The One with The Delhi Trip

I think I've never done a one-day trip to Delhi ever before. I considered it blasphemous almost. At least 3 days had to be spent... of course, even 3 days is not enough to be spent at home.

But that has changed somewhat since my parents shifted out from Delhi last month. So, to attend A's wedding I flew down on Sunday morning with a return flight booked for Monday morning so that I wouldn't miss work.

How was the trip? Too many thoughts running through...

So, first things first, the wedding went off very well.. didn't meet as many people as I thought I would, but it was worth making the trip just to see how pretty A looked :). Back when we were young girls of 14-15, the subject of how we would be an integral part of each other's weddings was discussed. Of course, like all plans made at that age, this one also did not really materialize. I guess, too many years intervened. But, I know people who stay close in spite of the distance and the years etc.. but I guess I'm just an abject failure at maintaining relationships.. something I've come to realize about myself after much introspection (not!!)..So, in spite of the lack of girl bonding over sangeet and mehendi and all of that, I was really glad that I was able to be there on that day just like she was there on mine.. It feels great to connect to one's past - was absolutely lovely meeting A's mom and realizing that A's sis-in-law still remembers me well..

I could say that the wedding was the high point of my trip, as opposed to my earlier trips to Delhi, when the event that I had come for would be just a by-product and the stay at home would be the high-point. Not sure if I liked this turn-around.. No, I'm sure I didn't actually..

Stayed at home only... and I went thinking that its a good idea because its a familiar area and I could spend my time in the market around etc. Bad decision, actually.. prob would have been better if I'd stayed with relatives at South-ex. It is a very weird, not-so-pleasant feeling to see someone else live in your home. It is weirder to feel like a stranger in your own home. Although I have known the M's for donkey's years now and usually joke and chat with them, this time didn't feel like doing so. I almost kept expecting my mom to be in the kitchen every time I walked past it..

Their daughter has kept a lot of knick-knacks in my bathroom - the one I've spent years in chatting secretly on the phone, dressing up in or crying quietly so that no one would know.. How does it suddenly become alien..
does a house remember its occupants? Do the events that have happened in those rooms - big or small- leave a permanent imprint...It was all very surreal, compounded by the fact that it was raining and gloomy outside, making me feel even more melancholic.. I told this to S last night, but he didn't really understand.. which is ok.. cause I wasn't feeling that way either till I actually stepped inside the house..

As I got on the flight back yesterday morning, I was actually happy to be leaving Delhi for once..
a) cause it wasn't the same without my family there.. and

b) I'd become so tired of saying goodbye to someone or the other - either my parents, or S, or both over the last one year...

So, as sad as it felt to not be greeted by my dad at the Delhi airport, nothing beats the ability to drop-in at my parent's place on the way to and from office everyday and to have S by my side every morning...

So, everything's a-okay !

The One about Draupadi

I have been thinking of picking up Chitra Banerjee's Palace of Illusions for some time now. Got an opportunity yesterday at Hyderabad airport, while waiting for boarding to be announced. Read it non-stop and have finished it.

The 300-odd page novel is a narration by Draupadi on a somewhat abridged Mahabharata. Of course because she is the narrator, it also includes her childhood in detail, which I'm not sure if it is mentioned in the original.

I have always been fascinated by the Mahabharata as an epic. During childhood, it was definitely one of the most eagerly awaited serials and I can sing the title song even today. Draupadi is one of the key characters in the epic, having said to have played a very important role in bringing about the war at Kurukshetra. So, when I read a review somewhere that the 'Palace of Illusions' gives a perspective of this central figure, I was more than sold on reading it.

There are lots of reviews on other blogs about the books. So, I am not going to do the same here. But I have been thinking of jotting down points on what worked for me and what didn't.

The writing is fairly simple and straightforward - so much so that it is almost as if the characters live in the current world that we live in. The book makes for a quick, easy reading. And, as promised, gives a view on the story through Draupadi's eyes, which may or may not be true, who's to say?

Some of the points that grated on me while reading this book were -

1. How Draupadi's father, King Drupad was shown in a less than a favorable light. Draupadi seems to have acceptance issues with her father and the rest of the family. Somehow, the idea I got after seeing the epic was that of a doting father. The author also makes a small goof-up, when after the Pandavas come back to tell Drupad that all five of them are to marry her and live in the forest etc etc., he (Drupad) asks them how he can allow his only daughter to live like that? Whereas, earlier in the book, we are told of Drupad's various other daughters and how Draupadi could never form any sibling bonds with them.

