I have changed; my flippancy flipped out of me for there is no longer any need for disguise. My heart is like a water balloon waiting to burst. Indralok is now more remote than a faded dream. I tried to maintain contact with my colleagues Rambha, Tillotama and Urvashi. No response from them, for millennia, though garbled versions of their adventures leaked through the stratosphere. I tried reaching Lord Indra thinking he must have deliberately ignored my petitions. But even He has disappeared, His powers usurped by a succession of Gods in a series of (avatars Incarnations.).

During the Mahabharata era Lord Indra’s power struggle was with Lord Krishna, though more recently it is Lord Rama who is often construed as being on the warpath. But I have different memories of Lord Rama while He was an avatar on earth. He was an exceptional God. Of course He took His duties extremely seriously, but He was mild-mannered, and a keen ecologist, as was His wife, Sita Devi. They spent no less than fourteen years in the forests. In fact, as I recall, She loved the wilderness so much that soon after Their return to Ayodhya for His Coronation She opted to return to the forests to bring up Their twins, Lav and Kush, in this environment rather than the palace with its intrigues. The Twins grew to be fine, curious adolescents. That’s when Sita Devi decided she’d done Her duty and wished for Her space; She chose to return home to Earth. Her mother, the Earth, received Her as all mothers should their daughters: Earth tore Herself open to surround Sita Devi. I remember still the fragrance that flowed from the Earth at that moment.




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