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It is said that there are as many versions of Ramayan as poets, singers and storytellers.
The version we heard from my Father as an after-dinner series of episodes is rather primitive. The gimmick in that story that upset me most was the mean trick Raam does on Surpanakha. Apparently this beautiful sister of Raavan was charmed by the good looks and grace of Raam during his hermitage and approaches him for favors which Raam (under the strict scrutiny of Sita) declines. Instead he asks Surpanakha (whom he suspects a disguised Raakshasi) to go to Laxman instead. It was like getting rejected by Harvard and sent to Yale. And Surpanakha asks Raam to give her a Reco. And Raam asks her to turn her back on which he scribbles the message:
"Cut off the nose of the applicant"
And this crude gimmick backfires and the rest of the epic follows as Nemo follows Sandy.
And during their heartrending search for Sita, Raam and his brother meet Sugriv who was then grieving the loss of not only his kingdom but also his wife to his dada, Vali. And Raam offers a deal to Sugriv: he would help Sugriv recover both iff he helps him in the search for Sita with his mighty monkey army. But Sugriv is dubious about Raam's skills and sets him a test: Raam should hit that palm tree there with his arrow and cut it (the tree) into two halves. And Raam agrees and shoots his arrow that pierces and snaps not only the test tree but eight others in line with it...and the arrow returns to Raam's quiver...supergimmick.
And subsequently Hanuman crosses the ocean and discovers Sita and announces himself as Raam's recce party and convinces her with that ring of Raam. And Sita revives like a dying plant in the first monsoon shower. And Hanuman offers to kill Raavan and carry her off to Raam safe on his back. But Sita declines. For, that would be an anticlimax to the epic (the Raam Sethu had to be built, no?). As PGW writes in his Performing Flea, the villain must be killed by the hero and not by his sidekicks.
So, Hanuman decides to do that gimmick of surrendering to the Rakshas army so they could lead him to the court of Raavan to whom he preaches some lessons on ethics and morality...casting pearls before swine. And Raavan asks his army to set the monkey's tail on fire. Which they try to do, but the tail keeps elongating like a coiled india-rubber hose. At last when they set fire to it, Hanuman takes off and sets Lanka on fire, like a blitzkrieg. Some gimmick that!
A couple of days ago I read in the newspapers some extremely cynical journalists suggesting that the thing that happened secretly in Delhi the other morning is a counter-gimmick to the gimmick that happened in an embassy there a month ago, also secretly.
Obviously I don't agree...
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