Mahabharata and Bollywood Musings with my Brat

They say - Mahabharata and Ramayana are not mythologies - but they are our History. 

Now I am not an expert on that - But what I do know is - Mahabharata as an epic has left a deep impact on me. I discovered it much later in life  - in my twenties. But I had decided then that I want to introduce Mahabharata to my child early on. I want him to get intrigued, discover, and research on his own when he is young. Because the pearls of wisdom act as guiding light during our formative years. 

When he turned 9, we picked up Mahabharata series from "Amar Chitra Katha" as I thought then that now he was ready for it - anytime earlier would have confused him with so many characters. 

He got hooked to the book and began finding it extremely interesting. He would look forward to 9:00 PM reading sessions every night. He would quickly finish his bedtime rituals, hop on to the bed and start calling out to me. We started having thought provoking conversations and I would be amazed at today's kids' intellectual abilities. His questions on societal norms would leave me speechless at times. 

I have decided to write about some of our interesting conversations here so that they will always remain documented. When he hits teenage years, and if I find it impossible to manage him in between all of his "I Hate You"s, "You Don't Know Anything"s, I want to create a space for me to come and reminisce the days when he had shown tremendous wisdom and maturity.  

Coming back to our Mahabharata reading, we had reached the Chapter about Drupada. How he longs for children, how he does Yagnas and he is blessed with twins. One daughter and one son. How he dotes on both of his kids and teaches both of them all the war fare. And how he wants his daughter to have the best husband and so the Swayamwara with a challenge is arranged. Anyone who is able to win the challenge is only an able husband to his most capable daughter - He believes. 

Now, Arjuna in disguise wins Draupadi by acing the shooting test, gets married to her and brings her to his Kuteera. Until now, my son has no questions. Draupadi and the five Pandavas stand at the door waiting to enter.  Kunti without looking back, asks them to "divide" whatever Arjuna has got between the five brothers! Krishna listens to this from the window and the chapter ends there. 

I had pulled out the bookmark from the last page and was about to close the book. But my son took the book from me and read the whole page again looking carefully at the pictures. He closed the book, handed it over to me and asked "Does Her Father Know About It"?

That question left me speechless. My heart was full and I was beaming with pride is an understatement. Of course I wanted to tell him everything about Draupadi's role in Mahabharata war, her past life wishes, and how everything is destined etc., But that moment I decided to remain silent. I just answered "You will find out". And let him ponder over that thought. I din't want him to forget his question as I wanted him to seek answers. 

We never speak about gender equality at home in front of him. He does not know what "Feminism" means. But he has got absolute clarity about unfairness meted out to a girl who was married to one man who was chosen by her and her family. That is after he had proved his worth. How could someone who is not her family decide her fate for her without her consent? 

When I told about this incident to my friends, they teased me saying "He is your son alright"! But, what I do know is, today's generation has gender clarity in their veins. We need not teach them anything. 

During summer holidays, I began this ritual of Bollywood movie nights with him. I began playing old Hindi movies - which has clean content and clean language - to familiarise him with Hindi as he has absolute struggle with the language. I decided to solve his "Hindi Problem" the only I way I know - Watching Bollywood! That's how we learnt right?

But soon I realised that, he just cannot connect with Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge! I am ashamed to call it Generation Gap because he almost humiliated me by calling out Raj as absolutely annoying! Right from the moment when Simran gets on train and through their Europe trip, he only kept complaining - "Amma, why is he harassing her? Why is he irritating her? Can't he understand - she doesn't like it and she is so angry"!! Until the husband came to his rescue, asked me to stop harassing the son - and told him that - "Babu, Amma might be a big SRK fan. But none of his movies are worth watching except 'Chak De! India' and 'Swades". And in a minute, my Delhi Boy was dismissed by the two boys in the family, DDLJ was exited from the screen and the son was spared from further torture.

But, how come we never thought of all this when we were young? Why didn't we see it as harassment? So it's a testament that society is evolving and consent is a serious issue today.

We were watching "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" another day (I know I tried my best to play SRK movies to him when husband was not around). During the fight between SRK and Priety Zinta about roles of a mother and father - and how the other parent has failed in their role - the son declared - "By saying all this, she herself is showing inequality. She is telling that a mother should do only this and the father should do only this". Again, none of this is taught by us. So this goes on to prove that some things cannot be taught. We as a society can only lead by examples. 

Today I am happy with where our current generation is going. Questioning our On Screen Content. Dismissing bad Content and not trying to fit into the hype. Unafraid to ask the right questions - even if it means - questioning our sacred texts. There is hope.