Panchavati is the word that brought back memories of the days when I ran around in two pig tails and pink frocks and the days when my grandmother used to seat me in her lap and tell me stories of Indian mythology .
This weekend ,Me and my folks had gone down to Shirdi .The typical Indian family that we are , We had to pack in as much as possible within two days of tripping.So we decided to visit the nearby Naasik and Panchavati .
After a tiring three hours squeezing yourself in unforeseeable shapes inside a car ,in the middle of blazing summer ,We reached Panchavati .It was a serious anti-climax .
From What I remember from the days of yore ,Panchavati was the place where Sita asks Rama to hunt down a golden deer who was in fact the demon Mareecha out to lure away Rama .(In today's parlance Red herring..Waah!!!Kya strategy hai !!!) .Rama had been gone for quite some time when Sita being the typical, worrying, sincere, quintessential Indian bahu asked the maha honhaar loyal brother in law to locate her husband in the middle of no where .Alas!!!!!How could Laxman leave the lady of the house unattended in a thick dark forest with demons and animals.So he maaroes a line ,famously known as Laxman Rekha and ordered Sita not to cross it no matter What!!!(When mere Arthropods {read Cockroaches} don't adhere to Laxman Rekha,I still can't believe he expected Sita to ...) .Ravana the super villain of this particular story comes disguised as a beggar and abducts Sita to Lanka amidst her screams of Bachhhhaaaaaao!!!!!Main Lutttt Gayyyiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!barbaaaaaaaaddddddddd Hooooooooo gayiiiii!!!! Though I think,Sita secretly wanted to be carried away by Ravana as she chose to drop off all her heavy duty queenie gold ornaments to make Ravanas flying machine lighter ,hence easier to soar away into the sunset .
This is the story of Panchavati or rather Sthala Puran of the place. So ,Before I landed there.I expected a forest or in the least a garden named Panchavati in the banks of the river Godavari .
In reality ,The place is commercialized like almost every other tourist destination and the worst being two obnoxious memorial structures rite amongst those ancient temples and traditions .These two obnoxious structures are memorial structures of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi .
Personally I think its just wrong to desecrate someone else's sense of identity. I really truly doubt if any government would have granted permission to build a memorial structure in between the Jama Masjid or Taj Mahal or the Peter's Basilica . I don't think the people belonging to that religion would have taken it lying down .
Are We too passive as a religion????
