Then what happened?

 Then what happened?

Bedtime stories, my dad is compelled to tell us. Despite: he works hard, and we 3 kids, hardly, every day😜🙏🙏🙏

Obviously, his focus is lesser than ours. We used a “standard operating procedure”( SOP) to alert him, when he blabbers, under the influence of sleep. Some days, we miss the story, despite our repetition of the SOP “then what happened?”. Some days, his response is like a spy-soldier tortured by other side, disallowed to sleep and blabbers the secrets😜. A sample by my dad…

“Then what happened?”

Dad, half asleep “Rama filed an FIR in the police station”( sita abducted by Ravana in the story of Ramayana).

I got enriched by the traditional stories 🙏 ( but the ‘process’ was painstaking😭, like the enrichment of Uranium for a nuclear power plant 😓. Took decades!

One such story🙏

( I'll try to be brief 👍)

A literary giant defeated all his competitors in a kingdom he visited. King got furious. He ordered a ‘head’ hunt ( like hirers in HR team of global corporate today 🙏). The clever minister hired an utterly dumb illiterate to debate with the menacing giant.

That guy was bold👍. Ready for a few gold coins ( like hired goons of Mumbai “Bhai” for khokha … 1 khokha is a crore of ₹ today)

Minister dressed up that guy well( to look like a genuine scholar).

That guy, couldn't part with his footwear, since it was soaked in pure coconut oil😓 ( for decades this guy operates a manual oil crusher with oxen pulling the heavy round stone in a circular cavity filled with dry coconut.). He wrapped the old footwear and tucked it under his armpit, matching to the battlefield of debate ( king's court)

Minister to the giant : “try your weaponry of scholarly skills with him now👍. But only with gestures! My guru( that guy) doesn't need spoken form of words. You may concede defeat, if you ain't no_good at gestured_debate!”

Giant, hurt by the taunt and angered growled “i am ready!!!”

In those days, ‘leakage of NEET question paper wasn't an “issue” 😜.   The syllabus was too vast😭. Scruptures🙏. The concept of questions mimicked like today's GRE/TOEFL eggjam ( live, online  and 24/7….leakproof 😜)

Debate:

Guy : shows 1 finger ( i will beat you!)

Scholar ( misconstrued it : Gawd is one) and gestured 2 fingers ( meaning: nope! It can be 2— prakruthi and Purusha)

Guy : (misconstrued it : (“ then i will thrash you thrice 😞”) and gestured 3 fingers ( meaning “i will beat you thrice”)

Scholar misconstrued it ( Gods are 3 then, triMurti) and gestured 4 fingers ( meaning “ vedas are 4, and they say Gawds are many 😜”)

Guy misconstrued it as “rascal, i will deliver 4 blows on you then, and retorted showing a fist.

Scholar misconstrued it as “unless the 5 elements in nature are mastered it's useless to talk” and gestured”how” ( meaning”how are you so sure?”)

Guy, again misconstrued it as”with what weapons are you gonna hurt me, eh???” And the guy gestured to point at the wrapped pack of footwear under his arm ( meaning… “i am gonna spank you with this seasoned+ hardened chappal and you will know how badly it can hurt” 😡😡😡)

Now the scholar conceded defeat , misconstruing the gesture as “the entire essence of all the shastras, scriptures, i carry with me 24/7 👍, and am well_read”)....

Story over.

My take after i am an adult : “levels of perception MATTERS! 😭😭😭 booooo! 😭🙏🙏🙏. I git(got) it” 

stupidly yours,

psn( 14 Sept, 2026)