One fateful day during the great Mahabharata war found Duryodhana and Satyaki with their horns locked! It was a strange sight that met the eyes of many a soldiers. Duryodhana and Satyaki with each arrow exhanged, remembered the good old days. When they were kids, learning the art of weilding wepons under the tutelage of their Guru Shree Dronacharya. "Oh Satyaki! how wonderful were the times we spent during childhood at the Gurukul! Those days will never come back. Look at us now, trying to kill each other. Indeed, my greed has led to this!" . said Duryodhana. Satyaki replied "Oh king! What is the use of remembering those days now. This is the time to fight. Gather yourself and speak with your arrows!" It was such a strange sight that Sanjaya who saw this thanks to the divine vision bestowed on him by the great Sage Vyaasa, reported this to the blind Dhritharashtra.Both felt momentarily saddened when they heard this. This was narrated by Vyaasa to his disciples as it was a very strange sight. The same was narrated by Vaishampaayana (the disciple of Sage Vyaasa) to Janmejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna, the Pandava.
What is so great about this relatively unimportant event that it was recorded in the Bhaarata? I think I realized the significance of this today morning as I was on my way to work.
What made Duryodhana in the heat of the battle to become so emotional. That too, when fighting a Yaadava warrior of great repute like Satyaki. Satyaki, at his best, broke the bow of the invincible Dronacharya multiple times. Why then did Duryodhana become so emotional and start reminiscing about his childhood days.
Today as I left home for work, the weather was quite cloudy. After months of merciless summer heat today it was cool. Huge black clouds hovered above, warning one and all of the impending and much welcome downpour. Then on the way I spotted a City Central Library, that I used to frequent as a boy. And suddenly the entire atmosphere around me was transformed. I was that little kid again, who went to an over crowded library with his friends. Looking for any copies of Asterix or Tintin that we might find in the dusty shelves. The books in the library looked like some precious age old tomes that Indiana Jones would refer to unearth the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant. Coming back to the present my mind as I saw the library conjured up an image that was surprisingly still very vivid in my memory. It was that of two infants being fed by a she-wolf. Then I remembered that day, when I could not get hold of any Asterix or Tintin books. I had instead grabbed a book on Roman History. What attracted me initially was the pictures in the book. They looked neat, interesting and ancient. And it was in this book, that I saw a bronze statue of Remus and Romulus, who founded the Roman empire on the banks of the river Tiber. I then read their story. How their wicked uncle abandoned them in the forest and how they were reared by a She-wolf, until the parents found them and made them the rightful heirs of the kingdom that was to become one of the largest empires in the world.
All this came to my mind at that point of time, and somehow, I seemed to be in that old Bangalore. In that old Bangalore, where the weather was always cool. Where as kids we used to roam around freely. Where it did not take more than 20 minutes to reach M.G Road from my house. Where the temperature never exceeded 29 degree celcious. Where Malleshwaram was known for it's temples and not malls. But now gone are those days. That Bangalore is gone forever. That garden city is gone forever.
I came back to reality when I hit the traffic near dairy circle and the bright rays of the sun also penetrated through the dark clouds. It seemed as though the rays of the sun and the traffic brought me back to the present. It was as though I was in the heat of the battle at Kurukshetra. If you read the Mahabharata in depth, we are all fighting our own battles and we are all living in Kurukshetra. Some of us are forced into it because of Greed like Duryodhana. Some like Amba/Shikandin come here seeking revenge. But the best are those who come here like Arjuna surrendering themselves to the almighty Lord Krishna and doing their duty.
