…and Krish Ashok’s hilarious take on it.

We are a diverse country but yet, at times, I am not entirely sure if we well and truly cherish that diversity. For instance, a lot of people would like to believe that our oldest epic is really one powerfully common story that connects all of us and gives us a unified sense of identity and provides us a clear delineation between good and evil. Like Mr Sagar’s version.

But,

according to the Dasaratha Jaataka,

Rama, at his father’s insistence, takes Lakshmana and Sita, and decides to spend a few years in the forest, generally chilling out, shooting game and making deer jerky and barbeque. News then reaches them through a Pushpaka SMS that reads “Dsrth is ded. pls cm hm”. Sita and Lakshmana flip out, start grieving mightily, shed bucketloads of tears and generally behave like characters in a Tamizh soap serial on Kalaignar TV. But Rama remains expressionless like Ajit in Billa and refuses to let grief overwhelm him. This is because, he is merely the Buddha in one of his many earlier births. He notes with characteristic detachment that all lives are impermanent, and goes on to lecture his sibling and wife on the need to conserve water by learning to keep ones tears in the thanni lorry of one’s mind. Later, all three return to the kingdom, where Rama-Buddha rules justly for many years.

Do take note of his point about the Ramayana as the original open- source epic!