Things we may have to unlearn!

Malu apa bossku? Apparently, all the things I may have learnt from childhood may be wrong after all. Sometimes, I wonder whether I thought the wrong thing or may have been hoodwinked to believe obviously wrong things. Perhaps values changed while we were napping. I always assumed that when one loses any of his properties via public auction, he is said to have lost not only his wealth but also his dignity. The mark of a true man is his ability to acquire wealth and provide for his dependents; his inability to retain his finances is a colossal failure. At a time when pride was everything, abscondment and suicide were standard outlets. My legal eagle friends remain nonchalant about their clients or opponents declaring themselves bankrupt or their properties auctioned off. To them, that is a cost of doing business. Overlooking the inconveniences of bankruptcy, it remains a legitimate 'get out of jail' sort of card. Nothing Earth-shattering, they say, and definitely no shame. I remember a time in my childhood when two policemen came knocking at one of my neighbours' doors. The next thing I saw was my neighbour being escorted out with his hands at the back, handcuffed. My neighbour's mother was wailing, and the other neighbours on the flat floor were busy concocting their own theories of what had transpired before the arrest. Forget that they all had not an iota of clue of what the accused was in for. That left an indelible impression on the young me of how a clash with authorities would affect the people around me. Then came an epiphany. Great world leaders immortalised in our history books spent a big chunk of their lives behind bars. Gandhi was practically behind bars all through the Second World War. Mandela spent 27 years in solitary confinement on Robben Island and other prisons.

In my mind, that is how I thought ex-PM Najib's supporters looked at him when all the legal minds of the country decided that he was guilty of hoodwinking the people's money for whatever reasons. His supporters viewed him as a saviour wronged in a hostile environment when he claimed what was rightfully his. It did not matter that the leader took full responsibility for the duties shouldered upon him in the line of national duty or, like the ship's captain, was the last person to leave a sinking ship. In their eyes, he is a sacrificial lamb of a system supposed to protect him. Whichever way one sees it, their statement just becomes more and more pervasive.

"No, no," reassured the ex-PM's supporters. They insist he was just a pawn in an intricate political ploy to discredit him. "There is no reason to be ashamed, my boss!" (Malu apa Boss ku?) 

I was nurtured to believe that education is a sure way to succeed. Hence, as children, we were told that nothing was more important in life than sitting down and absorbing everything in the books to regurgitate at the appropriate times. Then, it dawned upon me. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Every bit of exposure maketh a boy a complete being. As I learnt from Steve Jobs's autobiography, everything one learns is useful somewhere in one's life. There were many roads to Rome. What is the truth?

Shakuni's temple in Kerala. Homage to his

determination to seek revenge against the

greatest empire of the land. Allegedly attained

moksha here.

Now, the world tells us that we were taken for a ride. All the so-called history taught to us was fraud by the voice of the victors who wanted to paint a favourable view of themselves. The truth was multifaceted. Only until the lion tells his side of the story will every tale glorify the hunter.

To put the cherry on the icing on my cake of confusion, lately, a scholar completely shattered the image of Shakuni, a character in Mahabharata. My understanding is that Shakuni was the villain of the whole tale. He allegedly had a special dice that helped him to cheat the Pandavas of their kingdom and humiliate their wife, Kunti. He walked with a limp that inspired a distasteful proverb in Tamil, which suggested that all handicapped people have evil in their hearts.

Now, they say that it is the Pandavas who instigated the situation. By nature, Shakuni was a skilled gamer. He had an abnormal gait but an able body with no handicap of any kind. Shakuni did not have a limp or had no trouble walking, running or even scaling high mountains. What he had was unbridled loyalty to his sister, Gandhari, and far-sightedness. Gandhari's father, with his kingdom in Afghanistan, had learned from his soothsayers that his daughter had a curse. Her astrological chart suggested her husband would die soon after marriage. So, the family got her married to a goat, which was quickly slaughtered to break the curse. Gandhari was then married off to the blind king of Hastinapura, Dhritrashtra. After discovering that Gandhari was technically a widow, Dhriashtra's father and brother sieged Gandhari's father's kingdom. They imprisoned the male members, who subsequently succumbed to their torture. The family was parsimonious with their food supply to ensure the youngest, Shakuni, thrived through the ordeal to avenge the Pandavas on a later date.

Shakuni later comes to live with his sister to protect her. The rest of what happened afterwards is left to our interpretation.

P.S. The aunties I was exposed to in my childhood did not filter much of what they thought of others. My mother was no different. They called a spade a spade and had no qualms about speaking their mind. Being politically correct was an alien concept. I have often heard my mother cursing people behind their backs for wronging her. She even cursed a handicapped lady who congenitally had an underdeveloped right leg as being as evil as Shakuni. That is when I heard her often mentioned in Tamil, implying that a limping person has a dirty heart!

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In defence of Shakuni...

