A
Cocktail of Pain and Pleasure
Life is a cocktail of pain and
pleasure. Sometimes we taste the sweet fruit of joy but many times it is the
bitter fruit of pain that punctuates our life. There is always a preponderance
of pain over pleasure. It is only once in a blue moon there is a silver lining
of glee in the midst of clouds.
I fully chime in with the immortal
words of Thomas Hardy, a great novelist of his time, who once wrote:
"Happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain."
Our laughter is not pure or chaste. It is alloyed with tears.
The novel "Vanvass",
originally written in Hindi by Eeshaan Mahesh, is entitled "A cocktail of
Pain and Pleasure" which is a true testimony of it. The novel is well
punctuated with a large area of 'Pain' surrounded by the orchestra of
'Pleasure'.
The very first episode deals with
Dashratha, the Crown Prince of Ayodhya and Shravan Kumar casts light upon the
basic truth of life of pain and pleasure. As hunting has been a passion for the
royal families, Dashratha is no exception to it. Once he goes out hunting. He
is imbued with the gift of shooting his arrow at the mere sound. But there have
been mistakes as no human being is perfect. So, when Dashratha hears the sound
of water being drunk, he mistakes Shravan Kumar to be a wild animal and
discharges his arrow that hits his target. But unluckily the target turns out
to be Shravan Kumar who comes to the river to take water for his aged, blind,
thirsty parents. Since the arrow is poisonous, his death is certain. Dashratha
is directed by Shravan Kumar to take water for his parents and tell them the
truth. When Dashratha does so, his blind parents give up their ghost. But before
dying, Dashratha is cursed that he will also meet the same fate. It is all a
matter of pain and suffering for Dashratha as well as for Shravan Kumar's
parents. Thus Dashratha's pleasure to be derived from hunting changes into
pain. He is filled with remorse for having committed sinful deed of
unintentional killing of not only one person but three.
Time doesn't stand still. It keeps on
moving. According to the cycle of the fate, where there is a pain, there is a
pleasure as well. A waft of joy blows Crown Prince, Dashratha, becomes a
popular and strong king of Ayodhya. Dashratha convenes the meeting of his
confidant ministers to discuss what measures should be adopted to get all the
four sons married. There is a ripple of joy everywhere. But the arrival of
Vishwamitra who comes to take Rama with him to deal with demons converts the
joyous and gay atmosphere into dismal and gloomy one. But when Vishwamitra
returns with Rama and Sita, it turns out to be a red letter day for the entire
royal family.
But who doesn't know that joy has
wings? It is not perennial but transient by nature.The unexpected arrival of
Parshurama casts clouds of sorrow and
fear. He is furious when he comes to know that Rama has dishonoured Lord Shiva
by lifting his bow and breaking it into pieces. He is fastidious; his anger
can't be pacified easily. He is the one who had once taken a vow to eliminate
Kshatriyas from the earth. But Rama is successful in pacifying him by virtue of
his sagacity and tactfulness.
Then comes the climax of sorrow and
sufferings when Dashratha leaves his mortal coil on learning from Kaikeyi that
she wants Rama to be exiled for fourteen years and Bharata to be the king of
Ayodhya in place of Rama. There is a great setback to the most-awaited
coronation of Rama. It is due to the vicious role of hunch-backed Manthara that
the atmosphere of gaiety is transformed into the ethos of gloom and disgust.
It has been rightly sat:
"Melancholy has its shrine in the Temple of Delight."
V.N.Gupta
(Translator)
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