Friday, April 17, 2015

Exile & Return

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Exile and Return have always excited me.


Take for instance the 14-year exile of Lord Raam. He did a lot during his exile, like losing his wife, and retrieving her with the help of the Hyderabadi Simian Brigade, and killing Raavan, and conquering the recalcitrant Sri Lanka...what was left of it after his Hanuman burnt much of it with his blazing tail.

On the other hand, he did nothing notable after he returned from his exile. He did establish the Raam Rajya that Gandhi then and the Gandhi-haters now want to impose on me. It lasted for all of 10,000 years by the last count and was as peaceful as the burial ground...nothing much happened, folks didn't steal public funds, there was no swine flu, folks died in the chronological order, no self-acclaimed Yale graduate trying to tinker with my IIT system, no elections, nor any science and technology to kill and destroy cities like Hiroshima, and no displaced Kashmir pundits. And no water crisis like in our Janapriya Nile Valley Township in Hyderabad where we had to flush our commodes with mineral water cans bought at exorbitant black market price for all of a week.

Yes, there was this dhobi alright and it is noteworthy that all OBCs are now coming together to destroy the present Raam Rajya at the center.

On the other hand, the exile and return of the Pandavas is more exciting...they did nothing much during their long exile except acquiring some missiles, but they did a blessed lot after they returned...lots of destruction and instruction...the two seem to go together:








In particular I love their ascent to Mt Everest...all of them save the eldest and their dog fell dead in an anti-chronological order. And I also love the way the Yadav clan (sorry!) perished in Gujerat with their entire city engulfed by the Arabian Sea. And the way Lord Krishna died a fairly natural death unlike that of Lord Raam which I am told was more of a suicide by drowning:


  1. "Disappearance of Sri Ram from earth happened when he entered voluntarily into the Sarayu River. This divine event is described as the death of Lord Rama. The story of the disappearance of Sri Ram is mentioned in many Hindu scriptures. This story of His death is from the Padma Purana."

Even Jesus needed some rest for exile and introspection:




“Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.” – Matthew 14:22-23. 






And then there was this Biblical story of the Return of the Prodigal Son. Apparently this old man had two sons, the elder as wise and dutiful as me and the younger a spendthrift who gambled away all his inheritance and disappeared one day to return a beggar after decades. And his dad embraces him and fondles him to the anger and rancor of the elder son...naturally:








Talking of spendthrifts there is this cute story of Maugham called the 'Ant and the Grasshopper' which is an inversion of the famous Aesop's Fable...Maugham's lazy Grasshopper Brother ends up marrying a rich widow while his workaholic Ant Brother lives and dies in hard work and penury:










And then there was this exile of Siddhartha:







and his return.


It is interesting that 'Siddharth' has only a couple of crore hits on Google:

Siddharth: About 1,85,00,000 results (0.34 seconds)


while his nondescript son, Rahul, has as many as 6.4 crore hits:

Rahul: About 6,40,00,000 results (0.41 seconds) 

Rahul appears to be quite a popular name north of the Vindhyas, although this son of a saint didn't seem to have done much to deserve his fame.

Of course, recently he too has been on a self-imposed exile for all of 56 days and a couple more nights. And has just returned to impose his newly earned wisdom on his nondescript party...maybe like his dad, Siddharth, he would like to address a crowd of shaven heads:









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