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Best of AnthoBLOGy • Unripe Revolution • Rooster's Dharma • Don't Know Jack • No Love for Condi • Blogger's Block • Father of the Bride • TinTin's Diary - I • TinTin's Diary II • Hate Bollywood • Child Labor • M.F.Husain Guilty •Marathi & Konkani • Artist's Daughter • India's First IT Guru

Computing, Libraries, Tennis, India & other interests of Vikas Kamat

Regurgitated Thoughts

Whom Did Draupadi Really Love? Draupadi by Nandalal Bose Draupadi, as you might know had five husbands, and I ran into this thoughtful question while reading about "Yuganta" by Irawati Karve. I would have guessed that Arjuna was her favorite husband, having won her over. Or is it Bhima who saved her from Dushasana and Kichaka? He was strong and mascular too. But remember? Bhima had an affair with Hidimba. Bhima had an another wife Hidimba. Or is the one of the twins? I've heard that women always nurture a non-obvious, secret lover in their hearts... No, No, it has to be Dharmaraya -- only he was faithful to her. Dr. Karve creates an incident to illustrate the scene. On way to heaven (Mahaprastha) with husbands, Draupadi is the first to collapse. Instead of helping her, Yudhishtira moves ahead saying "She had been very partial to Arjuna and loved him the most". By the time Bhima comes looking for her, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva have all died, and Draupadi, shocked by Dharmaraya's comments is still alive. Bhima then asks her what he could do for her, and a very beautiful moment follows. I am not going to spoil it for you, but the incident provides a lot of fodder to ponder. Some notes after browsing through Thursday's links I liked the purpose of Asita's Article. It is quite true that the girls in India are not raised to be leaders. However I feel the article is lopsided only in favor of financial independence for women, and doesn't quite address the question raised rather ambitiously in the title. What about emotional independence? spiritual independence? intellectual independence ? In my experience even financially independent women lack these skills and it becomes a barrier to their "true independence and fulfilment". Of course, if one defines success as to mean financial success, I have no case. But is it? In the other link, Dean Blaise Cronin is coming down very hard on Bloggers. I cannot say that he is not right, after all most of the blogs are indeed "Bathetically Ludicrous Online Gibberish"!. I agree with most of his analysis, yet Cronin doesn't it. Blogs or whatever you call them -- basically self-published websites (like Kamat's Potpourri) is a new phenomenon, equivalent of which was never available before. Then in the last sentence, he pisses me off -- "Librarians, of course, know better." Dear Professor, the hard link between scholarship and publication has been broken. Get used to it. Also, the librarians are in the business of managing publications, not in the business of managing scholarship, in case you've forgotten. (Comments Disabled for Now. Sorry!) First Written: Saturday, April 30, 2005 Last Modified: 5/3/2005 9:47:15 AM

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