Shiva – Shark Attack – {Ep.192} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s story is about Shiva, the destroyer of the Universe. We’ll see that if Shiva is teaching you something, it’s a really bad idea to fall asleep in the middle of the lecture. We’ll also see that if you have a bull as a friend by your side, it’s easy to convince your wife to come back home.

Introduction

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you exciting and fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

Some of you requested a story about Shiva, so here’s one about Shiva and his wife Parvati.

Shiva in case you don’t know is a member of the holy trinity in Indian mythology. The holy trinity is made up of 3 entities and they all can do various things to the Universe. There’s Brahma, the creator, who created the Universe and almost everything inside it. Then there’s Shiva the destroyer, who has the power to destroy the Universe by dancing. And finally there’s Vishnu, the preserver. He maintains a kind of balance between creation and destruction.

They get along just fine. Shameless plug here, but Brahma is my dad. And I’m also president for life of the Vishnu fan club. I may not be running Shiva’s fan club, but I admire and respect him and his wife Parvati, and have often visited them despite the very cold and dangerous path to their home in Mt Kailas.

A few regulars at Kailas are Shiva and Parvati’s home security system – Nandi. He’s a sentient bull, and he’s incredibly smart, clever, and powerful. You’ll get to see some of that in today’s story.

The other regulars are Ganesh and Kartikeya, who will not appear in today’s story but you can check out the links in the show notes for their stories.

Anyway, the story starts one fine day in Mt Kailas when Shiva and Parvati were talking. General chit chat you know. Shiva was describing how in his opinion, the fishermen and fisherwomen in the Paravar community were leading extremely tough but also extremely dull lives. They had to struggle so much to put food on the table. And then they had to struggle further to eat it(because most of the time they found lobsters). And there was no entertainment, no color in their lives. It wasn’t something that Parvati was particularly interested in discussing. She had something on her mind. She wanted to discuss something much grander. Parvati wanted her husband to explain the secrets of the Universe. So she carefully steered the conversation in that direction

“I can’t,” replied Shiva. “They are secrets.”

But Parvati was really curious. You might wonder why. Parvati was a goddess and a principal goddess at that. You might think she already knew everything. Well if you thought that you’d be absolutely correct. You see she knew all the secrets of the Universe from her perspective, but not from Shiva’s perspective.

I may have to provide a sidebar here. There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to Indian mythology. There’s a Shiva-centric view, there’s a Vishnu-centric view which we have seen before in earlier episodes, most recently in episode 185 Kakbhushundi. But there’s also a third perspective. According to this, it’s not Shiva and it’s not Vishnu who is the principal entity in the universe. It is Shakti. Shakti or Mahadevi is the supreme goddess from whom all power originates. Parvati, Lakshmi, Durga, Kali are all avatars of Shakti.

Followers of Shakti, Vishnu and Shiva each believe their God or Goddess is supreme. Some people like myself know the truth of course, but we can’t say it without disappointing someone so we’re content to let this question remain unresolved. 

You’ll also notice that there isn’t a mainstream group that believes Brahma to be the Supreme creator. That is okay, we in Brahma’s family who know him so well, sort of expected that.

Anyway, back to the story. So Parvati’s curiosity wasn’t because she didn’t know the secrets of the Universe, it was that she wanted to compare notes. Did Shiva’s secrets exactly equate hers? She pestered Shiva a bit until Shiva said fine, I’ll tell you. Immediately and without a word of warning, he launched into his explanation. “Everything started with a primordial atom. And then there was a Big Bang…” Shiva began. Parvati had expected that she would have a chance to get her notebook, a pen or even just her dictaphone. And she didn’t want to stop him either. 

It had been hard enough to get Shiva to divulge his secrets, if she interrupted he might change his mind, he might get distracted, someone might pray to him and then he’d have to go visit them to bless them or curse them or whatever. So she listened, and Shiva kept talking. And talking. And talking. This went on for hours, and then days and weeks and months and finally years. Shiva kept on and on about electrons and quarks and something about the speed of light. All of it, Parvati already knew. If there had been any new information, she would not have been distracted.

