Thursday, April 25, 2019

Narendra Modi & Alladin's Magic Lantern



One Sanghi bloke is flaunting what he claims is an excerpt from Modi's scripted interview with another less accomplished actor Akshay Kumar. He asserts Modi's reply flabbergasted and lined up all in awe.

My bloke claims that the lesser of the two actors, the interviewer Akshaykumar asked the thespian, Modi what he would do if he were to get the Alladin’s famed magic lamp.

We are told Modi replied, that if he were to get hold of the lamp, he'd ask academicians in the country to not take note of the fable or to narrate it to kids. For it promotes a culture of lotus eating and lassitude. Besides these stories are alien and not fit for India’s ethos. Then he is said to have went on to critique Indian education that belittles the country’s past and inculcate in children foreign values. Does the thespian know that 1001 nights is a compilation of Middle Eastern fables?

Well, even with a cursory reading of the matter one can only laugh at this man’s   outlandish and damaged mind, even though it seemed to be in all probability, a scripted answer. We saw what happens when his answer or speech is not scripted. He would fantasise about out of proportion elephant head fixed to a human kid’s torso, and call it plastic surgery!”😁😂

But what is startling here is Mister Modi seems to have had no idea of Arabian Nights and the thousand fables from it that enlivened many of our childhood. Can someone tell how many of our contemporaries became lotus eaters and walk about in dreamy indolence, waiting for lady luck to shine? He has no idea that we had the good part of our formative education through fables, both from Indian myths, legends of yore and from foreign lands. That shaped us, fortunately unlike this man Modi .  We imbibed values from Aladdin’s fortunes and wary of the evil uncle who tried to finesse him, from Sindbad the sailor which gave us ideas about alien lands, people and culture told through his voyages, from Alibaba’s and  40  thieves, the canny and clever “ Fisherman and the Jinni”, “Tale of the Vizier and the Sage Duban”, “The Fox and the Crow” ….! Well it is endless what 1001 Arabian nights gave. Does this man know that many stories had Indian and Persian flair too?
Now going farther westward, less said about Little Red Riding Hood, Jack & the Bean Stalk, Cinderella or the Piper of Hamelin all of which certainly according to Narendra Modi are corrosive to little minds in India!

If one were to agree to Modi’s convoluted (to mean devious) thinking we could not have tasted the flavours of Anton Chekov and who could forget the “Bet”? Leo Tolstoy’s, “God see’s the Truth but Waits”, for that I’m sure would be a prescient on Modi and his era! Mister Modi , you may not have heard of O.Henry’s , “The Trembling Leaf” and it is American- more alien conveniently! He may not have even heard a word of “Aythihiya Mala” from this Somalian land Kerala, (which in itself is an oeuvre that can be seen as Kerala’s Arabian fables). Besides he may not even appreciate those tales for they are alien to him and are uniquely Kerala. There lies the contradiction and the bizarre understanding he has about culture, fables inspired by civilisations and literature however quotidian they may be.

Does he know that Somerset Maugham’s “Appointment in Samara”, was inspired by Katho Upanishad stories and also the old Mesopotamian fable?

What sets apart a Sanghi and ordinary mortals like many of us are our exposure to such amazing and inspiring tales from a kaleidoscope of cultures? It is that what enables us to imbibe ideas and values that enriches our life. It’s a pity we have a prime minister who negates inclusion, values that behold moral courage, ethics and goodness be it from any part of this planet.  
Well, I guess, perhaps Narendra Modi seldom had time to read or even listen to such fables, for most of his childhood was spent meditating in deep jungles and on the freezing snowy peaks of Himalayas. Some sacrifice that he bore and now we bear that brunt! Poor us!

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