VIKRAM & BETAAL

"Dark was the night and weird the atmosphere. It rained from time to time. Gusts of wind shook the nearby forest. Between thunderclaps and the moaning of jackals could be heard the eerie laughter of spirits. But King Vikramaditya swerved not. He climbed the ancient tree once again and brought the corpse down. However, as soon as he began crossing the desolate cremation ground, with the corpse lying on his shoulder, the vampire that possessed the corpse began narrating yet another story..."

The enchanting stories of Vikram and Betaal written by Mahakavi Somadev Bhatt some 2500 years ago, has an interesting beginning to it. A rustic began giving fruits to King Vikramaditya on a daily basis. The king stored the fruits, only to find one day that all those fruits had disintegrated into pearls and other riches. On questioning the rustic, the mendicant was surprised too. The beggar requested the king's help for doing something and he asked him to come to the cremation ground on the 14th night after the dark moon. Amid howls of jackals and other eerie noises, the rustic asked the king to bring the corpse lying upside down an ancient tree in the forest. The corpse was possessed, and it sprang back upto the tree every time Vikram tried to bring it down. After 7 times, the betaal (vampire) clung itself to the king's back and started narrating a story.

The king had to answer the question posed by the betaal at the end of the story or else his head would be blown into smithereens! The wise king answered correctly, only to realise that the betaal had once again perched itself back on top of the tree. He brought it down, and it narrated another story... and this continued 24 times, and 24 times the betaal went back up the tree! On the 25th time however, the king was unable to answer... the betaal did not blow his head, but warned about the rustic who is waiting for the king to return- for he had plans to kill the king and take over the kingdom with his magic, for which he needs a corpse. The forewarned king escaped the bid on his life and got rid of the rustic.

He wanted the stories narrated by the betaal to get passed on to future generations for the truth and wisdom in them. Hence came the vikram and betaal series!

Vikram-Betaal stories were made hugely popular from the late 40s by a book called CHANDAMAMA. It was founded by Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani, both with great nationalistic feelings during the British Raj. They founded the book in telugu and in tamil (Ambulimama), kindling in young minds of Bharat, feelings of nationalism by telling them stories culled from India's legends, mythology, history and folklore. And the opening lines of every Vikram- Betaal story in Chandamama (many stories are fabricated of course, but still instilling wisdom and showing the right path), begins with "dark was the night and wierd the atmosphere..."

Chandamama has since come out in various languages like English, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi (Chandoba), Malayalam (Ambili Ammavan), Gujarathi, Oriya, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Sindhi and even Sanskrit. Now over 60 years old, it is still being published with the same refreshing quality of stories which had made it so popular all those years back.

And still, the betaal manages to give Vikram the slip!

VERTIGO, ANYONE ?

Recently, 100 new words were added to the dictionary. Among them, GINORMOUS, BOLLYWOOD and SUDOKU. Now it is official- bollywood is no more a fancy term used by starry-eyed desi movie buffs. Sudoku is the popular number game, seen in many newspapers and magazines. Ginormous (what?) is gigantic + enormous. Well, never heard that before but the best example of GINORMOUS would be something that is catastrophically large in its kind. Just another adjective added to better explain how "big" something is...

Talking of which, take a look at this picture of a roller coaster at Cedar Point theme part in Ohio, USA. Top thrill dragster, is the tallest (420 ft) and the fastest (0-120 mph in 4 seconds) roller coaster in the world. The train zooms up at a blazing speed up the sky, twisting and turning. After reaching stratospherical heights, it arches and hurtles down, twisting and turning at the same blistering speed.

The pictures of course, do not do justice to the "ginormic" (another new word?) proportions of fear, thrill and excitement and vertigo this would cause. Americans have a preoccupation for anything that is out of the ordinary, huge, superlative, and of course, insane. Who ever thought of this idea surely had the word "GINORMOUS" in his mind.

STAR WORSHIP

Apparently, Americans are not used to idolizing a superstar, star worship and other rituals that have become synonymous with Rajini movies. (North Indians, you too can know this fact). There are temples erected for film stars, so many gallons of milk are poured over astronomical cut-out of film stars, flowers are strewn, pumpkins and coconuts are broken, garlands are offered, aarthi is lighted in movie theaters.... and of course the regulars like throwing paper shreds, popcorn, whistle, dance etc. are unnecessary to point out. Like thousands others, I too have watched Rajini's latest hit SIVAJI. That it has broken all records in India and all over the world is quite well known- so I present to you a piece of paper which was given to every movie-goer here in the US.

This piece of paper was given to me and to everyone else who watched SIVAJI in Columbus, OH. Needless to say, I was quite amused to see the "instructions" for watching the movie. You could imagine how queer others (people not used to Rajini movie fanfare) might have felt on reading these instructions! The theater was jam packed and most of the people there were tamilians, but still there were a sizeable number of caucasian and other ethnic groups just curious to have a glimpse of the superstar. The instructions seems so queer, exotic and so out of the world for a movie goer in the west.

Click the picture for a better resolution. And yeah... "Do not light karpooram", in BOLD!