Bhawana Somaaya

It is the morning of Govinda. As I listen to the familiar songs on the radio with my morning cup of tea a friend sends me a text message that I have been mentioned in Amitabh Bachchan blog. I check out the site and reproduce his reference to the Krishna book in Day 480:

Krishna Janamashtami !

The celebration for the day Lord Krishna was born. An auspicious day for us and one that is always spent in recreating Krishna’s life and singing the joy of his presence and birth.

It is perhaps beyond coincidence that just a few days ago, Bhawana Somaaya, journalist and friend of several years, enquires about a book she had sent me to read as a draft. She has done this often during the making of some of her other book releases as well. She has felt, somewhat presumptuously, that I have sufficient qualification to give an opinion on its content. If only she knew!!

The book has a predominance of the color blue in its folder, perhaps in keeping with Krishna’s own skin color and it smells good. There is something about a new book that instantly attracts you and invariably it is the smell coming from its freshly printed pages. Krishna, is all that and a little more. The impression on the cover page shows just the feet and toes of the Lord, almost stepping away from a footprint carelessly, by its side. There are some red flowers, a green leaf in offering over the feet and by the edge, a gentle glimpse of peacock feathers – perhaps dislodged from its position of eminence from the golden crown that has always adorned Krishna’s head. I turn the book around to the back. This is where invariably a paragraph from the book is displayed to attract the reader to it. This is what it reads ~

The Translator’s Note wishes to discover the presence of the four extraordinary women in Krishna’s life, of the charismatic individual, of wholesome relationship coming with requisite baggage of pathos and pain, of love bringing enrichment and enlightenment, of how the involvement of our dear ones adds hues to our life and concluding, that it includes both the Supreme Entity and us ordinary mortals.

Amitabh Bachchan

Courtesy: AB’s Blog bigb.bigadda.com

Today is Janamashtami and as offering to the deity I reproduce the concept note and some excerpts from Krishna -The the God Who Lived as Man published by Pustak Mahal. Originally written as Krishnaayan by Kaajal Oza-Vaidya it is my first attempt in fiction and translation.

After the torturous Yadava yatra to Somnath where Krishna witnesses the devastation of his entire lineage, he arrives with a bleeding foot to Prabhas Kshetra. It is here resting beneath a peepal tree before the river Trivenisangam that Krishna reflects on the four most important relationships in his life — his wives (Rukmini and Satyabhama), beloved (Radha) and friend (Draupadi). Four contrasting personalities but bonded in a magnificent obsession, Krishna. Borrowing from the fable but original in structure and content, the book is fictional and a chronicle of man-woman equations. It is not the love story of Krishna or any one God. It is the story of every charismatic individual in contemporary times that dared to love many and was in return clamoured by several. It is the story of any arresting and sensitive person, intensely involved with his life.

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The excerpts:

It was as if the river was overflowing with peacock feathers. They grew in heaps and added in numbers. Its texture and its innumerable colours drew unusual patterns in Krishna’s mind and the patterns entwined innumerable motifs from innumerable relationships…

Krishna who never knew leisure in his lifetime, today waited for time to take him across. And time deliberately moved slowly as if testing Krishna’s patience.

Krishna lingered on the heaps of peacock feathers. He wondered how many colours were imbibed in the feather… three… four… five… or were they innumerable…?

Colours of passion… of deprivation… of anxiety… of longing… of separation… of affection… of indecision…. of acceptance… of compassion… of surrender… of faith… of retreat… and of resignation…. It was as if all the colours had intermingled…. They conjured and erased different images in his mind….

So much can unfold before closed eyes… and so much was unfolding!

Krishna rolled his tongue over his dry mouth and was surprised to taste it salty. In a way unknown to him, his lips had drenched in his own tears.

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Resting beneath the tree with his eyes closed it was as if Krishna was travelling the streets of Gokul… visiting the palace of Indraprasth.

Draupadi’s sparkling and questioning eyes stared at him from the sunlight in the sky… and asked, “Who are you thinking about at this moment, sakha?”

A little later, Rukmini’s faithful eyes, full of love but drenched in sorrow floated on the waves and trickled beneath Krishna’s feet as if stroking him to gently ask, “Are you too much in pain, my Lord?”

A while later Satyabhama’s dark, seductive eyes full of desire as if caressing every fibre of his body but full of pain and complain seemed to ask, “Why did you betray me, Prabhu?”

Radha’s limpid eyes as deep as the water in river Yamuna and as restless as a fish were covered with dark clouds of anxiety, anger and fear…. They bent over Krishna’s face like a peepal branch swaying in the breeze and asked, “Kaanha, you lied to me, didn’t you? You deceived me and didn’t come back after all…?”

The four images seemed to intermingle before Krishna’s eyes…. He tried hard to separate them but it was like separating the rivers entwined into Trivenisangam…. He tried though but like rivers Hiranya, Kapila and Saraswati, the images of Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama and Draupadi blended and floated before Krishna’s eyes turning them moist from time to time…. Krishna made one more effort but it was futile…. He opened his eyes.

It was mid afternoon. The changing tides in the river and the scorching sunlight fluctuated like a flickering flame…. The peepal leaves fluttered in the cold breeze of the sea…. Krishna closed his eyes and waited in anticipation for that one voice…

A voice that would wake him up from this trance…. He was reminded of his own words again…

Sarganmandir Tashva Madhya Chaiyahmarjunah|
Adhyatmavidha Vidhana Vaadah Pravadtamahamah||

Akshranmakarodism Dwandvasamaskiya Cha|
Ahmevakshyah Kalo Dhataha Vishwatomukhah||

Dandah Damyatamasmi Nitirasim Jigishatomah|
Maunanchaivasmi Grihanagyanan Gyanavtamahomah||

Courtesy: www.bhawanasomaaya.com/003-books-authored.html
www.pustakmahal.com