to-do lists the day before the long weekend after mid sem:
1.Finish assignments
2.Write lab reports
3.figure out transport phenomena
4.wash clothes
5.clean the room
the end result -high fever and in bed for all of the 5 days.Of course to do lists are always meant to be what they are-to do,so no complaints there.the end result of that viral fever was that i had to spend a lot of time in bed and often with a thermometer sticking out of my mouth.i even developed a strange affection to the Hicks Thermometer.what a poor life it must be leading,faithfully recording people’s temperature.when you have no work to do and are forced to stay in bed such thoughts crop up,after-all there is a limit to the maximum number of hours a person can sleep even with fever.i could have gone on and written a poem on that instrument after those fruitful ruminations,instead chose not to partly because i couldn’t think past farenheit101.
I have always realised that when you are sick you want to be next to people whom you love or if that’s not possible as in a hostel ,I tend to read books which I must have anyways read a hundred times .In my case that means the Mahabharata.I have always wondered about Karna -praised so much yet the epic versions I have read have never substantiated the proposed valor.That might be due to two reasons,one that Karna’s stories of prowess had been marginalised over the years as the ballads were passed down or as the epic suggests he was indeed the perennial underachiever.I have never harbored a soft corner for Karna as so many people do partly because of the taunt at Draupadi in the chapter of the vastra -abharana and also because I have always felt that his philosophy was flawed.It sometimes takes great courage to stand up to your friends than your enemies as Dumbledore puts it in Harry Potter and Karna clearly lacked that.Yet Karna was great in so many other ways-an altruist,always a radheya,unflinching loyalty,selfless and in every sense of the word a martyr.He was one of those heroes who are so often doomed from birth yet remembered over the ages.Abandoned by the mother when born,prince by birth yet eternally the charioteer’s son,cursed by the teacher,deprived of all the prestige and honors that he so richly deserved,his suicidal generosity towards indra,humiliated by draupadi and perennially put down by salya, Karna indeed fell as the greatest of all tragic heroes in the epic.if not for his valor Karna shall forever be remembered for such a cruel comeuppance that he so didn’t deserve-his is undoubtedly the most cruel tale in the great epic poignant with irony.its funny that it must take a viral fever for me to realise this!
jakra Said:
on October 26, 2007 at 12:18 am
i coudnt help laughing when u quoted dumbledore in mahabharata context..
makes your quote all the more funny in light of the new “revelations”..
karna Said:
on February 25, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Karna was a warrior without an equal i.e. he was “peerless” as said by Lord Krishna Himself.. Here is an incident that happened during the fight during the fight between Arjuna and Karna.. Arjuna’s chariot was hit by Karna’s arrows and was displaced a few meters backwards from the impact of the arrows. At that time Lord Krishna, who was driving Arjuna’s chartiot, praised Karna for his feat. Arjuna, whose arrows had displaced Karna’s chariot by several hundred meters, was shocked at Krishna’s praise for Karna and questioned him. Krishna said “Arjuna, I myself who own the whole weight of the entire Universe am sitting on your chariot and your chariot is covered by the blessing of Lord Hanuman. Without these two factors, Karna’s arrows would have hurled your chariot off the Earth.”
Even without his divine armour and with the load of curses on him, Karna was truly the greatest warrior to have walked this earth.
karna Said:
on February 25, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Karna is the very embodiment of sacrifice.
Sacrifice is a synonym for Karna.
In the entire world you cannot find one other man equal in the spirit of sacrifice to Karna.
In weal or woe, truimph or defeat he could not forget the quality of sacrifice. Here is one such incident
Darkness had enveloped the battlefield. Krishna was proceeding towards Karna with Arjuna (to prove to Arjuna that Karna is the supreme DAANI). In His sweet voice, Krishna was exclaiming,
“Karna! Karna!” Karna was gasping for breath in
his last moments. He cried, “Who is calling me? I am
here.” Following the direction from which the words
came, Krishna went near Karna.
Before approaching Karna, Krishna assumed the form of an
indigent Brahmin. Karna asked him, “Who are you, sir?”
Karna was nearing his last breath. Even at that moment,
without any hesitation or faltering in his voice, he put
that question to the stranger. Krishna (as the poor
Brahmin) replied, “For a long time I have been hearing
about your reputation as a charitable person. You have
acquired the title, ‘Daana Karna’ (Karna the great
giver). Today, not knowing about your plight, I came to
ask you for a gift. You must give me a donation.”
“Certainly, I shall give you whatever you want,” replied
Karna. “I have to perform the marriage of my son. I want
a small quantity of gold,” said Krishna. “Oh what a
pity! Please go to my wife, she will give you as much
gold as you need”, said Karna. The Brahmin broke into a
laughter. He said, “For the sake of a little gold have I
to go all the way to Hastinapura? If you say, you are
not in a position to give me what I ask, I shall leave
you.”
