The year is 2014. The scion of the first family has been anointed as the new PM. But all is not well. BJP is clamouring, with renewed support from the people, that Rama's temple should be built and Ramrajya should be ushered in. The opposition is taking pot shots at the young PM saying he does not represent the true spirit of India and has no knowledge of Indian scriptures.The young PM decides to bone up quickly on Indian epics and starts reading Amar Chitra Katha Ramayana. (highly recommended).
When he comes to the chapter of Swayamvara, a quaint story where Rama weds Sita after breaking Shiva's bow, he is intrigued. How come Rama won the maiden's hand when he just broke a bow rather than show his mastery of it by stringing it and shooting an arrow? After all, Arjuna (another Amar Chitra Katha) actually won Draupadi's hand by shooting the fish yantra by merely seeing its reflection. And then there was one more episode where Buddha (Siddhartha then) won his bride by shooting an arrow through seven saal trees. So Rama looks a bit clumsy or what?
He quickly summons his core cabinet and asks them to explain the significance of the story. He gets many sagely answers:
- Defence Minister : Since Rama already had a powerful bow and sacred arrows bestowed by Vishwamitra, he just didn't want extra baggage. And like the US Forces rountinely destroy armament so it doesn't fall into enemy hands, Rama broke the bow.
- Culture Minister : Well, that is only partly true. The actual reason is that Ravana, being a Shiva bhakta, could always do some penance standing on one finger or such and then Shiva would have been forced to grant him the bow, which would make Ravana truly invincible. So better to break it before Ravana gets some ideas.
- Telecom Minister : We Dravidians think Rama did something hasty. The bow could have been used for advanced telecom technologies, given that it had the biggest vibration spectrum in all creation. But Rama, like Subramanya Swamy, basically destroyed a means to Indian telecom modernisation.
- Science and Technology Minister : the story is actually proof that Vedic people had a mastery of all advanced software techniques. The bow represented an encryption technique, and Rama basically broke the code, not the actual bow. That is how he became so powerful.
- Space Minister : We have to remember that all scientific experiments have some initial setbacks, like the early missiles we launched. Rama broke Shiva's bow, but the second time, when he was tested with Vishnu's bow by Parashurama, he was able to string it. That means we should get an adequate budget for the space programme.
- Russian Expert : It is a design fault in the bow. The materials testing employed was not very advanced. That is why we have significantly improved the technology in Kudankulam and our reactor is unbreakable.
- The President Dr Kalam has the final say. He says, "Rama should have read the operator manual. That shows education is important for the future generations of India."
