Infatuation

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Laid up (or down?) with fever and cough for the last 24 hours.

Somehow, willy-nilly, Ramayan has been entering this blog for the last few days.

Great Epics (well-known to be cock-and-bull stories) have survived thousands of years by oral, written, sung, drama, film and all other traditions.

Why?

.......Because they touch sometime or the other bits and pieces of our own lives so we connect with their situations......

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Tossing in my bed after Dolo - 650 eased the fever a bit, I open my bookshelf and pick up RKN's prose Ramayan, of all things.

And notice that it was a cheap edition printed and bought in 1977, a good 33 years ago; with RKL's B & W Drawings.

Paperback covered with an old office-calender page, its pages turned brown and brittle; still good for one more reading, it looks.

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The Opening Chapter is about the advent of Sage Viswamitra to the Court of King Dasarath asking that Dasarath's youthful darling son Raam (who was born pretty late to his father) be sent away along with him to the dense forests on a mission of taming the demons there.

Dasarath is bewildered because he considered Raam to be just a wee baby since he was never out of his sight from his birth.

And is heart-broken at the thought of their separation, into the jungles and junglees.

He almost declines Viswamitra's request, but is prevailed upon by wiser counsel:

"No father should come in the way of his son's growth...ships are built to sail on high seas...not stay back in the safety of harbors...."

And relents.

Viswamitra promises Dasarath that he would see that no harm would come to Raam.

And indeed it turns out that the seeds of Raam's marriage to Sita are sown during this sojourn.

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2006 June, Hyderabad

My only son, Sonoo, born to me at my 38, never stayed away from me for more than a few days from his birth till he was then 25...a boy...indeed a kid as far as I was concerned.

And I had not yet recovered fully from my Severe Clinical Depression.

My Doctor advised Sonoo to come home early and take me out for a daily short walk before Dinner at 10 PM (I hardly ate anything and had lost 6 kg in one month).

On one of our late night walks, Sonoo blurted out (promising that he would abide by my will), that for the past few days, his fond Employer, Subash (my erstwhile student at IIT KGP), was keen that Sonoo visit UNM at Albuquerque (of all Desert Places) to clinch a Deal with a tough customer.

And that none else in his Company would suit (like Raam, Sonoo was youthful, cute, handsome and very user-friendly).

I stopped in my Depressed tracks and my heart was beating like a thousand bongo drums.

Sonoo let out that Subash assured him that he would go by the best airlines, stay in top-class hotels, and have a couple of days each way through New York City so he could meet his friends and class mates.

But New Mexico, of all places?

I looked at Sonoo....and Sonoo looked at me..... with different feelings.

....I knew my Viswamitra...

Ultimately, after a few seconds, I said ok....

Sonoo never looked back and has visited all sorts of places in the US and the Europe a dozen and a half times during the last 4 years and grew early to be a Project Manager @ 26 with handsome pay and perks...

As I learn from References in his Linked-In, customers tend to eat out of his hands.

And during his ten-day absence @ UNM, I realized that Sonoo has grown to be a Suitable Boy and inserted his resume' in a well-known Matrimonial Site.

Next year his marriage was fixed to our own Sita, named Sailaja, who gave us li'l ishani...in another year...

This particular ship, it looks, is born for more voyages on high seas...

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