Are we warped?

I was talking to a friend about the Mahabharata — I don’t recall how the conversation began — and we reached the subject of Vidur. Oh yeah, she has just got a copy of Devdutt Pattanaik’s Jaya — A Retelling of the Mahabharata (a copy of which I’ve also sent my dad in Lucknow).

Well, she jogged my memory about Vidur, who is Dhritarashtra and Pandu’s half-brother I remembered how his mother was the maid who did not shrink in Ved Vyas’ presence (who I imagine was unshaven, unbathed, smelly and blah, blah!) and was thus blessed with a wise son. The other two, as we know, were blind and weak (read: impotent) respectively!


But that’s not the point… the point is, I read a book on Vidur definitely before I turned eight. I remember reading it when I was still in Kanpur, which we left when I was still seven years old.Hmmm… do I need to spell it out? Well, I don’t know if everybody else realizes it already, but it strikes me that as a child, my reading list — as of most others — made up of Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Panchatantra, etc. And, yes, weekly visits to the magazine stall in Bangalore where I picked up my regular dose of Superman, Spiderman, Indrajal and the occasional Mickey Mouse comics.

Besides the Amar Chitra Kathas, were the Enid Blytons, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. And while Nancy Drew’s highpoint was her scarcely mentioned boyfriend Ned, and Asterix was accused of violence for tying up Cacophonix, the bard… nobody ever said a word about the epics. (I’m tempted to call them holy cows, but, remember Shashi Tharoor?!)

While reams have been written about Tom chasing Jerry and the effect of violence on kids, nobody ever objected when kids were being weaned on the deceptions, illegitimate children, polygamy, polyandry… you name it! Sita had to undergo a chastity test; Maneka was the ultimate seductress; Krishna married scores of women and for fun, would filch clothes of gopis as they bathed…. And so on. Even the fables, the Panchatantra, Tenaliram, Akbar-Birbal, etc spoke about adult problems… of a poor farmer chancing upon a bunch of gold coins, etc. The Gita also tells us that it’s okay to wipe out your entire extended family, provided you can find good reason.

Not that I’m complaining… but I’m amused at the irony. While we can discuss the family tree in Mahabharata with our entire khandaan — from the eldest to the youngest in attendance — try doing the same if the topic of conversation is Elizabeth Taylor’s eighth (?) husband, coz that’s trash!

Are we warped? I guess we must be!