Rules of Teaching - 9

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http://www.davegranlund.com/cartoons/wp-content/uploads/arc371.jpg

Let us now investigate if brothers (as opposed to cousins) can have fruitful teacher-student relationships and learn from one another.

The short answer seems to be: 'rather not'

Let us take Ramayan first.

Laxman was devoted to his elder brother but doesn't seem to have learned much from him: he deserted his wife and was separated from her for all of 14 years unlike Sri Ramji (1 + a few thousand later on). And then gave her a high dose of sleeping pills to alleviate her pangs of conjugal separation.   

Their brother Bharat was a different kettle of fish...he rebuked his own mom and refused to rule...like (and unlike) our dimpled Prince.

Much less is known about Shatrughn apart from his high-sounding name. Of course we have a more well-known Shatrughn in our filmy and politics duniya...he too doesn't seem to have learned much from his siblings of whom not much is known except this charming detail:

...Sinha was born in Patna, Bihar to Bhubaneswari Prasad Sinha & Shyama Devi Sinha. He is the youngest of four brothers — Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and himself...He is married to former Miss India Poonam Sinha (née Chandiramani)..

For the record, the original Ramayan chap married a cousin of Sita by name Shrutakeerti...

This detail about our BJP Shatrughn having three elder brothers named Raam, Laxman and Bharat reminds me of my friend and colleague, Late Prof V Radhakrishnan, well known for his vast knowledge and wit. He christened his first son: Sri Raam. And when his second son was born, my friend NP asked him if he was christening his newborn as Laxman. And VR laughed and replied:

"No way boss...the series ends here!"

We now come to the brothers Vali and Sugriv.

Sugriv didn't seem to have learned much from his valiant elder brother, Vali, who banished him. And did something much worse...he got Vali assassinated by supari (contract) killing and then forgot all about the contract for a long while; and then took his brother's wife as his own.

We next have Ravanji who refused to learn from the benign teaching of his younger brother, Vibhishan. Also from the sage advice of his other brother, Kumbhakarn, who was very brave and valorous but addicted to sleeping in the class rooms.

Tomorrow we move on to examples from the Mahabharat on the subject.

For now I have to admit that I have no firsthand info about brothers...I have none, although I am blessed with half a dozen sisters.

At times I wish I had a brother, and at other times, no.

If I did have one, I guess he would have been my mirror image: taking to blogging as profession and teaching as hobby.

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Postscript on Ramayan

We have another famous Sri Ramji talking ill of his namesake:

...Responding to a query, Jethmalani said that Ram was a bad husband as he sent his wife Sita to exile for no specific reason. "Ram was a bad husband. I don't like him at all. Just because some fisherman said something, he sent that poor woman (Sita) to vanvaas (exile). Lakshman was even worse. When Sita was abducted, Ram asked him to go find her as she was abducted under his watch. Lakshman simply excused himself saying she was his sister-in-law and he never looked at her face, so he wouldn't be able to identify her." Jethmalani said to laughter from the audience...

...Posted by Ishani

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