A Rendezvous With The Pandavas

  

Now that I am so close to Nature sitting in a cosy room in a resort near Dalhousie, with the lightning striking almost atop my hair, I decided to meet some significant people living on the other side of this world. What use is technology if it does not help us in reconstructing the… blurred lines? Thus, I am all set to have a group chat with the help of a super cool app called WeChat. (I have written a review for the app, you can read it HERE.) I have added my contacts in the list I have named, The Misunderstood.

Misunderstood… because they have been portrayed in a different light unlike the person that they truly were. The politics of representation and that of absence is a repertoire used by everyone to attach power to those who could control it more effectively. My list consists of

The Pandavas i.e.

1.     Yudhistir

2.     Arjun

3.     Bheem

4.     Nakul

5.     Sahdev

And of course, Duryadhan from the opponent’s side. Krishna is omni-present and thus, he says, needs no app. What can I say, well for him! He anyway is quite perturbed when it comes to his role in determining the difference between being Clever and Cunning. He usually seems to be smiling with a certain discomfort camouflaged in the creases of his smile.

5:27pm

They are punctual and appear online in my friend list and I receive a pop-up message… “Are you there?” from Nakul. I had turned my appearance to invisible, I recalled. And though I didn’t check, I could feel Krishna smiling.

5:30pm

I begin with wry chain of thoughts scribbled in my mind, not having heard of such an event happening before this. Talking about the advancement of science and technology!

Dear Pandavas,

Welcome. I wanted to let you know that you are not celebrated heroes for me. In fact, I think it was a battle that the Kauravas should have won, considering they were so much more well-equipped and strong. Moreover, according to the way kingship worked in ancient India, it was their right to ascend the throne and not yours.

I do not understand why you guys are celebrated, for what virtue, I reckon? You went ahead and first, accepted Draupadi as the ‘common wife’ and then later agreed to treat her like your common ‘property’ and gave her away?

I had typed a little too much, and no one was responding. Fine, my tone was accusatory but then, it was straight from the heart.

Yudhisthir typing…

We felt terrible for that. It was all due to that evil Duryodhan and Shakuni Mama!

Bheem: I felt like punching them on their face. I bet history would have changed then!

Sahadev: We asked for forgiveness after that incident, PD. C’mon! You’ve got to stop being so rude!

Me:

That’s rubbish! What good is your chivalry if five of you could not prevent the humiliation for your woman? Krishna had to come as the savior? He could have stopped the battle from taking place, from your side winning the battle, from Abhimanyu being killed…The list can really go on guys!

Krishna smiled and commented, “Who told you to speak from the heart? Don’t you think that if that is what I wanted, I would have placed the mouth above your heart and not on your face, near your brain.”

I cringed.

Me:

Krishna! It is Krishna’s support that let you win the battle. He is always celebrated as some heroic icon with Godly virtues innate in him. While all I see, is the manner in which he twisted and plotted, who stood by his promise to not use a weapon against the Kauravas but used every other twisted repertoire to assure their defeat. Such politics has been terribly underplayed! But hey, I am a Masters Degree-holder in history. I know better now!

Krishna roared in laughter this time, my angst peaking to further levels. “It is good to have a clever enemy than to have a foolish friend, my dear” he said. “Everything is politics, it is an inevitable part of one’s existence. You talking about it, having an opinion, about the Mahabharata or Me, is politics! Why not learn it and destroy those who are less powerful, than to let the others use it against you anyway?”

I could not believe this! Not just that Lord Krishna was directly conversing with me, but because he was admitting to it. I have in my five years of studying History have wondered why Krishna is called clever while Shakuni is called cunning. Was it because Krishna had the virtue of being a ‘God’?

I was cursing the advantages of being a God when thunder struck. So wild and violent, I thought I was dead, with all the effect it had.. The lightning was followed by series of lightning, each worse than the earlier; thunder crackling like conflicting against me. I jolted out of my chair and my phone fell down from my lap. I let out a swear and picked it up. The WeChat app was running and no, there was no group called The Misunderstood. No, I did not have the Pandavas in my friend list either! It wasn’t possible, was it?

Thus, I solemnly pledged to instead find the Pandavas, Kauravas and Krishnas of today and show them their place while they are here. Who knows who shall be erased with the passage of time in the histories of a people who love to worship a cunning/clever Krishna and an extremely patriarchal Rama..

This post has been written for a contest organised by WeChat and Indiblogger