It was now several years since Shiva had started explaining. Parvati’s eyes were drooping and she was tired and hungry. She had done an automatic redirect to voicemail for all the people praying to her. And Parvati felt that the explanation had hit a predictable point, with no new information likely on the horizon. Shiva was now explaining the cosmic microwave background emission. And this was a topic he had touched on earlier, a few months ago when he was explaining the first three seconds of the creation of the Universe. The chances of a surprise were very low. It might be the perfect time for a power nap. Just a few seconds. Shiva wouldn’t know. He was too busy drawing Feynman diagrams. Just two seconds. Quick shut eye….

“What are you doing?” Shiva thundered. He said it in a voice normally reserved for the worst offenses. 

“I was just resting my eyes for a second,” Parvati explained. “I didn’t miss a single thing. I could tell you everything you said”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re ungrateful. I took time out of my busy schedule, put my prayers answering line on voicemail. I explained the secrets of the Universe, just like you wanted. And you dared to sleep!”

Parvati tried to explain. It was brief, they had been doing this for years now. She needed a break. Besides, it wasn’t like she missed anything important in the 2 seconds of sleep she got. What’s more she never asked for the long form version of the secrets. Wasn’t there an executive summary or a tl;dr or a tweet sized version that he could offer?

But Parvati never got to explain. Because Shiva cursed her. He cursed her to be born as a baby in the Paravar community. Yes, the same one he had mentioned at the start of the story. The fishermen and fisherwomen in the story led a very tough life, and with no entertainment. Parvati was going to become a fisherman or a fisherwoman. He wasn’t sure if his curse settings had “preserve gender” set to “on”. 

But Parvati wasn’t around to listen to this. She was already out of the scene. The moment Shiva fired his curse, she disappeared. And somewhere down on Earth in the Parvars village there was Minavar, the chief of the villagers, who was walking around on his evening walk. He wasn’t the one walking. He was standing on a shield, while his two shield bearers carried him about. He had a major problem to deal with. The people of his village were revolting. And by that I’m not talking about the adjective meaning intensely disgusting. I mean they were actually rising up in rebellion. 

The people had many grievances. Chief among them was that they ate the same food everyday. And because all they could find were lobsters and crabs, it took just as long to eat their meal as it took to catch it.

The biggest grievance, which no one said out loud, was that there was no change in leadership on the horizon. Minavar had been in charge for a long time now. He showed no signs of retiring. And he had no successors. He wasn’t even married.

All this was borne out by official data too. 

Foreign investment was down to zero. The last tourist in the village had visited several decades ago. He was a shipwrecked sailor who arrived on a raft. He had no money. They still offered to host him, but seeing the very tough and boring lives they led, he decided to take his chances out there in the sea. One night, under the cover of darkness, he took his raft and escaped the scene. He just left a note – “So long and thanks for all the fish!”.

Truth be told, Minavar welcomed the revolt. It would be a bright spot in a long and dull life. Other villages apparently had puppet shows in the village square, and ice cream socials and wine and cheese parties. Here amongst the Paravars, the most exciting thing that had happened in recent memory was that time that a coconut fell from the tree straight into the sea, and it splashed old man Kelavan. They talked about it for weeks, Kelavan especially talking about how in his day those coconuts would be blasted out of sight before they could scare an old man to death. 

A revolt would be a nice change.

The revolt seemed to be hastened by the recent comic book fiasco. Minavar had told them about how he had secured some foreign investment – a french village based on theirs. Sounded like a great idea, but when the villagers read the drafts they were angry, and upset. The comic book village had so many entertaining elements, you know, wild boar hunting, thumping foreign invaders, a magic potion, a bard, pirates, and so on. The lack of those, by contrast, was downright heartbreaking.

Minavar’s thoughts were interrupted by a wailing sound. It sounded like a baby. He motioned his shield bearers to investigate and promptly regretted it when they quickly dropped the shield and wandered off.

But any thoughts of punishing them were soon forgotten when they came back with the cutest baby he had ever seen in his life! He hadn’t seen many babies, true. But something about this baby they brought back from the woods sparked the paternal instinct in Minavar.

