Pearl of wisdom -Not

This blog post is about a comment Cho Ramasamy, aka Cho, made on a Tamil TV show called “Enge Brahmanan” telecast by Jaya TV weeknights. To provide the proper context I have to first introduce the reader to Cho and the TV show, Enge Brahmnan.

Cho Ramasamy is an attorney by training. His long and illustrious public career started with the comedic roles he played in a long list of Tamil movies. The comedic roles he played gave him an image of a blundering idiot. That was not going to last. Cho’s brilliance wouldn’t allow his image to be straight jacketed by the inane roles he played in the silver screen. While playing silly roles in formulaic Tamil movies, Cho was also a leading member of the vibrant Chennai stage of the day. He soon came to be admired as the best playwright writing the best political satires of his times. Among the many hits to his credit, Thuglug, a bold critic of the then PM Indira Gandhi, is considered his best. When sycophancy toward Indira Ghandhi and her family was considered the only normal mode of public discussion, the bold, honest, witty, and devil-may-care criticism Cho presented was a breath of fresh air. The public just ate it up with absolute glee. Cho later started a bi-monthly Tamil magazine, with the same name, Tuglug, and filled its pages with the same wit and withering criticism of the spineless political opportunists, exposing their shenanigans and leaving them bereft of any dignity. No one was untouchable. All of this catapulted him to the national stage in India. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the bicameral Indian parliament, by the BJP. Today he is a highly respected political commentator much loved by the right-wing and selectively reviled or at least ignored by the progressives.

Enge Brahmnan was a series of articles Cho wrote for his magazine Tuglug. In this series Cho argues for the greatness of the hoary Vedic tradition of ancient Indian society. Among his main claims is his view that Varnashrama dharma in its essence is a benign system designed for the benefit of all in society. The evils of Varnashrama dharma we witness today are more a result of corrupt understanding and practice of the system than anything systemic. This has earned him the admiration of the Brahmin community of Tamilnadu and the scorn of the rational and progressives.

Recently, a producer of a few of the ubiquitous Tamil TV serials, named Venkat, teamed up with Cho and are producing a TV serial based on the original Enge Brahmnan series that appeared in the Thuglug magazine. The TV show has a unique format. During each episode, the airing of the show is temporarily suspended at selected vital points and Cho offers his comment on a point or issue raised by one or more of the characters of the show.

A few days ago I was watching this show and heard one of Cho’s comments. This blog is about that comment. I am going to simply describe the episode and Cho’s comment. No analysis or argument is needed to see the utter ridiculousness coming from this much-admired intellectual and icon of the religious right.

In the show, a young girl is expressing her admiration towards a deeply religious and spiritual young man, towards whom she had harbored matrimonial desire. For various reasons, her desire does not materialize. Then, the parents of the girl arrange for her to be married to another man – a US based IT engineer ☺. The admiration the girl expresses was for the fact the young man did not take advantage of the girl’s momentary weakness towards him. At this point, the show gets suspended and Cho offers his comment about why the girl offers appreciation towards the boy, and what a comment that was.

Cho starts out his comment with a story from Bheeshma the grandfather's teachings , from his deathbed, to the soon to be emperor grandson Yudishra, in the course of passing on the quintessence of traditional wisdom so necessary for providing good governance. The story is about a rishi, his wife, and his sishya (pupil). The Rishi was about to go on a journey leaving his wife behind. The Rishi was worried that Indra, the king of the gods (devas) will try to seduce his wife while he was away. So, he called his sishya and commanded him to protect his wife at any cost from the philandering Indra. The rishi then left on his journey.

The sishya was weighed down by the awesome responsibility. His concern was not just about Indra’s reputation for sexual proclivities, but he was also weighed down by the natural tendency of the female of the species to give in to seduction. How is it possible to keep the rishi’s wife under constant surveillance? Even momentary lapse in his vigil may be sufficient for Indira to tempt the rishi’s wife into accepting his advances as it is well known that women do not have the will power to resist such temptations. So, the sishya decides to leave his body and enter the body of the rishi’s wife so that his vigil over her will not be interrupted even for a moment.

Then, as expected, Indira shows up all decked up and delightfully seductive. The wife of course was floored by Indira’s charm and was about to give in. Then, the sishya, who is temporarily residing in the same body, slams on the breaks and demands that Indira leaves immediately. For a moment Indira is perplexed. Why is this woman acting contrary to womanly nature? Then, due to his godly powers he realizes that it is not the woman, but the sishya who has taken over the woman’s body, who is resisting his advances. Indira now knows that he has no chance -- the sishya will protect the woman from her natural impulses. Disappointed, Indra leaves.

The rest of the story, yes – there is some more, is not relevant to this blog post. Cho’s point is that this young girl in the TV series, like the rishi’s wife, is vulnerable and could be taken advantage of just because she is a member of the female gender. Therefore, Cho claims, the girl expressing gratitude to the young boy for treating her with dignity is quite appropriate.

There is quite a lot of thoughtful wisdom Bheeshma passes on to Yudhistra from his deathbed. But, obviously, this hideous story is not among them.