Modern Naradas

             I have read in some magazines that Devarishi Narada, a Chiranjeevi, was cursed once by Lord Brahma that he could not spent more than one a half hour continuously at a place as he had disrupted Brahma's creative process once.

            A few days before, I had a chance to meet the Devarishi at a Kalyana Mandapam in Mylapore. He was there to attend a marriage. I introduced myself to him and he requested me not to disclose his identity to anybody else there.

            A doubt arose in my mind that why he has come over there. He could not be an invitee to the function. Maybe, he might have planned to create some chaos at the function within his allowed one and a half hour's stay there, as was his practice.I thought it was wise to wait and see the happenings.

            An hour lapsed without any hitch and Narada remained quiet chanting Narayana Mantras within himself. I took a deep breathe of relief that nothing untoward happened till then and only half an hour remained for Narada to quit the place, within which nothing could take place and I sincerely wished that nothing could happen marring the marriage ceremonies.

            Then, I started hearing some quarrels from the Bridegroom's room in the Mandapam. The groom's mother had picked up a quarrel with the Bride's father over the purity of the gold ornaments which the bride was adoring. She wanted to check whether the ornaments were of pure gold to which the Bride's father refused, as he is an honest man and didn't want to cheat anybody. Other relatives of the Bride and the groom joined the quarrel and utter chaos prevailed over there and the marriage function ended abruptly.

          From all the happenings there, I read out that the Devarishi has played his part well there also. I searched for him in the Mandapam and could not trace him. I could make out that one and a half hour has already lapsed since I met him and he might have left the scene as per the curse.

          The story goes like this. Narada approached the bridegroom's mother in the guise of a relative to the bride and advised her to check the purity of the gold ornaments the bride was wearing, since the bride's father has cheated his elder daughter's in-laws by giving them gold covered jewelry. The in-laws came to know about it only after a long time and since then his elder daughter was staying with him only. But the truth was that the elder daughter's in-laws used to harass her and had taken all the jewels from her. When she could not tolerate their deeds, she returned to her father.

       Whatever be the true story, Devarishi Narada of the modern age played his part well and disappeared, leaving others to fight each other.

     He has chosen the right person(Bridegroom's mother) and the right property (gold) to enact that drama. May his tribe decrease.

Time to tie the knot??

"Mahi!Get up! It is already 7 O'clock", shouted his mother. Mahi tried to get up from his bed. But his body was not responding to his commands. Even after some 7 hrs of sleep, he  felt tired. The last two days were pretty hectic for him.It was his sister's marriage the previous day. He somehow got up from his bed and went to have his cup of bed coffee. "Amma!Why did you wake me up this early? I'm still feeling tired". "Uncle and aunt would be leaving by the 8 O'clock express. They wanted to say bye to you" told his mom. Just then, his uncle and aunt came down with their luggage. "Hey Mahi! See you then! Come to our home sometime", said his uncle. "Anyways, Mahi's line is clear now. It is his turn next. Endha Mahi?? :P", his aunt added. "Whaaat? ", Mahi didn't know how to react. "My turn a?", he didn't know what to tell. "I don't have any such plans for the next 3 years, aunty!", he told. "Hmmm. Hmmm. All guys say the same. Lets see!",concluded his aunt. He glanced at his mom who gestured him to not tell anything.

The same scene and dialogue repeated with many other relatives while leaving Mahi's home in the next day and two.He was getting tired of all those. One of his cousins even went to the extent of proposing few muhurtham dates for Mahi's marriage in her holidays and ordered him to get married only then. "Enna paasam?" He was tired of answering the same query on his nuptials. He then decided to come up with just a plastic smile if someone had brought the topic about he getting married , tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Even then he had no respite. "See! How the talk of marriage is causing his face to glow " told one relative. "Ada Raama!"

After a couple of days, when he himself was leaving for his workplace, his neighbors asked the same query as to how soon they would be getting a chance to dine in his marriage party. Mahi, fed up of this, gave a detailed vision plan of his life, as to how he first wants to try out teaching, then establish himself as an entrepreneur in his favorite field and then possibly think about marriage which would take a minimum of 3-5 years. Hearing this, his neighbor friends were reacting strangely. It looked as if they were asking him "3-5 years??PK hai kya??" 

He was back at work the next day with a huge bag of marriage sweets, which he knew was never going to be enough for his folks. Few of his team members came and just surveyed the variety of sweets he had brought . Each took a handful and when they were about to leave his desk, there came a voice "Boss! So, when are you going to tie the knot? Route clear thane?" "Gosh! I will keep you posted if there are any updates", he responded in an irritated tone. "Fine Thanks Mahi! Pls feel free to reach out to us for any help ", told his colleague with a mischievous smile. Just then one of his lady colleagues intervened "Don't make fun of Mahi! He might be feeling low recently. Give him time to move on". Yes. He was bit sad after his sister left for her in-law's home after her marriage. "See! He is still thinking of that marriage. Leave it. She would have forgotten you by now", the lady continued. Mahi felt something wrong and asked" About whom are you talking?". "Who else? The same girl whom you had in mind while writing all those romantic short stories, the same girl who is getting married today. Your friend has told me everything". "Ayyo! Just understand that those stories were not based on anyone, which means there is/was no 'She' as you people think", he replied angrily.

Mahi didn't get such queries after that outburst . He fell ill after a few days. It all started with food poisoning . He requested his boss for a few days' leave to go home and recover. His boss consented and then asked, "Get married Mahi so that you can have harmless home made food everyday and avoid such health issues". "Et tu Brute!", Mahi thought.

He was travelling to his home town that night . The voice of his boss telling "Get Married, Mahi!" was reverberating inside his head. All those taunts by his relatives, neighbours and friends to get married for whatever reason ranging from good food to holidays were going through his mind. He started getting the doubt whether people are marrying just because they have no other work or they talk/write romantic or they have got a job or have no job or they are susceptible to fall in love or they have just failed in love or the most important one, for good food?.  Looks like Mahi doesn't know that people asking such questions and confused are more prone to the query ,"Isn't it time for you to tie the knot yet?" God save Mahi!!