Story of the wounded warrior

"Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul ashta praman, Ete pai Sultan hai, Ab mat chuko Chauhan."(Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan, do not miss him now, Chouhan). The stage was set.. The mighty archer was ready to release the arrow with all the strength and skills he had got. Precision was a pre-requisite but above all the essentials were courage and the thirst for revenge. This was because he was no ordinary archer and the circumstances were not ordinary either. To begin with he was held captive, his kingdom was completely taken over and he was blinded using hot iron rods by his enemies because he refused to lower his eyes. He was the last Hindu ruler before the Mughals took over.
Prithvi Raj Chauhan is the name of the legend; and he pledged to kill the Mughal emperor Muhummad Ghori under the most terrifying circumstances one could imagine. The story goes that Ghori was earlier defeated by Prithvi Raj Chauhan, but Prithviraj pardoned Ghori when the latter begged for mercy and release.
The saying “Don’t leave your enemy half dead” holds true as later Ghori returned and defeated Prithviraj in the second battle of Tarain. He was tortured, blinded and treated as a prisoner by Ghori. The blind Prithviraj was then regularly brought to the presence of the barbaric warlord to be taunted by Ghori and his courtiers.
And so to avenge to those sufferings a scheme was hatched by Prithviraj and his loyal former courtier poet Chand Bardai. The Prince of Ajmer’s strength was archery. The plot was to somehow convince Ghori to arrange for an Archery competition to display the blind Prithiraj’s skills and to kill Ghori during the competition’s proceedings.
When the competition was proposed, Ghori disdained to believe this; the courtiers laughed and taunted Chand Bardai, asking how a blind man could possibly shoot arrows. In the spirit of their usual barbaric mockery, they brought the blind and hapless Prithviraj out to the field. Pressing a bow and arrows into his hand, they taunted him to take aim. Chand Bardai told Ghori that this taunting would avail nothing, for Prithviraj would never do as some sundry courtiers bade him do. He said that Prithviraj, as a king himself, would not accept orders from anyone other than another king. His ego thus massaged, and in the spirit of the occasion, Ghori agreed to personally give Prithviraj the order to shoot.Thus, Chand Bardai provided Prithviraj with an aural indication of where Ghori was seated. He gave Prithviraj one further indication of the same, by composing a couplet on the spot and reciting the same in Prithviraj's hearing. The couplet, composed in a language understood only by Prithviraj went thus:"Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul ashta praman,Ete pai hai Sultan, (Taa Upar hai Sultan),ab mat chuko hey Chauhan."(Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan. Do not miss him now, Chauhan). Ghori then ordered Prithviraj to shoot. Prithviraj turned in the direction from where he heard Ghori speak, and, taking aim based only on the voice and on Chand Bardai's couplet, he sent an arrow racing to Ghori's throat. Ghori was thus stuck dead by Prithviraj. The brave Rajput thus avenged the betrayals and humiliations suffered by him. Naturally, after this deed, Prithviraj was killed by Mahmud's courtiers. Thus ended the story of the brave and chivalrous Prithviraj Chauhan.
There is a reason why I chose this story as a medium to convey my thoughts. Whenever a question mark arises, history can be used as a medium to reflect on that problem. There are many take aways from history and according to me this story has the right ingredients for my concerns.
Prithviraj was blinded by his enemy because of his rebellious nature. Something of a similar nature occurs in our society every day. There are enemies all over the place, they blindfold people and their beliefs; they steal their right from truth. And then there are people who blindfold themselves through ignorance and are thus taken advantage of. The tragedy here is that it is difficult for one to conceive oneself as blindfolded.
So what can be the solution to this problem? The answer which this story provides is to focus on our strengths (just like Pritviraj did), to believe in one self and to have the courage to deal with testing situations. Despite the weakness, Prthivairaj took revenge by aiming precisely at the target. Had he lost focus or faith or the courage then he would never have been able to execute his skills to perfection.
Food for thought:- Can the blindfolds within the society be removed..??

Take care of my Ass....

This is my first post.. I intend to use this blog to share with everyone the experiences, interactions n lighter moments which I have shared with the humble people around me.
So I begin with an interesting story which I came across when I had just started working for a water treatment firm. This story was narrated to me by one my office colleagues during lunch hrs. The story is short and sweet but the content and moral is worth it.It is about a young man who fell in love with a blind woman. One day he decided to invest into the relationship by donating his eyes to that woman. He wanted her to see and feel his love. He wanted to wash away her darkness and fill it with the beautiful colours of the world. The woman agreed to his request and thus the eye transaction was done with success. She finally got an opportunity to see the world and to have a look at her donor. She thanked him a thousand times for the philanthropy. But, now when the blind donor proposed her for marriage, it got rejected. The blind young man couldn’t believe at what had happened. The woman did not want to marry him.
But unconditional as love should be, he accepted this fate, and when the woman was about to leave, he said, “Alright, but take care of my ass.”
In the pantry, the moment of silence which followed this statement, lasted for a few seconds and made our narrator feel proud. Just then with all innocence a question popped out, “But Sabari??.. Why would he ask her to do that?? Why would he give her an ass??.. Ass as in??.. Donkey??”.
Sensing failure, the story-teller replied, “ Arree, Aaess…. Aaess…. Aaken!!!!”.

“Oh!!, Eyes…. Oh yes.. that makes sense.. Take care of my Eyes..”.

The confusion got dissolved; but the story didn’t receive its desired response. Moral of the story :- Take care of my Aaesss!!!!