When in doubt, smile!

The mornings of the 94 Sundays between October 1988 to June 1990 were extremely predictable in our household. The day would start with my paternal grandfather, my uncle and cousins next door and me, all competing for the center page of the special Sunday edition of Eenadu (we were probably too frugal to invest in individual newspaper delivery). That center page contained a write-up (in Telugu) of the episode of Mahabharat Hindi TV series to be aired later that morning. We all craved to read that page- partly because reading it a priori in Telugu made the ensuing Hindi series easier to understand and mostly because we just could not wait to know what happens next! This TV series gave the first introduction of the epic and its various characters for most of the kids of my time. Each of those 94 episodes stuck to us like no class ever did in all of the school years. I memorized most of the phrases from the Eenadu Telugu version to go with the scenes in the Hindi conversations. Of the many such Mahabharat phrases that I committed to memory, and one that I am pondering over today, is the one that Lord Krishna says to Duryodhan "You may have arrived here earlier but I saw Parth (Arjun) first" followed by his naughty smile. The title of the Eenadu translation that day was "Munduga vachithiveevu, Parthuni choochithi nenu" with the picture of a smiling Nitish Bhardwaj in the glory of his shiny yellow outfit. The scene of interest is at ~30:22 in this youtube video.

That smile- so powerful, deep and equivocal

The context of this phrase goes something like this. Step brothers Pandavas and Kauravas realize that war is inevitable- ownership of Indraprasth being the bone of contention. Both sides get busy amassing their allies and troops. At the crucial juncture of obtaining Lord Krishna's support, Duryodhan (the oldest of Kauravas aka the bad guys) and Arjun (middle brother of Pandavas aka the good guys) head to Lord Krishna's quarters. Duryodhan arrives first, finds Krishna asleep, decides to sit down by his side. Arjun walks in next, folds his hands in respect though Krishna's still asleep, stands with hands still folded by Krishna's feet. Krishna eventually wakes up, sees Arjun first before Duryodhan announces his presence and the fact that he arrived first. Krishna figures out that the visitors are there to ask for his help in the war. He gives them two options to choose from: Narayana sena (Krishna's army) or Narayan (Krishna himself, unarmed, only present for moral support). Duryodhan is desperate for Krishna's army while Arjun's interest is solely in Krishna. They are both anxious to get what they want. Duryodhan declares he should get the first turn since he arrived first. Arjun, being the gentleman he is, respectfully concurs with Duryodhan and asks him to go first. But Krishna decides that Arjun should get a turn first since he saw Arjun first as soon as he opened his eyes even though technically Duryodhan came first. That Arjun chooses Krishna, Duryodhan gets his army and Krishna becomes the charioteer for Arjun and impart us all the essence of life via Bhagavadgita is history- epic rather.

My focus today is on that one part- that it didn't matter who arrived first. Who was seen first was the only thing that mattered in that transaction. Lord Krishna chose to believe in what he saw versus what was the truth. Does that mean one should make an effort to show what is needed for the occasion rather than one's true feelings? I just cannot help but ponder. Does perception overrule reality? I posted literally a ton of happy pictures from our recent trip to the east coast on facebook. They all scream joy and perfection, which is mostly true. It was our first real road trip since Raaga was born. We met up with a bunch of friends for the first time in forever. But, we, as a family, have endured the most testing times during that exact same time. A very serious illness in the family, pressure of major lifestyle changes coming up due to kid starting kindergarten, and numerous other unmentionable nagging issues - big and small - stressing us to the point of emotional saturation. I was recently ridiculed by an acquaintance as to how 11am is my standard office arrival time- they likely saw me walk in at 11am. I just smiled back and walked away. That's the best I could do in that situation.

In the case of this episode#63 from the TV series, the person making the judgment was none other than lord Krishna, the one who knows past, present and future, and one that has the liberty to be unfair in favor of good over bad. But life is not Mahabharat though it might seem like it and certainly not everyone I run into is lord Krishna. There are some Krishna's in everyone's life, though, ones that can see our situation like a mirror. The rest, well, they likely get a smile in return for every judgment they make. What I take from analyzing this episode of Mahabharat is that there is absolutely no need to adjust my appearance to elucidate people's perception of me. If it is not lord Krishna, it is likely not worth my time. If it is lord Krishna, well, He already knows everything. And when in doubt, just smile equivocally, like Krishna!

Titles roll. "Aa Aa A Aa, Aa Aa A Aa....Ath shree mahabharat katha..." plays in my head.

P.S.
We watched The Wolf of Wall Street recently, what a crazy movie! But I found an odd sense of connection between a scene in the movie and this post. In the movie, Jordan (Leonardo Dicaprio) drives his car under the influence of some pretty strong Lemmon Quaaludes. Here's a picture of his car as he sees it versus what it really looks like. I could not stop laughing at this scene. Moral of the story: yes, perceptions are different between self and others. But there will be times when it is the others that get it right ;)