2. Lack of Arjuna's storyline - Ok, first of all, I did not like that Arjuna was mentioned as 'Arjun' in the entire book whereas everyone else was called Karna, Bheema etc. 'Arjun' just seems so 90s hindi movie name.
Anyway, it is shown that Draupadi is very much ready to fall in love with Arjuna as the swayamvar approaches. However, once it is done and the whole 'You have to marry all 5 of us' is played out, the Arjuna storyline loses steam.
Throughout the book, Draupadi does not once relate her relationship in detail with Arjuna, who was her original suitor. It is mentioned in various places on how Arjuna seemed angry with the arrangement or how Draupadi longed to see the love in his eyes. One would only imagine that she would relate her year of being Arjuna's wife in a little bit more detail.
For the most part of the narration, she keeps talking about Yudhishtir, who is a slightly boring character for most readers. She also talks about Bheem's love for her at various times. However, not once does she talk about any kind of love that Arjuna might have showed her ever or vice-versa.

3. Obsession with Karna - Karna is undoubtedly one of the most popular figures in the Mahabharata, in spite of being associated with Duryodhana.
In the book, Paanchali & Karna have been shown as a couple of star-crossed lovers. Paanchali, for her part, keeps comparing her husbands with what Karna might have been. She keeps doing scenario analysis on 'what-if I hadn't stopped him at the swayamvar...' and so on and so forth. So much so, that after a point I momentarily forgot that this was an already written epic, and kept waiting for some hindi-movie type union sequence between the two!!
I do not know whether Ved Vyasa's Mahabharata talks about any kind of desire between Draupadi and Karna, and even if it does, its probably limited to the swayamvar event and does not become a life long obsession.

Even with all her longing for Arjuna's love, in the end, when she is dead, Paanchali dreams of entering heaven holding Karna's hand and not Arjuna's. This portion was too filmy for me to digest.

4. Tu Tu Main Main - Paanchali's interaction with her mother-in-law Kunti has been portrayed in the book like a typical saas-bahu relationship, and somehow it just comes across as highly pedestrian. I don't believe that ladies like Draupadi & Kunti, who have enough strife in their lives, would actually make it worse by doing one-upmanship with each other in their everyday life. When Kunti visits the Palace of Illusions, Paanchali feels that it is established that she is the mistress of her home and not her mother-in-law. In turn, Kunti also behaves like the proper 70s movie mother-in-law, sans the 'kulta, karamjali' type dialogues.


What I did like about the book was the depiction of the relationship between Krishna & Krishnaa (Draupadi). Their friendship, Krishna's continuous effort to educate Paanchali on the higher purpose of life and Draupadi's realization that of all the people she knew Krishna was the one who truly loved her were well etched. The ending where Krishna is seen to be with Draupadi in the snow filled mountain - tries to give a spiritual touch- but probably should have stuck to the spirituality only in relation to Krishna and not to the floating heavenly characters.

Overall, I felt that Draupadi through the narration, was portrayed as a very uni-dimensional character. The need to show a multi-layered complex heroine was obvious, however in the effort what came out was a self-important woman, who was obsessed with 4-5 key things in life - vengeance, Karna, Krishna's divinity, her mother-in-law's power over her husbands, her Palace of Illusions - may or may not be in that order.

On a lighter note, as I read the book I kept on hearing Naseeruddin Shah's dialogue "Aisi sati ki jai ho" in my head from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. I'm sure everyone remembers the disastrous cheer-haran scene in the hilarious movie. Here are some funny dialogues from the scene and also a clip:

1. Shaant, gadadhari Bheem, Shaant
2. Dharamraj, iski jubaan kheench loon ke? (Bheem to Yudi in relation to Dushasan)
3. Draupadi tere akele ki nahi hai. Hum sab shareholder hain.
4. Nahi, Draupadi jaisi Sati nari ko dekhkar maine cheer haran ka idea drop kar diya hai. Jai ho, aisi Sati nari ki jai ho.
5.Nalayak, adharmi, durachari, vamachari, bhrasthachari, bol sorry! Apne sasur ko nahi pehchante? Main hoon Draupadi ka baap, Dhrupad.
6. Yes sab kya ho raha hai? (Dhrithrashtra, aka The Blind King)

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Too long a hiatus.... shifting across cities..jobs..getting married...moving to a new blog, but still missing the old scrapyard.. decision to start writing again on the blog which started it all..