Jazz and the Ramayan

My grandparents and parents have always been avid readers and have so kindly passed the habit down to my sister and I. As a family, we often joke about how anti-social our Sundays are. After eating a huge “handsome breakfast”, we all saunter to our rooms, choose an appropriate Sunday book and congregate in the living room. We then sit in our usual places and proceed to spend the rest of the afternoon in silence, absorbed by stories of other people’s lives.

One story that has always been on my list of things to read is the Ramayan. Of course I know part of the story, it’s not the worst possible scenario, but definitely close. When KBC (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) used to air in India, I knew almost none of the answers to the questions pertaining to the Indian epics. Fail.

I have often found, in my experience with books, that there is sometimes a specific time that you are meant to read something. There are a number of brilliant books that I am yet to read. It’s not that I’m not interested in reading them, I just happened to have not as yet. The only Salman Rashdie novel I have ever read completely, for example, is Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I’ve never read Moby Dick, though I know the story and I only just recently read The Picture of Dorian Grey.

These “specific times” are sometimes spurred by travelling or a conversation you had, a picture you took or just because you saw it in the bookshelf and finally picked it up. I have been meaning to read the Indian epics for a long time now. I think the time is finally here. Or it will be when I go back home and have access to a copy.

Why the sudden talk about the Ramayan? Well, I recently watched an animated film named Sita Sings the Blues, which is based on the Ramayan, but focussed mainly on, quite obviously, Sita. The creator of this amazing film, Nina Paley, combines the story of Ram and Sita with Annette Hanshaw’s jazz songs. It was surprising how two things so glaringly different fit so well together. Of course it is modern and funny and well, has a jazz score, so it’s definitely different from Valmiki’s original work but it is just as fascinating.

Of course the creator had problems after the films release. There were copyright problems with Annette Hanshaw’s songs and of course right wing Hindus had a problem with the way Sita was portrayed. But in my opinion, that’s a non-topic and not even worth discussing.

Here is the link to the movie- http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html

You aren’t doing anything illegal by watching it here don’t worry.