Oh My God! Episode 9

Hi DD cum gf,

No need to be apologetic for the late fb. So long as the next episode is not posted, it is quite fine with me. Only when the next episode is posted I find it difficult to toggle between two threads.

I am happy to see you happy after reading the story. God is loving that He does not expect us to do anything for Him. But we do chant his name and do other things only because we love to do that. But if we do anything because we think that he expects us to do that, then whatever we do is sheer waste.

Thanks for the nice fb, DD.
love,
your pa cum bf

 

Dear Sudha,

To be honest I am not shocked by such strong words of opposition. In fact almost 50% of my readers are objecting to the story more or less on the grounds you have stated.

A senior writer friend used to say that no writer is obliged to justify his stand or rationalise his characters. But I would like do keep that aside for a while and try my best to answer your objections.

About French and German girls
I know what you are saying. Yes I have also seen some of them who are very faithful to their boyfriends.
But what I want to say in the story is that in general the European and the American culture does not make big fuss about one-night stands in general. For instance I saw this in the US. A policeman was celebrating his birthday. His wife had summoned the services of the best call girl in the town. I only say that for that culture having a casual physical relationship is not a big fuss.
And Sudha if you happen to read Arthur Haileys Strong Medicine you will find an interesting character in the heroine of the story. She is the CEO of a leading pharmaceutical company. She is happily married and has a happy family of four or five children.
Then she finds that a research scientist working for her company is fixated on her. The scientist is much younger to her. Yet she has a physical relationship with him once just to get rid of his obsession. Thereafter the scientist gets back to work with renewed vigour. Yes, it is only fiction. But if that is objectional a large hue and cry should have been raised against the novelist. Nothing of that sort happened.

Finally this argument. When I say Sandhya had those thoughts and feelings, I am not generalising it for all women all over the world. I am not even saying all Indian women in such circumstances would have such feeligns.
One particular woman, a very rich woman, travellling alone to London at that particular period of time, seeing that particular person Rithvick, and knowing about his behaviour, his manners etc. had those particular thoughts. Thats all.
We cant say no woman would have such kind of thoughts. If that is true then the world should have been free of affairs. Yet every page of local news whether the newspaper is printed in New York or Madurai if full of news connected with affairs.

Another problem is that when we read stories like this we lose our objectivity for a while. 200 pounds for us is a huge amount. But remember Sandhya has gone to London to sign a collaboration agreement with a Finnish company - agreeement worth thousands of crores. In the context of Sandhya's financial condition 200 pounds is just peanuts. When I go to the temple the maximum I do is drop a Rs 10 note on the plate. I saw the Poddar Family visiting Rameswaram temple. They placed a heap of five hundred rupee notes on the Aarathi plate. I can't say, "No it could not happen at all." Situations are different.

I salute the virtuous women in you, Sudha. Having known you as my sister for several years I can understand your reaction to Sandhya's behaviour.
But Sudha, as a writer I cannot confine my writings to people who are known to me. I have to travel far and wide and look for all types of characters.
I know it is impossible for you to think on those lines. But if you say that it is impossible for any woman in the world to think like that, then you are going way too far.
Sandhya did not just have a physical urge or a biological need. If you had carefully observed the story you would have found that she is gradually attracted by his manners, the way of speech, the intelligence and the skills he brought to the table. That is quite possible. I know it is impossible to attract women by blow-ups of Hrithik Roshan or Ajeeth, in the same way men are attracted by Nayantharas or Nameethas. But Women are definitely attracted by intelligent, soft-mannered and skilful males. And that is a fact proved by psychologists and more than that by hard core personal experience.
Women are emotional lot, agreed. Rithviks appeal to the emotional side as well.

She could have found a chaffeur or a lady escort. But we should remember that she did not hire the escort in the first place. She was not looking for such experience. Her collaborator had done that and she just plainly accepted that. You know when you are entering into massive collaboration agreements every move you make is quite significant. Had Sandhya refused the escort thing, then it might have hurt her collaborator.
And there is nothing wrong in having a male assistant. As many male CEOs have woman secretaries I know many women CEOs who have male PAs.
Yes, she could have travelled alone. But for people in her station time is important. She is a billionaire and in that situation she can afford and would need some kind of a guide to save on her time.

I have not made Rithvik as an ideal guy. I have made him confess that he is after all an escort, almost a male prostitute. Having moved with women of different nationalities sometimes very closely he has developed some kind of insights into Sandhya's thinking. he just shares that with her in the end. That's all.

Let me just repeat what I said earlier. I know many women who travel all alone across the globe. When I went to the US there was one girl who was travelling with her children all alone. In fact I saw her struggling with her baggage and went on to help her. Many women travel back and forth to India all alone to visit their parents, to spend their holidays. Let me make it clear during such types of travel thoughts llike what Sandhya had would not arise at all.
But Sandhya is a billionaire. She is travelling on business. A male escort is almost imposed on her. That escort turned out to be a good, soft-spoken and intelligent person. She was thrown up with him for three, four days. Sandhya is deep rooted in Indian culture and does not go as far as a physical relationship. But it cannot be denied that she was attracted to the handsome man who was with her for a few days. And this story captures her thought-processes during that time.
Well, we cant say such thoughts would not come to women at all. Not to any woman in the world. That would be a lie.
I would say Sandhya is a very moral, a very upright person. Rishi is lucky to have somebody like her as his wife.
But to say even such thoughts should not come in a woman.. well to me that is asking too much and taking things way too far.

