Telling Tales

I have always been interested in mythology. I would not take any sides on whether ramayan or mahabharat are true. For me, some bits of it has to happen to allow someone to write about it. It is like a historical novel, where some of the things have happened for sure..but the author has taken the liberty of adding much spice to it, thus making it so wonderful that goes into the annals as mythology. I had someone gift me a book from the ‘world famous’ series for mythology. That was when I realised each civilization had its own Ramayan or Mahabharat. My grandmother was a great story teller as well. We had illustrated snapshots of both these epics bought specially for me and my brother. On summer holiday afternoon, either my grandmother or my mother will read to us (we could not read Bengali) stories from the Upendro Kishor Raychaudhary’s books (Satyajit Ray’s grandfather..creativity does run in the blood). I don't recall the names, but I think they were Mahabharter Golpo (Stories from Mahabharat). My brother and me would drift off to an afternoon nap with thoughts of Nal-Damyanti, Bakasur etc. I dare say kids nowadays would disregard this kind of pastime.

My favourite is Mahabharat(conveyed in 1.8 million words), mainly because it seems more subtle in terms of right and wrong. The characters are in shades of grey. Even today anyone can identify with Kunti, a teenage single mother, or understand the humiliation and vindictiveness of Draupadi. The thirst for power of Duryodhan or the machinations of the best spin doctor ever, Krishna. After all which political party would not like a tactician like Krishna on his side, who could always find the loophole in promises made, and work out the weakness of opposition. Although Bhagavad Gita is supposed to explain the bigger aspects of spiritualism, I think it is already imparted in bits and parts all along the storyline of Mahabharat.
During the preparations for The Battle, both Duryodhan and Arjun go to Krishna to ask for his support. Duryodhan without knowing the importance words can have only looks at tangible benefit, the Narayani Sena of Yadavs. But Arjun knows that it is not numbers which lead to a victory. It is the mindset which does. You also read about how Krishna instigates Bhim to attack Duryodhan on his thighs during their final duel, fully aware that striking below the waist was not within rules of the fight. This is wrong, we know. But the good thing is you see Krishna, an incarnation of the preserver, Narayan being punished for leading on Bhim. Gandhari, Duryodhan’s mother curses him that his dynasty will be eliminated and he himself would die an inglorious death. Even God himself is not spared for his wrongdoing.
It is small incidents like this which for me carry the real message. The message for which i think these epics were written. The need for reading between the lines is in fact apparent in the very begining of Mahabharat. Ved Vyas requests Lord Ganesh to be his scribe, while he composed the hundred thousand couplets. Lord Ganesh had a condition, that Ved Vyas would have to keep up with his writing speed. If Vyas stopped dictating, he would stop as well. Vyas agreed but then cleverly added his own condition. Ganesh would have to understand the meaning before he wrote anything down. So should we. While we 'read', we should 'understand' as well. Only then the real worth and importance of our Mythology would reveal itself.

It is probably worthwhile to mention for those who would like to read more, that there are two very good books which will give you a wonderful version of Mahabharat. One is ‘Mrityunjay’ by Shivaji Sawant (originally in marathi but hindi and english translation are available) and the other is Draupadi by Pratibha Ray. They are good books to create interest in the wonderfully complex caharcters of our epics.

As promised earlier the recipe for Rabri is shared here. I thought for a long discourse as above, it probably helps if there is a small recipe to follow :-)

Rabri
Ingredients
1 tin of Evaportaed milk
½ tsp cardamom powder
Sugar..according to taste
Nuts to garnish

Take a wide mouth utensil, I used a big frying pan. Pour the evaporated milk in it. Mix the cardamom powder or pods, whichever you have. Let it heat up and then adjust the flame such that it is always at the point of boiling but never actually boils over. In this situation a thin film will start forming the on the milk, what we call malai. Use a flat spoon and push the malai on the sides of the frying pan. At times I also just take it out and put it in a separate vessel. You have to keep doing this till a very thin layer of the milk is left. I generally check whether the liquid takes a few sec to fill back if I draw it back with the spoon....meaning that its consistency has increased and made it more viscous. At this stage you can add the malai from the sides of the frying pan or from the separate vessel into the milk and mix with a light hand. Add in sugar as per you need. I however have never had very sweet rabri, so i just add ½ tsp for 1 tin of evaporated milk. Take off the heat and preferably transfer into small bowls for serving. Cool and decorate with nuts and saffron.

This is a very simple recipe if you have evaporated milk. I really do not fancy doing this from scratch. The colour of the rabri is pinkish because of the use of evaporated milk.