RAMAYANA - the movie story!

The new movie Ramayana is in theaters in the USA. One American reviewer on YouTube gave it a very emotional review.

However, he was not clear about the reason behind RAMA’s exile. That is to be expected from someone from another culture who is just being introduced to the story. I have not watched this movie yet like most people from India, I know the story of Ramayana.

So I will clarify that part for that reviewer and others…

Kaikaye was one of the queens of King Dasaratha, RAMA's father. Once during a war, the brave Kaikaye had saved her husband Dasaratha’s life. Dasaratha had then promised a boon that she could ask anything from him as a reward. Kaikaye had kept that pending until an appropriate occasion presented itself!

Rama was Dasaratha’s son from another queen. Kaikaye’s son was Bharata. Because they shared the same father, Rama was an elder brother to Bharata. Fast forward to the part where Dasaratha was getting old and wanted to retire and pass the throne to his eldest son Rama. 

A wicked aid to Queen Kaikaye named Manthara, then soiled Kaikaye's head by planting jealousy in her. Manthara told Kaikaye that her son Bharata was the deserving heir to Dasaratha's throne and that as long as Rama was there Bharata would never become the king. Affected by the words of Manthara, Kaikaye used the boon Dasaratha had given her on the battlefield and asked that Rama be exiled for fourteen years and her son Bharatha be made the King. Dasaratha pleaded with Kaikaye that she should not be that harsh but Kaikaye would not budge. Heartbroken Dasaratha was forced to exile Rama and he died shortly after Rama left the kingdom for the forest to fulfill his father's promise to Kaikaye!

Bharatha was devoted to Rama, unlike his cruel mother, and refused to ascend the throne….

Life In America - part n !

 

Virtual World Of YouTube - Part 2

 

Continued from the previous post. A talking dog advertising Medicare advantage plans....

The Virtual World of YouTube!

 There was a prediction made by someone a decade or two ago that there will come a time when we will not have to hire real actors to make a movie. Their likeness will be generated and manipulated by computers to create a movie. 

That time seems to be approaching very fast. If you watch shorts on YouTube, you will see Trump dancing with Putin and Modi and you can't tell if it is real or fake; you will see parrots scolding their owners in American English; you will see kids cracking jokes like grown ups; dogs dancing with tv music shows. I don't know which software they use to create these shorts and whether these were created using AI but the effect is hilarious.

 There are also short films based on Indian epics like Ramayana with impressive gardens and castles in the background which would be very expensive to create in the real world!

JD VANCE & His Servants!

 VP Vance you are not the first one to call us indentured servants!

September 11.

 September 11, 1893 was the day Parliament of Religions in Chicago was inaugurated and one of the speakers was a young Hindu monk named Swami Vivekananda. He started his address with ‘Sisters and Brothers of America….”. His message was the message of inclusivity and brotherhood of all men. He said that just as different streams wherever they originate all lead to the same sea, all true religions lead to the same God. He spoke of tolerance of different faiths that is hallmark of the universal religion that has its origins in Hinduism. Many reporters in American newspapers had difficulty pronouncing his name yet he became a very popular speaker in many cities in America.

September 11 is also the day twin towers in New York city were attacked and destroyed probably due to vengeance by people from other nation /s as reported in the US media. That is because we don't practice what we preach. Inclusivity, equality and tolerance are missing somewhere. 

A clarification about a conversation at the courthouse

 The  year was 2003. I and my ex-wife were legally separated and were at the county’s court house with our lawyers. I was frustrated at the slow pace at which our case was progressing and wanted unsupervised visits with my daughter. Her education and her health were being affected because of supervised visits.She was eleven years old. I prefer not to go into too much detail.

 At that time it seemed my only function was to hand out money to my lawyer ( and other legal professionals) and my wife because of which I eventually became poor.

After the hearing, I was surprised to hear the lawyers talking to each other almost apologetically. One lawyer(male) usually very loud and blunt, said softly ‘my client is crazy’ and the other (female) responded ‘my client is nuts’ !

Back at my work place , while sharing with a coworker about what had happened at the courthouse, I mentioned this conversation and added half jokingly that the lawyers were talking to each other like they just had sex!   I was disappointed and after hearing that conversation, I knew that I couldn't expect much from the legal system. 

I didn't mean that they really had sex!