Aaha! Draupadi in decision crisis for the first time

© Uday Gokhale

Of course she wasn’t the first time around. But then Sanskruti Rakshaks were yet to born and the grounds were in making for roman mythological scripts which would see furious revisions.

Version 1 : Enter the third century catholic priest St. Valentine in the times of Roman emperor Claudius II. Emperor didn’t want young couples to marry. He wanna catch them young & enlist in the army. St. Valentine was all for marriages though. No wonder he was sent back to heaven on Feb 14th.

Version 2 : Enter a prisoner called Valentine who loves the Jailor's daughter (now that is the definition of GUTS !). He signs his love letter as ‘Your Valentine’. Guess the Jailor would be reborn as 21st century Sanskruti Rakshak .

Heck, rest is history alias culture. Yes I am referring to Valentine Day brouhaha in India. By design or by default, Draupadi indeed was making templates. Boy, some templates! Her one fifth husband had the monopoly of diving into decision crises every now & then. Great Lord Krishna had to come out with fancy justifications and pep talks.

Whichever version you subscribe to, Valentine Day is here to stay. Any Junior KG attempts to ‘bar’ the so called western ideas will get plenty empty attention. The notions of some things being non-existent in ‘our’ culture are naïve at best; at worst one can put Draupadi in decision crisis: Which husband to talk to in Public? Let alone ‘to friends’ of her times.

Why Draupadi, I am in decision crisis too. Which font to use: Times New Roman or Bookman Old!

Now if I say that the journalists and column writers have a larger role to play, you can’t invoke supposedly primary function of ‘reporting the events occurring North East West South’.
Such Valentine commotions are excellent occasions to address the widespread myths & memes about our ‘culture’ which comprises Draupadi , Savitri and Meerabai. The hunts for homogeneity in primordial (or contemparary) cultures will hit many blind alleys & will be lost in unlit tunnels.

So what do we do? Just sit back & ignore? Nope, we address the events on the back drop of ever spreading plethora of Memes. It is time we begun exploring Memes of our time. But then that is another subject.
So long, Your valentine :-)