--- On Sun, 15/3/09, Mahesh Murthy <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Mahesh Murthy <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] What is "Indian culture"?
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Sunday, 15 March, 2009, 12:43 PM
> >
> >
> > > I don't see why being gifted a copy of the Bible
> represented such a major
> > theological defeat; it's a book.
> > >
> > > Depending on which edition it is, and their
> quality and readability
> > differs wildly, it's quite a readable book,
> <snip>
> >
>
> > I agree and being presented a book is something I
> welcome.
>
>
> I remember once being asked to attend a "book discussion
> session" by a
> well-meaning father of a friend, when I was in high school
> in Hyderabad.
>
> It quickly turned out to be a "discussion" of the Ramayana
> and the
> Mahabharata and it was soon apparent that the session was
> less about
> literary criticism and more about indoctrinating us kids
> with 'good Hindu
> values'.
>
> The older ones at the group were somewhat irritated because
> I insisted that
> if science fiction and fantasy like the Ramayana and the
> Mahabharata were to
> be talked about at a "book discussion session" then equal
> time should be
> given to the works of Asimov and Robert Heinlein. My
> friend's dad was
> particularly miffed at some statement where I praised the
> epic-writing and
> myth-creation qualities of Tolkein and Frank Herbert over
> that of Valmiki.
>
> That session ended in some disarray.
>
> I was not invited back to the second one.
>
> But there was no third. :-)
>
> M
I think personally that that's a shame; the Mahabharata in particular is so
readable. For a variety of reasons, some apparent on first acquaintance, the
Ramayana somehow doesn't appeal; to have been killed after being pissed on is a
terrible fate for a hero, the one for whom I was named, and put me off the book
for ever. I suspect that this may also underly some political positions of mine.
As far as the MB is concerned, however, it's been a rich treasury which I've
dipped into again and again, and never found tedious or boring. After very
detailed and anatomically-obsessed sojourns into Homer's battle-scenes, the MB
is a welcome relief. Some of the Scandinavian sagas are worth a revisit, for
their dry wit and obvious links to bardic narration, and of course anyone who
doesn't wallow in Monkey is a dried-up, desiccated has-been, but MB is still
the baseline for comparison.
Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to
http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/
