GREY SHADES OF DIVINITY

Although it’s tough to find someone who watches Doordarshan these days of satellite TV, one could easily find many getting nostalgic over the golden olden days of Doordarshan. Mentioning which it is impossible to forget the grand depiction of the epics of India with the action-packed dramas depicting the victory of good over evil.

Assuming the freedom of expression or rather risking it, I would like to try to explore a new dimension of the victorious "Gods", in accordance with the televised epics. Gods for good and demons for evil, presumed. But how could the Gods remain good and why did the demons end up being evil.

I find it a little funny but also a bit demeaning when the run-of-the-mill mythology shows make the Devas run helter skelter with the Asuras  behind them. Take samudra manthan for instance, to save the devas from the demon-bashing Lord Vishnu suggested churning the ocean for the nectar of immortality in a joint alliance with the Asuras. The nectar did come out and was grabbed by the  Asuras. The usual SOS was sent to Lord Vishnu, who foxed the Asuras with his charming incarnation of Mohini. Yet again the incompetent Devas were saved and Asuras shown the door. Was that fair?

And imagine living the sensational and glamorous life of Krishna. The gopikas he charmed and played  "Raas-Leela"with. Radha could be Krishna's true love and Rukmani his wife, his philandering ways adored and infidelity justified by some divine logic. After all  morality and ethics are for us mere mortals don’t get Gods into this for God’s sake.

Talking of Mahabharata, there lies the genius of the writer Vyas who with this little incident conveys so well that life can be unfair. Behind the sharp archery skills of Arjun there cries a story of an unfortunate disciple, Eklavya, who had to sacrifice his thumb just because his Guru Dronacharya wanted Arjun to remain the best on earth. The Pandavas also were at their shameless best when Yudhishtira put Draupadi on stake in a gamble with Kauruvas. You bet on your wife and the God saves you from the blushes.

They are Gods right, surely they are here as an incarnation to give a message to the humanity but what mature way is that of handling things!
 It is a different matter if we choose to believe the versions of the epics as depicted by the TV channels or our grandmoms . But if we go by this popular version, then everything’s not fair in the Godly affair.

- Viplove Sharma

SEPTEMBER 2008: THE OTHER SIDE OF HUMOUR

“Smile is the second best thing you can do with your lips”, goes a famous saying. To a skilled person it isn't need an effort to make someone smile. All it needs is a tickling moment and a good sense of humour to recognise the tickle. Sense of humour could be some kind of a seventh sense. It’s this sense that turns the ripples of the tickling moment into waves of laughter. Whether it’s just a smile or a burst of laughter, the world becomes brighter and happier.

The sense of humour, just like common sense, is not so common. The same joke elicits two extreme responses. Where one falls off the chair the other might assume a grim funeral countenance. And that doesn't really imply that tumbling at any joke means a good sense of humour. Making simple things funnier in a simple way and appreciating the fun in  mundane things  is what makes one the most admirable anywhere. Some call it talent, some call it art, but in a grumpy life humour is the happiest part.

Everyone likes to laugh. But in the middle of all the giggles and chuckles we forget something, something we never pay attention to. Whatever be the type, whichever be the level, good or bad, humour always has two sides. One, which delivers the humour, and the other, which receives it. One, who cracks a joke, and the other, at whom the joke is aimed.
 “A comedy is a public face of a private tragedy’” said VS Naipaul.  Most of us have felt the sting of being laughed at but when the joke is not on us we laugh. We like to laugh at the prank without even bothering to think once about the person. Nothing wrong with that. After all it’s the tickle that ignites the reaction and there is only one reaction. Breathing in the air of fun, one is not supposed to bother about something serious. And there is only one face left to suffocate in the air of embarrassment - the other side.

Stereotypes have only helped people crack such jokes. The prime time laughter challenges, farcical sitcoms are full of such low-brow humour. The whole world loves to crack jokes at communities like Sardars and blondes. Imagine how a young Sikh boy, aspiring to become a scientist, might feel when his friends rib at his capabilities. Or for that matter, how a blonde seeking a job to support her family faces the bias for the color of her hair.

All the smiles start appearing to be swords and the giggles seem to ooze out blood the moment one steps onto the other side. The humour is no more what it used to be and the world becomes the worst place to be in. Just by a switch of side. How cheerful is one side of humour, and how dark is the other. How familiar is one, how undesirable is the other.

But the sad truth is that a good joke always has to be aimed at someone, may be at times yourself. Making the axiom true, “life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy  to those who think,” are the Sardars. At a Santa-Banta joke often it is the Sardarjis who laugh the most. Khushwant Singh took it a step ahead by coming up with a book of Sardar jokes. And who could forget the inimitable Charlie Chaplin who preferred to mask his pathos by letting others laugh at him.
And us mere mortals are probably happy being on the safer side of the joke.

-Viplove Sharma.