Atul: Hey bloggy, whats up?
Blog: Not bad. Why don't you install Google Chrome and run me on that?
Atul: Actually I did install Chrome but didn't like it. Well, or lets say that I still like Firefox better than Chrome.
Blog: Ok, never mind, so what's up with this Ramayana thing?
Atul: I watched this movie yesterday - Khaamosh Pani (Silent Waters). It's a Pakistani movie and actually, a pretty nice attempt. Btw, warn me if I start writing a review of the movie instead of what I intended to write. So this movie is based on the period when Pakistan was undergoing a political crisis.
Blog: Wait a minute, be specific. Because Pakistan has always been in a political crisis!
Atul: Allright, so it's on the backdrop of the events in late 1970s when Zia Ul Haq took over and Marshall law was enforced on Pakistan with ouster of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Blog: I know who you are talking about, that Haq guy had the weirdest moustache and hair style.
Atul: Yep. So the story is based on a mother and her son during that period, living in a village immune to the political turmoil in big cities. But as the story progresses, her son starts getting Islamicized and intolerant to other religions. And from the flashback we get to know her story that how she was a Sikh woman, forced to commit suicide during partition by her own family members, but she doesn't jump into that well and instead runs away. Eventually she is caught by some Muslim folks, repeatedly raped before some one shows pity on her and marries her. I am not giving away the story here, was just building up the context of what I have to say next.
Blog: Oh man, that is tragic. We can go on and on discussing the human tragedy of the partition, but keep it for another blog post. Now I know how does the rape comes in the title of this post but how about Ramayana? Isn't that a great epic of you Hindus?
Atul: You are right, it's probably the most revered of the Hindu epics with Rama, the lead hero being the Super God of sorts for Hindus. Now assuming that you already know the story and know that how Rama brings back Sita abducted by Demon Ravana I will fast forward to when Rama asks Sita to leave him because people start doubting Sita and her purity.
Blog: Hold on, what do you mean by purity? So people actually thought that Sita had sex with Ravana?
Atul: That was a bit raw, but yes, you are right. It was the main accusation against her.
Blog: I don't get it. May be I am just a dumb blog and not as intelligent as you humans, but one thing is for sure, and it is that Ravana could have raped Sita but no way they had consensual sex.
Atul: You are right again. You see ...
Blog: There is nothing to see in it. Even if she was raped, that should lead to sympathy of people towards her not their antipathy. That's preposterous.
Atul: Well I am not saying that the people were right in saying or thinking so.
Blog: And nor was your Lord Rama. By that logic, every rape victim should be ostracized from society and sent to those rehabilitation centers where they earn their livelihood by knitting carpets or making cane chairs. The other day I read about Sati system, the craziest thing I ever read. And then these honour killings, always with innocent women being the victim. Don't you have any respect for women?
Atul: Why are you blaming me? I didn't rape any one. Instead, what I am trying to say is that what Lord Rama did was ...
Blog: Bullshit ! That's what it was. And you say that he is your ideal God?
Atul: No, he is not. And you mind your language least you want me to get killed.
I don't think Rama was perfect and for that matter Ramayana is a perfect story. And that's what bamboozles me, what could be the reason that the authors of Ramayana added this Sita Vanvaas episode in what is other wise a perfect story.
Blog: I know, because those guys were assholes?
Atul: Shut up. There can be three reasons.
1. It's a known fact that Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana didn't write the Uttara Kanda in which these events take place. So either the story was not very well integrated or there's a conspiracy theory that some one else added this story to the original epic to kind off denegrate the character of Rama. I am not a buyer of that theory.
2. The authors wanted to show that how a man who could fight the deadliest of all the daemons could not fight the mores of the society. So by adding this episode, the authors made the story more relevant and humane. It didn't make Lord Rama an ideal but used him as a tool to tell us that what is indeed ideal.
3. Well, I hope it's not true but ...
Blog: Hahahaha, I know you can't say it, so let me do the honors. The only other justification of Rama not accepting a supposed rape victim who had passed the 'Agni Pariksha' and was her divine beloved and was won back after a deadly war killing thousands of monkeys and a million Rakshas is that ... the author of Ramayana was an ASSHOLE.
Atul: You said it!
