Putona

Usually, I write a few lines and then save that word file. But not always is that the case. This time I remembered what I had set out to write on, and so I saved the name of the file at first. It is about Putona, the demoness (sounded like goddess to me, sounds apt to me) who tried to kill Krishna when he was a kid. Sorry, she tried to kill him when he was an infant. Now, let there be a bit of prologue. I was flipping through the channels yesterday, when I chanced upon ‘Ruposhi Bangla’. I love the theme song of this channel – ‘Shudhu Theko Ruposhi’, meaning ‘please stay beautiful always’, probably will write on this one someday, however weird the idea might seem to some of you. I would be visiting the Bengali channels much lesser back in Kolkata, but now I make it a point to shuffle through all of them (yes, even the news channels) before settling on with one of those (Just FYI – I watch DD Bangla too, rarely though. And I wonder and yearn for those days when it was a cable-less world, Saturday’s being my favourite for the Suchitra-Uttam classics aired most probably from 4.30pm – 8pm). So yesterday was just one of those days and I realised Rupashi Bangla was airing the Bengali version of Mahabharata, the one soap which was a part of our weekly Sunday morning 9am entertainment dose besides yummy breakfasts of Maggi (yes, you read that right) or Porota / Luchi Alurdom (I know that’s more acceptable to you all). So I simply decided to stay put at Rupashi Bangla and remember those yester-days of the wonderland called childhood. The episode aired dealt with the chapter of Putona Rakshasi (Putona Demoness – yes, I still am getting a royal ‘Your Highness’ kind of a feel in this term) and her attempt to kill Krishna. That is when the thought of trying to write something came up my mind. And I decided to oblige myself. Well, the show started showing Putona disguised as a ‘feriwali’ (someone who roams across the streets trying to sell small knick-knacks, kind of a mobile hawker), ventures in to ‘Gokul’, the village where Krishna was being brought up by his foster parents Nand and Yashoda. She had been sent by Kansa, Krishna’s Maternal Uncle (the (in) famous KANS MAMA), to kill Krishna before he matures to become the future cause of his death. Before I go on with my thoughts about Putona and this particular incident, let me share a few words on the show that came up my mind while watching that episode. Those few minutes showed me how slow each episode could have been (Putona glanced through similar looking squares in the walls of Nand’s house to get a glance of Krishna and it took her atleast a dozen squares to finally flash that smile when she viewed Krishna. That, ‘O what a view, O what a relief, O what a discovery, O Eureka’ kind of smile glorified her face with the light of a 1000 light houses, when she ultimately sighted her object of kill. But, I was bored by the third square itself and ended up wondering three things: 1. How did they get an idea to shoot such inexplicably long and boring sequences? 2. How did the actors have the patience to implement that idea and ultimately shoot them? 3. How did we devoured those episodes every Sunday, like ‘chatok pakhi’s (a thirsty bird possibly – it’s a saying actually, so I can use it you see), getting a drop of water after the huge time gap of one whole week? Anyway, the sequence in short, goes like this. Putona picks up infant Krishna on the sly, takes her away from Nand’s cottage, reaches a field away from the village and starts growing to her actual gigantic demonic form and howling (i.e., laughing actually), at her apparent victory of getting hold of the mighty infant Krishna. Her objective is to feed Krishna from her poisoned bosom, the milk of death. Seeing and hearing her, the villagers rush to inform Nand and Yashoda who by now, were frantically searching for their beloved child. But surprise surprise! All of them come to the field to see the infant playing on the dead body of the demoness (still sounds grand to me) and manage to remove the Lord from his current playground. While going back, the villagers declare Putona was Kans’s dai, that is the midwife. Well I didn’t know this. And I am not going to research this. If ever the 2 Mahabharata experts I know (AD and AM), read this, they might enlighten me on this but I would not pester them for this information, as of now. But what baffled me (and hence the germ of this post was sown) was the fact that why did Putona choose to feed Krishna. With her gigantic physicality, she could easily strangle the poor baby or even could go all ‘elephant-y’ and squash the baby under her paws, sorry feet. But she chose to feed the baby for killing it. I wondered why. Could it be because she had a maternal instinct somewhere hidden in depth of her huge bosoms? So deep, that her demonic consciousness had concealed it completely from her conscious self? Is it some kind of an unfulfilled desire to get away from being a demoness (I know I am boring you all but it still is majestic to me) and sense for once, the feel of motherhood? What was that howl/laugh for? Was it for getting a hold on Krishna or was it some kind of celebratory laugh, depicting an inner happiness to finally give way to her motherly instincts? Kans probably was never the ‘child’ for her; instead he was only her ‘master’. Did that add to the intensity of her bottled up desire to become a ‘real mother’, without her ever realising it? I instantly remembered a parallel and a second one while writing this, now. ‘Ahalya’ and ‘Mahishasura’ are similar to Putana. ‘Ahalya’ transformed from a stone idol (she was cursed, for details you could ask me, I could ask AD and AM in turn) to her human form again, as Rama touched her. ‘Mahishasura’ got ‘mukti’, from his tyrannical life at the hands of Ma Durga, a well-deserved spot for a devotee at the feet of the Goddess. Did Krishna also release Putana? Did he gave her a ‘one-time’ chance to fulfil her deepest desire to live the role of a mother and also in the process, relieve her from her current life of a demoness (Ok! now I don’t like the feel of this word)? Well, Krishna did relieve many a cursed soul from their earthly birth’s shackles. For instance, I remember the two cursed brothers who were born as joint trees and were released from that life, thanks to the playfulness of baby Krishna. The image of the fallen Putana did not indicate even a tiny iota of pain; instead it was a plain, straight faced Putana lying on the ground. Putana, as she breathed her last, possibly smiled in her heart. It was a content, peaceful smile, visible to none but Krishna. The demoness (again sounds grand to me now) has finally been given what she might have prayed for diligently, may be for ages, for many births and re-births. Her desire of ‘mukti’ had been met. Is it possible that she had been a devotee of the Lord too? I have not read about such a possibility ever, but could not help wondering if there ever was one. Her one last act made her a mother in the guise of a slayer and gave her a final abode of peace at the feet of Krishna. Yes, now she is a royalty. Is that possible? I still am wondering.