is ?

Ravivarma painted viridian ram is the predominant image of the hero. In later years militant ideas sculpted the image into a more muscular masculine form. Again I am digressing like the bizarre RAMSENA thugs. The moment the word ram sounds, all human considerations and all rational thinking ought to be suspended according to these goons. Ram’s culture does not allow women to indulge in pleasure! That’s what these scheming or stupid goons say. They conveniently forget that this was the same ram who made his wife walk into fire to prove to whoever that she was chaste. This was the same ram who made his wife walk out of his palace to prove to whoever doubted her chastity and his valor! In his name has happened ( perhaps naturally) the atrocity of attacking women who felt like drinking in the evening with male companions.

In KAMBARAMAYANAM, the tamil version of valmiki ramayan, in the balakaantam, there is a vivid, beautiful and peotic description of women drinking in moonlight by the riverside. The riverside is a public place, and those women were drinking when perhaps their male counterparts were frolicking. Perhaps it is the time for fanatics to start burning copies of the tamil epic. Kannada fanatics have all along been vociferous about their hatred for tamils. Now, i may be giving kannada safronites another chance to mock the unholy attitude of tamils. Kamban is a great poet in tamil and even in crude translations he stands out. My worry is whether tamils will become vociferous if he is attacked? What will they do? eelam is more a pseudo-political slogan than an emotional outburst. ram, his bridge which can take idiots to eelam, and everything else that stifles our present will fade soon. we have many things to worry and do. For tamils? there was no ram in the early days, but ram is now here because the upholders (!) of dravidian politics needed some more votes. Bridge, brahminism,belligerence are all the normal ingredients of the arrogant rhetoric of tamil leaders(?). now ramsena’s antics are taken up by tamilnadu’s nameless parties and politicians. there are going to be newsworthy but useless nuisance for the youth. what will the tamil youth do?

as usual, they will move on- come on, they are progressive, they were the early birds in Y2k…but still they will, because they have to, do something.

They will form a human chain and worry more about pink slips than pink chaddis.

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