Torture of Dashratha

Why there is  a need to humanize characters in epic

If they have shown their true colors

let them be: true to their spirits

If you really want to do something

understand their motives

 

Why Kaikeyi

Why don’t you humanize Manthara

Why was she made a scapegoat for crux of the epic

Was she was really a hunchback

Was her dehumanization made her one

 

Let’s unfold what could have happened

A second queen is a second class citizen

Why will Rama bother to like you

You aren’t his mother, Kaushalya is

Kaikeyi must have sensed her provocation

But she didn’t stop her

For she knew deep inside

there is nothing one can manipulate

if there is nothing to manipulate

Just because you have guns

you don’t go on a shooting spree

 

O sympathizer where were you

When she mercilessly asked two of her boons

Exile of 14 years for Rama

And throne for Bharata, her son

And what timing she had chosen

Dashratha must have had a heart attack

She wouldn’t take no for an answer

 

Lying on the death bed

He must have asked himself

Where was the need to give her boons

and why exactly two boons

one for driving his chariot in war and one nursing his wounds

Why did he spurge on boons

 

He remembered: she had laughed.

When he told her

You saved my life

Why did she laugh

He didn’t understand it then

but he must knew now

In those giggles

she must have said this

If you don’t value your life

What can I do

Taken.

Your life is mine now.

I’ll take it when

I want to live like a widow

 

Or you sympathize with her because

She was the mother of Bharata

An epitome of fraternal love and devotion

But did she contact Bharata

before asking him the throne

She just asked the throne

 

Loss of faith in Dashratha and belief in Rama

She grew insecure and scared

Scared dog barks unnecessarily

and bites randomly

and rest as they say is blood

 

In blood lies history

history of fatherless king

history of kingless kingdom

history of forced abandonment

history of loneliness

and absolute lack of joy

 

Humanization of selected few

is our common problem

Not much has changed 

We stay true to our epic’s characters

Ask anyone in Ayodhaya

Aren’t they waiting for Ram Rajya

whatever that means 

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