The story of a cursed mother -" Kunti"

This is a very old story from Mahabharat, the famous story of Kunti and Karna. Kunti was unwed mother of Karna from the almighty god Sun(Surya). I am confused who is more cursed among this mother son duo. Is it the mother Kunti, who when pregnant with her first child, went in exile being afraid of the social stigma. Or is it the son Karna who had to survive without his mother and also his father, he never got their support when he most needed it.

I call Kunti as cursed mother, because being a Mother is an awesome feeling, a feeling that you are bearing your own child made of your blood and flesh. Every lady adores to bear this pain of bearing a child, but only a few are cursed, who have to hide this awesome feeling to the outside world. She had literally pleaded to Sun god when she tried to see if the Mantra that Rishi Durvasha gave her is actually working. When she called for Sun god, she was merely kidding with the powerful Mantra. When Sun god appeared, she again pleaded him as now she was afraid of the consequences. Sun assured her that after the birth of their child she will get back her virginity and it will not affect her future life.

She abandoned her first child Karna in a basket and let it flow with the river current in Ganges. Motherhood which is a blessing for all the married ladies, was a mere curse for her. This stands true even today in our society. Now a days, though society is changing and all the old social stigma are slowly disappearing, I believe this one will still last for quiet a more number of decades or may be will never disappear.

She witnessed her child Karna in battle field. When Karna was asked bitter questions from her own brothers, she was merely standing still and witnessing all this. She never came in front and admitted that this is her first child. She knew its her own child, but never got that courage to accept it. Even Sun god never came to protect his child.

To protect Arjuna(son of Kunti and god Indra), in the battle with Karna, Indra came down in form of an old Bhramin and asked to take the Kavach and Kundal that Karna possessed from his  mighty father Sun. Karna being large hearten donated his powerful Kavach and Kundal to Indra. However, on the other hand Sun never accepted that Karna is his son. He just warned Karna of the intentions of Indra, but he could have done something to protect his son or help him in war. He silently witnessed his son being ridiculed for being brought up by Sarathi Adirath( charioteer) and his wife Radha. He never protected his son the way Indra did. Karna was cursed to not receive any help from his actual parents.

I wonder why Sun never came in front, why he never spoke of Karna and did not accept that he is his son. In our society, father is never questioned so he could have at least saved his son from being ridiculed.

Even today, the fate of unwed mothers and unaccepted children have not changed.Unwed mothers, being however rich and affluent still do not accept that it is their own child. They might stage a drama of adopting their own child but never let the society know of the truth. And the innocent child is just a victim like Karna, even though he/she most be living with his/her actual mother would never know the truth till his/her end. Kunti revealed her identity in war and wanted Karna to change his side from Kauravs to Pandavas. Karna being too generous and humble to friend Duryodhan did not accepted this as this meant deceiving his friend. In return Kunti wanted Karna not to attack her other five sons and Karna promised not to harm anyone except Arjuna as defeating Arjuna would be enough for him to payback the gratitude of Duryodhan. I feel Kunti had so much affection for her sons but not Karna. She wanted Karna to keep his royal birth a secret but revealed her identity just to use him. Why she did not appear when Karna was contesting in a tournament. Was she selfish, or was it that she had motherly affection only for Pandavas and not for Karna. The same happens even today. Unwed mothers either abandon their child or would adopt their own child in a staged drama. They never reveal their identity. How they let that Motherly affection vanish for their child?

Mother is a very auspicious word and has an auspicious place, but what should this motherhood mean, Is not it cursed? The women who do not conceive easily, for them being a mother is next to being with god. They can do everything and anything to be able to conceive. Where as for the unwed mother, she would have at least cursed herself once for having that unplanned or unaccepted child.

The "BARFI" Way

I watched the movie BARFI three times consecutively this weekend and also forced my husband to watch it again. I had never been this crazy for a movie ever, but yes, BARFI deserves this. Many posts have been already written on movie BARFI, the learning lesson and morals from this movie. So, I am not going to make this post any similar to it.

Whenever I watch BARFI, somehow I move back in time to my childhood, when I was hardly 4 to 5 yrs old. At that time my father was posted at Paradip, the port town of Jagatsinghpur district and the largest port of Odisha. We lived in a colony, which was in a shape of square, with a square shaped field inside and the houses were in rows that made the boundary. It had four entrances at each corner.

In movie Barfi, Jhilmil is autistic and is just like a five year old. She finds happiness by watching everything upside down. She enjoys, making paper boats, birds and enjoys the chirping of birds. I had same kind of mentality when I was around five. In this Paradip port colony, I used to enjoy rainy days watching frogs jumping in rain water. Every time my school would declare a rainy day, I would just sit by the window pane and gaze at the colorful frogs jumping in the water that would accumulate in the field opposite our house. Me and my brother who was about three years old would make paper boats and float them. I remember having a water storage tank in our backyard , where we used to play with boats.

Since, this is a coastal area, we had sandy fields. We both with our friends would make sand castles and dig up water well. Those were the days when I really enjoyed running behind the red crabs near sea shore.

We enjoyed so much and never had any big wishes and wants to make us happy. Childhood is like that where we can see happiness in every small things, be it the small puppy, kitten or the chirping of birds and cuckoo. We find happiness by running behind butterfly, dragonfly and crabs to catch. We enjoy the croaking of frogs. In my village, I would love to sit at night and stare at the firefly, touching centipede and running behind the hen and chicks.

We enjoy watching all the small things near us. Yes, even today we enjoy nature. No doubt in that, but we need to go on a holiday to either hill-station or any other naturally beautiful place to admire its beauty. We no more enjoy the nature that is just in front of us.

With age we have matured and know how to behave in public, but we have forgotten to admire all the beauty that lies everywhere with each single thing that surrounds us. Some where we have lost that beautiful heart of us that used to admire and find happiness with everything that was with us, and now that piece of heart is replaced with another piece that seeks only attention, and has many wants to fulfill.

Most of us if not all, have many dreams and wants to fulfill and we postpone being happy till that want has been fulfilled. Gradually, we have stopped admiring the beauty that lies with everything and it is now replaced by fault finding attitude. We can easily make a long list of faults but will find it difficult to just get one point to admire.

With childhood, we have all lost that beautiful heart which had lots of happiness, which found lots of happiness with everything small or big.