Thanks for the lively discussion, Sudha.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Sudha,

I am so much relieved by your fb that I have decided to prioritize it for an immediate response.

I had so many arguments flooding up in my mind that to bring them forth fully and properly dressed up was one hell of a job.

Now I have not spoken about Sandhya having a go with the escort guy. I tried my best to explain the thought processes of that girl. Let me repeat if I were Rishi and even if Sandhya were to be very open about my thoughts I would have accepted without a word.

People always think that it is the curse of the modern days that women fall into such sinful thoughts. But you know that things like that existed even in pre-historic days.

Jamadakni's wife Renuka, a loving, orthodox, dutiful wife went to the river to fetch water for the household. Her purity was so much that she could make an instant-pot with the river sand.

But on that fateful day she saw the shadow of a Gandharva passing through. It was for a fraction of the second that she lost her mind and was absorbed in that beauty. That was a problem only because her husband being a Rishi could divine her thoughts and then commanded his sons to kill their mother. It was his son Parasuraman who killed his mother and later prayed to his father that his mother should be revived. Let the story be there for a while.

Even assuming that this was just a puranic myth, we should see that a woman having such thoughts was considered possible those days and that was the reason people had that myth.

I will tell you how difficult my job was in presenting my case. In this tricky situations the listeners head and the heart will be side by side. As a person having a different thought I am entitled to hit at the head of the listener with as much force as I can. But in that process I should not hurt the heart which is very close by. Even after the hitting process was over there was a vague doubt whether I hit the head or the heart.

Your beautiful reply assures me that the heart was unhurt in the process.

I can heave a huge sigh of relief and go working on OMG 10

love,
sridhar

 

Hello Shrika,

I have been waiting for aeons that somebody was going to raise this question. Nobody did except you. How could Maya love God so unconditionally, so selflessly after all her sufferings? After being raped by her father, being forced into prostitution and after being inflicted with aids, is it possible to have that kind of love?

Again, Shrika, it's God's love. We can't even love God without His love. We cannot explain God's love or Grace. It is not caused by our effort, not even by our love or by anything. It just happens and it has happened in Malya's case, Period.

At the other end you have people on whom God has showered everything - wealth, health, beauty, power and position. Yet they don't fee like loving God. That again is because God decided not to make them love Him.

Even loving Him cannot happen without his love.
Thanks for the fb, Shrika. Eagerly looking forward to see you in Boat House.. I am sorry.. that's a give-away clue.. anyway you have it because you raised the question that was the foremost in my mind.

See you on 29th May. Stay tuned.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Deepa,
thanks a lot for your kind words. At times education has the effect of spoiling the real wisdom that is hidden deep inside our being. Malyas are there to remind us of our inherent, God-given wisdom, whose most potent manifestation is unconditional universal love.

It's okay about the short story. I will try posting the story in English. Probably as a separate thread. May be a little later.
thanks for the fb, Deepa. Please be there on 29th for another special episode, this time coming with an even more special epilogue.

love,
sridhar

 

Dear Aruna,
Thanks for the nice comments.
How can a father rape his own child? A question that always haunts our minds. But studies on child sexual abuse show that most of the times the agressor is someone close to the child, like her father or uncle.

A few months back there was a news item. A rich man wanted to become richer. And consulted his astrologer. The astrologer gave a wonderful advice. That if he had sexual relationship with his own daughter then he could become rich. And that idiot, that personification of unadulterated evil, started raping his daughter regularly. I have written about that in the epilogue to the first part of OMG.

About sin and punishment... let me draw your attention to the epilogue to OMG 10 to be posted tomorrow.

love,
sridhar

 

Dear Andal,
thanks for your response. I was afraid whether I went overboard in defending my story. Your calm reply belied all my fears.

There is just one more point, Andal. Whatever my characters say are is not my opinion. Rithvick, a male-escort, almost a male prostitute has opined that it is okay to have an one-night stand and forget all about it. Sridharji or for that matter Sundarji is not for it. These two gentlemen do not go with Rithvick in this.

That's why I have clearly stated that in spite of her thoughts Sandhya is an upright girl.
And somebody called from Chennai to tell me that if she has committed sin in her mind, what's the big deal if her body is pure. That's bull ****. We want to kill many people - the nagging mil, the errant bus driver, the irritating boss and the troublesome neighbour. But we don't carryo out our thoughts. Because our thoughts are not so intense. But one in a million do carry out their thoughts. Well, their thoughts are a million times more intense than us.
So I stick to my original argument that Sandhya is a good girl inspite of what went on in her mind. If we don't buy this argument then anybody who sees a movie would be a bad guy or a bad girl.

love,
sridhar

 

Dear Malathi,
As a writer I can't be confined to one type or one genre for long. When I want something in a mass medium like Ananda Vikatan I have to write a story like that.
Well, my writing is not for money. The remuneration I get will not even cover the cost of paper used to print the stories or the courier charges I pay.
In spite of my bold stories I stay well within the perimeter of my Mission Statement: a) To infuse love in the minds of people and b) to advance understanding of the human mind.
OMG, ALS and LA were in relation to a) above. AV story is in relation to b) above.
love,
sridhar

 

Priye,
thanks. Your support for the story (almost solitary) gave me great strength to defend the story.
Each one of us is peculiar. If a person thinks that he is not peculiar but like everybody else, well that's the greatest peculiarity.
I take pride in my being branded as a "sarasari manushan" ; I of course object the word "thaane.."
Many times in my life I have failed to draw inferences; but very rarely I jump to conclusions. Especially in matters like the one under discussion.
love,
sridhar