Over the last week, I have been having an e-mail conversation with a college friend on the nature of faith and inspiration. It boiled down to the strength (or lack of it) of one’s faith. I am not a faithful, being inclined towards the skeptic’s ways. I call myself an agnostic, which puts me in the enviable position of being able to claim all faiths as mine and to question and dissect them as and when I want.
Why thank you Amit for giving everyone one! I would most definitely live up my superheroic ambition if I got an invisibility cloak. But reasons why it won’t work.
Firstly, I would try and make sure it is put someplace where I know it will always be. Imagine the do-gooding Invisible Man scrambling for his cloak in his cupboard because he can’t see it (but obviously) even as goons beat up an innocent outside his door.
I link to herothings again. This time, its a nice piece on Superman written by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers. It also addresses some of the questions I found when reading this thread.
He has evolved into a folk hero, a fable, and the public feels like it has a stake in who Superman really is. Schwartz quit writing Superman because his bosses were telling him to put in things that he thought were out of character. That was admirable, but really, the specific stories we tell about Superman - the what-happened and what-he-did - don’t matter that much. Superman transcends plot. We retell his tales because we wish he were here, real, to keep us safe.
Technically, an Asur is not demonic. The word Asur actually means someone who is not Sur (civilised, pure, blah blah blah). Mythology, more often than not, equates stupidity with evil. And it always overdoes it. Not only does evil cause you to act dumb (why else would giant oafs under evil influence laugh in the face of a sword-bearing hero with divine connections), it also IS dumb.
Almost all Asurs of note in Hindu mythology had their careers shaped in the same mould. They rise to power, they reach the top and then they go out with a bang. No quiet retirements for them. Here’s how it usually goes. Starting of course with Shukracharya, the Asurs’ Guru and the one sane voice in Asurlok (the Asur world).
Shukracharya notices a young Asur’s rise to power in Asurlok. He sees hope for the Asurs yet. He smiles his sage smile. The Asur fights like a rabid dog and soon his much injured opponents accept him as master and lord of their respective dominions (or are clobbered till they do). The Asur laughs. Shukracharya appears in the court. The Asur stops laughing and greets the Guru.
At about ten in the night on Saturday, I was at Carter Road, Bandra, swaying in the sea wind and telling my friends how my day went. I mentioned the bloggers’ meet (but naturally).
“Who all came?” asked one.
“Well there was Amit Varma, Sakshi Juneja, Akshay Mahajan and others.” I tentatively pull out the attendance sheet (my gift, my burden) from my pocket and hold it open for them to see. No effect.
“Who are they?”
I begin to wonder if we shouldn’t start talking about the quality of the dosa we were stuffing our mouths with.