Take off with Natarajan

Never underestimate Moms!

Things were going exactly as Srinivasan had feared, his Mother would come in from India and crush his American way of life under her strong South Indian influence. For a genetic scientist like Vasu, as Srinivasan was called by his friends, the only kind of order was disorder. So consumed he was by his research that the world and it’s affairs mattered little to him. When his last girlfriend walked out on him, “Find a girl on planet Srinivasan,” she had screamed as she stomped out.

Now Vasu’s Mother had taken over the administration of the planet. It irritated him, this milk at night and chyawanprash every morning. “Have you been wearing the same pair of Jeans for the past three days?” Mother was beginning her morning interrogation.

Vasu stared at the hot idlis in front of him, the chywanprash to follow and the wardrobe interrogation that had begun. Something snapped in his mind. “Mom I love you and I love that you come all the way from India to take care of me but please don’t fuss over me! It irritates me!  And then I cannot work!”

His Mother did not really care if Vasu was upset, “The idlis are getting cold,” was her matter of fact response.

“You don’t really care, do you Mom?”

“I care about you Vasu. The work you do is alright. If you don’t do it, someone else will do it.”
“Mom, I am a genetic scientist. I am working on the evolution of man. Theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, have you heard of him? ” Vasu was exasperated with her unwillingness to understand.

His Mother sat down next to him and smiled, “I know Darwin, Vasu. I also know that what you think he discovered, was old news in India.”

“Yeah sure Mom!” Vasu said with sarcasm.

“Well if you are too smart then listen to this,” his Mother countered.” Have you heard of the Dashavatara ? The ten avataras of Vishnu ?” Vasu nodded. “Then let me tell you what you and Mr. Darwin don’t know.

The first avatara was the Matsya avatara, it means the fish. That is because life began in the water. Is that not right ?” Vasu began to listen with a little more attention..

“Then came the Kurma avatara, which means the tortoise, because life moved from the water to the land. The amphibian. So the Tortoise denoted the evolution from sea to land.

Third was the Varaha avatara, the wild boar, which meant wild animals with not much intellect, you call them the Dinosaurs, correct ?” Vasu nodded wide eyed.

“The fourth avatara was the Narasimha avatars, half man and half animal, the evolution from wild animals to intelligent beings.

Fifth was the Vamana avatara, the midget or the dwarf, who could grow really tall. Do you know why that is so ? Because there were two kinds of humans, Homo Erectus and the Homo Sapiens and Homo Sapiens won that battle.” Vasu could see that his Mother was in full flow and he was stupefied.

“The Sixth avatara was Parshurama, the man who wielded the axe, the man who was a cave and forest dweller. Angry, and not social but the seventh avatara was Ram, the first thinking social being, who laid out the laws of society and the basis of all relationships.

The eighth avatara was Krishna, the statesman, the politician, the lover who played the game of the society and taught how to live and thrive in the social structure.

The Ninth avatara,was Balarama the man who rose from Narasimha and found man’s true nature.

And finally, my boy, will come Kalki, the man you are working on. The man who will be genetically supreme.”

The last Avatar is yet to appear, and in many versions of the mythology, the ninth incarnation is mentioned as Lord Buddha. But this is a much later addition done at a time when the concept of Dashavatara was already fully developed.

Vasu looked at his Mother speechless. “This is amazing Mom, how did you.. This makes sense !”

“Yes it does Vasu ! Now have your chyawanaprash ! ”