Karna declared, “As long as breath remains in me,
I will not say ‘no’ to anyone.” Karna opened his mouth,
showed the gold fillings for his teeth and said, “I
shall give this to you. You can take them.” Assuming a
tone of revulsion, Krishna said, “What is it you
suggest? Do you expect me to break your teeth and take
the gold from them? How can I do such a wicked deed? I
am a Brahmin.”
Immediately, Karna picked up a stone nearby, knocked out
his teeth and offered them to the Brahmin. Krishna in
his guise as Brahmin wanted to test Karna further.
“What? Are you giving me as gift teeth dripping with
blood? I cannot accept this. I am leaving”, he said.
Karna pleaded, “Swami, please wait for a moment.” Even
while he was unable to move, Karna took out an arrow and
aimed it at the sky. Immediately rain dropped from the
clouds. Cleaning the teeth with the rain water, Karna
offered the teeth with both his hands.
Pleased with his supreme sacrifice,Krishna grants Karna
the vision of himself seated on Garuda, accompanied by
his wives Radha and Rukmini. The Lord promises Karna to
grant him whatever boon he wishes.
Karna says that, although he could ask Krishna to give victory to Duryodhana and bring his armies back to life, he does not want to do so.
He then requests two things: firstly,
that as soon as he dies, his mother Kunti shall be
informed. She will rush to the battlefield and proclaim
publicly that Karna is her son and that he is not of low
caste.
Secondly, in order to reach Krishna’s feet (that
is, the liberation of his soul from the cycle of births)
Karna wants to fulfil the good deed of feeding others
(annadanam). This is the only danam he has not been able
to carry out in this life, because nobody wanted to eat
in the house of a person of low caste.
He asks Krishna to give him in his next births the means to be liberal and the opportunity to carry out annadanam. A moved Krishna grants Karna these favours and tells him that in his next life he will be reborn as Siruttontar Nayanar,
famous for offering his own son as food to Lord Siva,
after which he will attain moksham.
Sonal Mesat Said:
on May 22, 2008 at 4:53 am
Bravo! Karna.
Thanks
madhu srinivas Said:
on June 15, 2008 at 6:45 am
i don’t know which mahabharatha and ramayana you have read, but i suggest that you do read rajaji’s abridged translation of the epics.
unlike in most popular versions, he doesnt portray the ‘villains’ as outright thugs, who need to bo castigated but more as people who need to be pitied and from whose life we can learn some valuable lessons..
sachin kulkarni Said:
on July 11, 2008 at 5:57 pm
If you observe the mahabharata events some people fought extremely good at only at ceratin events and some people though are good in most of the moments but in certain moments they looked equal to the other archer that doesn’t mean that other occasional winners are the best. Same case is with Karna. Many of you look out for only one incident i.e., karna’s chariot went down and Arjuna didn’t give chance to get up and fight against him though he was fighting better that day.Guys, greatness and barevry should be considered by observing his skills across the situations.If you go through the Mahabharata, there are ceratin events where Arjuna saved Karna & Duryodhana.But the problem is these things are not considered.Karna has faced bad situation it doesn’t mean that you can do hook or crook to get the things done starting from Archery to Teacher.Excluding arjuna Karna literally & consistently lost to the following Warriors:
1> Satyaki
2>Bheema
3> Abheemanyu
Those who claim that Karna a great archer what happened when only he, in fact whole so called extra-ordinary archers lost to Abheemnyu at their counter attack. The reason very amazing:
Abheemanyu who was around 14 to 16 years old warrior whose speed of 4 times faster than other old matured archers.In Mabahabharat war nobody has seen him taking up arrow from the bucket.They could only see him releasing it!! So dronacharya permitted Karna to cut the thread of the bow from the back side.
Brothers better we think about telling great to Karna without knowing the in and out of him. He shouldn’t be syphethised (skills point of view) for the situations which he has faced.
lazydazz Said:
on May 29, 2009 at 10:27 am
if arjun were truly superior to karna krishna would never have forced arjun to kill him when he was unharmed and pulling his chariot out of the mud.Even more when karna had shakti and was at the peak of his powers krishna kept arjun well away from him..karna faced the following disadvantages:
a. his master parashuram had cursed him that he would forget all that he had been taught when he needed them most
b. due to indras trechory he had lost his golden armour
c. he used up shakti i8n killing ghatatkoch
d. due to his promise to kunti he didn”t use nagastra twice
e. his raath was absorbed by the ground due to the curse from the earth godess
despite all this factors karna still was holding the slight advantage against arjun …. a fact that krishna realized and hence his famous quote 100s of arjuns would not be able to defeat karna
c