Tides of Thoughts

Abhinav was a smart boy. He was in senior kindergarten . He loves to learn in school. One day, the teacher taught road rules . She had shown him the traffic signal . She talked about wearing a helmet. She told them to walk on the left side. Abhinav listened carefully. After school, his father came. Father made Abhinav wear a helmet. Abhinav was excited and said, “My teacher taught me this!”  They started driving home. Suddenly Abhinav asked, “Papa, why are we on the right side?” Father said, “We can go faster this way.” Abhinav was confused, but he kept quiet. At the signal, the light turned red. Father stopped for a moment, then he drove forward again, though the signal was still red. Abhinav said, “Papa, the signal is still red. We must wait for green.” Father said, “No cars are coming. It is okay.” Abhinav still felt worried. At the next road, people crossed randomly from every side. There was no zebra crossing . Abhinav asked, “Papa, why are people crossing everywhere? ...

Guha, a character that needs no introduction to people who have watched or read something about Ramayana. Many of us remember this character as someone who helped Rama cross a river. But how many of us remember or correctly know which river Rama crossed with the help of Guha? I asked the same question on different social media platforms with the following options: Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and Godavari.  The question received 60 votes as below: Ganga (33.9% - 20) Yamuna (14.3% - 9) Brahmaputra (3.6% - 2) Godavari (48.2% - 29) Godavari got the highest number of votes, but the correct answer is Ganga . Then how did we end up with Godavari getting the highest votes? This can be attributed to movies in regional languages and a slight mistranslation of the Valmiki Ramayana. So, what does Valmiki Ramayana have to say about Guha and his role in Ramayana? The episode of Guha begins in Ayodhyakanda, Sarga 50, with Rama reaching the banks of the Ganga. The intro of Guha goes like this: तत्...