India & Indraprastha -Mythology connects History

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army, betrayal, border, India Pakistan war, Indo-Pak war, kurukshetra, Pandavas Kauravas, peace & war, political treaty, terrorists

#India & #Pakistan were born of a common land. Whereas India zoomed into intellectual, monetary, industrial and literary progress, Pakistan stayed stagnant in hatred, envy and terrorist networks.

Pandavas made a meteoric leap from arid, barren Khandav to a blindingly prosperous #Indraprastha, while Kauravas stagnated in crippling envy, hatred and murder plots.

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Pakistan gets million dollar gifts from #USA to fund & fuel further terrorism, while self reliant India builds wealth and fights terrorism alone.

Hastinapur had 100 princes. #Hastinapur had the readymade wisdom of Vidur, the military force of Drona-Ashwatthama and administration experience of Bhishm. Yet it was unable to expand its horizons, to perform Rajsuya yagna or amass wealth.

Indraprastha had just 5 princes.

Your touch brings me alive …

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attachment, cars, detachment, devdatta shankh, hoarders, instant relations, iphone fanatics, krishn arjun, Mahabharata, panchajanya shankh, personal weapons, personified objects, possessive owners, recycled bodies, use and throw relations

Ever bestowed a title or name upon your possessions? Ever felt that your non-living possessions have mood swings and emotions?

A house, a car, a laptop gleaming in the showcase are mere objects. Once they belong to you, they get kick started into life. I do believe our possessions inherit vibes from us, just as pets do. They attune themselves to our touch, our habits, our fingers. They cling, they adopt, they mould.

Ever so slowly, memories settle over them like butterflies. The day my car came home blushing like a bride, the day she threw a royal tantrum in the whirlpool of traffic, the day she took her first shower at the service station, the day she valiantly huffed & puffed home before giving up, the day she was witness to my joyous whistling.

In fact, akin to what the horse Chetak meant to Maharana Pratap Singh…

Going even farther back, remember Devdatta and Panchajanya, the celestial conch shells of Arjun-Krishn. Gandiva and Sudarshan – the divine bow and divine discus.

#Read about Guest #Author Dr. Sweety Shinde

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arjun, arjuna, author interview, Bhagavad Gita, blurb ideas, book spine, books, cover design, fiction novel, Goodreads Giveaway, Guest blogpost, Indian epic, kurukshetra, Mahabharata, mythology, writing tips, youtube trailer

I got an opportunity to grace Chris Graham’s platform for authors. Here it is…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Perfect quote – It aptly sums up the motive to pen my novel.

Why write at all? You cannot inhale and not exhale.
You cannot eat and not poop.
You cannot read and not write. (Did I just equate writing with pooping?) Yin & Yang. Reading is a passive, pleasant passion. Writing is challenging, invigorating, and pathologically addictive!

Profession vs Passion: I’m a Pathologist by profession. I dissect dead bodies and diagnose live diseases under the microscope. But human beings hold deeper mysteries beneath the visible surface. Mind, emotions, and idiosyncrasies – those are beyond the scalpel, but not beyond the pen’s might!

I decided to use my profession 2 ways. One, to fund my passion. Two, to stimulate both halves of my brain – the rational and the creative. Yin & Yang again. 

Flexing the muscles of Time: ‘Work expands to fill the time required to complete it.’ As a…

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Multiple Arjunas .

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arjuna, Arjuna wives, folklore, indonesian, javanese, Mahabharata, mahabharata versions, permadi, shikhandi, srikandi, supraba, supraba nymph, variations

Pan-Indian Arjun, Indonesian Arjun, Bengali Arjun, Tamil Arjun.

Zapped? Don’t be!

Indonesia, with its huge Buddhist & Hinduist influences has its own Mahabharat. Variations between ‘our’ MB & ‘their’ MB – some quirky, some weird, some hilarious, some disgusting, some beyond imagination.

P.S – As in Vyas’s MB, many facts are probably expanded/ diluted/ masala-fied by interpolations via folklore, literature and poetic license. So PLEASE take these spin-offs with a pinch of salt.

Read on for ‘twists’  in Indonesian Arjun aka Permadi (Hmm 11th name?)…

1. Arjun, Bheem & Yudhi are biological sons of PANDU, while the demi-Gods are their spiritual fathers.

2. Other than Draupadi (aka Drupadi), Subadra and Ulupi, his other wives include Supraba and Srikandi.  Hooked your interest?  Here goes …

a] Supraba is a heavenly nymph or Goddess.

She initially tries to seduce Arjun in order to interrupt his penance, but fails

Kurukshetra: War between the 3 Krishnas?

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arjun, battle, battlefield, Bhagwad Gita, compassion, danda-neeti, death, decision, dilemma, hand, heart, inspiration, justice, killing, Krishn, kurukshetra, Mahabharat, mind, passion, symbol, sync, war

3 Krishnas: Krishn (Dwarka), Arjun (Krishn) and Draupadi (Krishnaa).

All 3 shared a name, shared their dusky complexion and shared a deep emotional bond.

Traditionally, Kurukshetra was a war of these 3 Krishnas against evil.

Symbolically, though, was it a war of Arjun versus Krishn & Krishnaa?

Any great deed requires the mind, the heart and the hand to be in-sync.

The Mind = for cool analysis, planning, ideas, impulses, thoughts.

The Heart = for passion, emotions, inspiration and fire.

The Hand = for skills, finesse, well-honed, strong, the doer.

Krishn was the mind, Draupadi was the inspiration and Arjun was the executor of their combined vision.

           What if the hand rebels against the heart & mind?

On the eve of Kurukshetra, Arjun paused, paralyzed by his dilemma. Then followed the enriching Q & A session which we know today as Bhagwad Gita.

At Kurukshetra, the mind and the heart were