Mahabharata: Myth or much more

"Making sense of Mahabharata", an article by Balpreet Kaur was recently an article in a newspaper about my lecture-cum-workshop in Chitkara School of Mass Communication, Sector 25, Chandigarh. The literary beauty of the piece was itself an astonishment for me. I could rarely believe myself that it was worth such an appreciation. To put matters across clearly, this was my first public performance (a philosophy workshop on Mahabharata) in the last decade of my journey with and into the Mahabharata. After finishing my research project on "Decalogue and Mahabharata", I was finding new reasons to start afresh in this domain and it happened when the Dean (Academics) at Chitkara School of Mass Communication, Chandigarah, Ms. Suparna Saraswati invited me for a bit difficult exercise with the students. It was difficult in the sense of difficulty of communication because Mahabharata has never been merely a text for me rather it has grown into me or I have got assimilated/entangled into it the way a jungle grows into you or you grow in a jungle. Communication is generally a linear process; so, it was quite difficult to communicate the message of jungle to an urban intellect. It can be quite comparable to talk about life in a rainforest before an audience which is used to monocrop of mechanical farming or controlled/manicured natural surroundings. To understand the true meaning of biological diversity is very tedious task for a mind conditioned with concrete structures of urban life. With this kind of an impossible target, I entered the Seminar Hall with a serious doubt over my own capability. The time started, went through and through and finally I realized that two hours had passed and the audience was still perched on their seats asking questions after questions. Some excerpts of that workshop are available below in form of three PODCASTS.

1. Mahabharata: Myth or much more, Part One

2. Mahabharata: Myth or much more, Part Two

3. Mahabharata: Myth or much moe, Part Three

Once it was over, I could feel a sense of satisfaction inside but I needed an 'other' to apprise me of what I had done. Balpreet and students did that to certain extent. Today, I feel that this was an ecologue of my work done in the last ten years. I wish to retell the stories of Mahabharata again with some new device, some new audience and some new catalyst. The jungle of Mahabharata is calling again.