Shakuni, Master of the Game (2019)
Author: Ashutosh Nadkar

That is the essence behind the Mahābhārata. It is not supposed to give a 2-dimensional view of things. It should make us realise that good and evil are a spectrum. One man's good deed can be to another's detriment. One man's version of the truth is another's untruth. I suppose, in the same way, Shakuni, the archetypical villain of the epic saga, could have his version of what actually transpired in his lifetime. He would have his version of what happened between the two noble families, the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

This book goes on to tell exactly that; Shakuni's actions, reactions and justifications of all the things that he allegedly connived in eventually leading up to one of the bloodiest wars in history amongst brothers, cousins and uncles.

Shakuni gives the lowdowns and dirty secrets of the family his beloved sister was married to. He claimed he was not handicapped as per common misconception. He was an able body who could easily run, walk and scale mountains. It was just that he walked with a slightly abnormal but functional gait. There was no need for military training in the peaceful country of Gandahar, so thought his father, the King. Hence, he need not be trained militarily. The army was not even equipped as well as its neighbours. Due to the extreme weather found in this region, people here spend more time indoors. Hence, Shakuni became a whiz in board games and handling the dice.

So when Bhishma, the feared patriarch from Hastinapur, came his mighty army to its border, the King of Gandahar got scared. Bhisma's soldiers outnumbered even the country's total population. Bhisma came with a marriage proposal for the blind King of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra, to Gandhari, the beautiful princess of Gandahar. Left with Hobson's choice between causing suffering to his people and simply marrying off quietly, the King and the Princess chose the latter. Prince Shakuni was livid but felt helpless. He told himself that he would live to fight another day with his own devices.

Shakuni left his family in Gandahar to live in Hastinapur to choose the opportune time for revenge which did not involve military prowess.

Shakuni's stay in Hastinapur saw the Pandavas and the Kauravas scrambling to produce their first male heir, hoping to usurp the throne. King Pandu of the Pandavas probably had erectile dysfunction and faced fertility issues. King Dhritarasthra of the Kauravas impregnated his wife, but unfortunately, even after two years of gestation, she just delivered a lump of flesh.

Meanwhile, Pandu and his wife Kunti took a retreat to the jungles. Miraculously, Kunti conceived and delivered successively to Yudhistra, Bhima, Arjuna and twins Nakula and Sahadeva. Rumours went around the kingdom that Pandu did not complete the job. Pandu's uncle, his mother's sage son from another husband, Vyasa, the author of Mahābhārata, inseminated with his seeds. Perhaps the Prime Minister also had a hand in conceiving the offspring, the eldest of the Pandava sons, Yudhistra and the Lord of the Wind in Bhima. This practice was totally legitimate under the niyoga system to treat childlessness. 

The blob of flesh from Gandhari was treated ayurvedically by scientist-philosopher-poet Vyasa to 101 live babies. Believe it or not, this is what some fundamentalists refer to as the first in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). The first-born of the Kauravas was Duryodhana and a clear favourite of Shakuni. Shakuni had placed a lot of hope to outrun Bhishma and his clan.

On the Pandavas' side, Kuru's Prime Minister, Vidura, gravitated towards aggrandising the brothers. It became apparent after the military training with Dronacharya. That became the tinder box that eventually led to the Kurukshetra War. 

Kurukshetra War

Shakuni also noticed Drona's dark side. He refused to pupil in Karna because of his caste. When a tribal person, Akhilavya, learned the art of archery through an effigy of him, Drona actually demanded his right thumb as tuition fees, thus rendering him useless as an archer. 

The legendary backgammon game that spurred the Pandavas was played fairly and squarely. There were no special gaff dice made from Shakuni's father's bones. In fact, in the first game, through his marvellous skills, Shakuni made Duryodhana lose badly just to catch the Pandavas unawares later on. The fear of losing in the second game got Yudhistra carried away, betting his brothers, throne, and wife. The 12-year exile and a year of living incognito were agreed upon as fair and square. 

Things got out of hand when Shakuni managed to identify the Pandavas during the final year of their punishment. Their cover was blown. Shakuni never meant for the Kurus and Pandavas to go for each other's jugular and turn into maniacal hunters, breaking all rules of a Kshatriya. He felt a tinge of regret.

Shakuni, as a good uncle to the Kauravas, donned military fatigues finally and partook in the Kurukshetra war, only to be slain on the final day. He 

[P.S. Duryodhana was named Suyodhana, meaning good warrior, at birth. Because of his unusual birth, he was cast as bad, evil, or bad omen, hence, the prefix 'dur', meaning evil -Evil Warrior.]

[P.P.S. I remember my history teacher, Mrs Lai, commenting during history class when she was covering the Mahabharata War. In the same as Shakuni commented, she said, "How would you expect a fair war when God take sides?" What she said made much sense then, but I am wiser. There is more to what the eyes see. That, precisely, is the essence of life. Things are neither black nor white. They come in shades of grey.]

[P.P.P.S. In Shakuni's eyes, Bhishma cannot be as noble as he is revered to be if he is to be judged by his actions. Besides arm-twisting a helpless princess from a docile kingdom like Gangadhar to marry his blind nephew, he is reputed to have kidnapped princesses Amba, Ambilika and Ambalika from their swayambara for his weakling half-brother, Vichitravirya, against Kshatriya dharma.]

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