SquareShooter

I got a lesson in how not to tell stories to our children about our past, about our puranas, itihasas and our festivals recently. My cousin who grew up in Kerala, went to school there apparently commented that what a state it is to celebrate a fall guy. How insensitive, arrogant it is I thought when I heard his mother say this, and immediately told her, don’t we celebrate Narakasura on Diwali. There is a problem about how we look at our festivals, and how we narrate our puranas and itihasas to our children. For long I have been irked by, should I say the western way of looking at every festival as “victory of good over evil”.  We have no clear good and evil, for an evil can transform to good, a saintly soul can turn a sinner. I am still angry at what my cousin had said, for his parents now live not very far from the Thirukatkarai temple, the Lord who graced Bali. When we were there last week, Onam utsavam was in full swing and we had darshan of Thirukatkappan as Nar...