From that day on, she was going to be his daughter.

“But chief, shouldn’t we search the woods?” one his shield bearers objected. “Maybe the baby’s real parents are around”

They all laughed at the joke. There was no way anyone would voluntarily come here. Not since they put up the sign that “trespassers will be integrated into our society”. But someone had left this baby here.

Didn’t matter anymore. Minavar had a daughter now! He called her Parvati. It seemed to be a fitting name.

Later at the next town hall with all the villagers, which definitely sounds like a confused way to describe it, Miramar presented Parvati to the crowd.

The villagers made a collective “awwww” sound. And applauded their chief for simultaneously solving his successor problem while also providing a new source of entertainment, at least for a few days. It takes a village to raise a child, and that is what happened to this village.

The villagers were never bored again. When Parvati was a baby, everyone laughed at her cute baby actions and her baby talk. When she grew up and went to school, they marveled at her academic accomplishments. When she learnt the subtle art of fishing, and taught some even more advanced techniques back to her professors, the villagers were filled with pride, admiration, satisfaction, and glee. 

Not only because the child they had raised had  

Parvati’s presence in this village had changed its funereal atmosphere into a happy, carnival-like one.

While in Kailas, the mood was exactly the opposite.

Nandi and Shiva sat. Everything was a dull Grey. Shiva looked like he had aged 20 years since the trouble began. He had aged twenty years. It had been 20 years since he had cursed Parvati. He missed her. 

“Then why don’t you go and get her back?” Nandi asked.

“It won’t work,” Shiva said confidently. “Besides I tried a few things – I sent her flowers, chocolates, letters apologizing for my overreaction”

“And what did she do with all of those?” Nandi asked

“She shredded them all. The chocolates too. That clogged up the shredding machine, but that’s besides the point. She didn’t even read my letters. I could go down there, but it’s going to be a little embarrassing if she slams the door in my face”

Nandi had anticipated this, and he had a solution ready. “See, chief. Kailas has never been the same since Parvati left. Working for you is not the same as working for both of you. For one thing, that grey thundercloud has been raining on top of us constantly for 20 years. I don’t know if I can take much more of this. Give me a chance to try!”

“But what can you do, Nandi? She may not shred you like she shredded the flowers and the letters and the chocolates, but I don’t think she’s going to listen to a word you have to say”

“And that’s where my idea comes in. We have to work it so that you do something that impresses her”

Shiva was intrigued. “Like dashing into a burning building and saving a baby that is trapped inside?”

“Nah, too easy.” Nandi replied. “Besides, she could save the baby herself. I’ve got a better idea, listen….”

Shiva heard the idea and honestly he wasn’t fully convinced. But he did feel it was worth a try. At least Parvati would know that he was trying harder than just stereotypical chocolates and flowers.

So Nandi left Kailas on his mission, with Shiva promising to follow soon. Shiva just needed to find the right fisherman disguise first.

Nandi dived into the ocean and transformed into a massive bull shark. That was easy, in fact he was already two-thirds of the way there because Nandi was a massive bull.

Above the surface there was a single boat in the waters. The fisherwoman in the boat was gloomily looking for lobsters and crabs amongst her huge haul of seaweed. Suddenly she saw the huge dark shape coming towards her boat, and she panicked! 

“It’s a submarine” screamed the fisherwoman. But it wasn’t. It was just Nandi.

Nandi shot up and breached the surface, his entire 60 foot body shining with the brilliance of the reflected sunlight. Now sharks don’t normally do this, but Nandi felt that this fisherwoman would be the perfect witness to go back and tell her whole village everything about the huge new sea monster in their waters. Just to make sure that she didn’t get any of the details wrong, Nandi breached the surface a couple more times, offering different perspectives of himself.

It worked. The fisherwoman rushed back to shore and went to the one person who would know what to do. Parvati.

Parvati was intrigued when she heard the story. This massive shark might be Shiva, but it was not his style. But it didn’t matter! Here was an opportunity for her to make things better for her village! This big fish was a way to drive a lot of foot traffic to this village. She began working immediately on posters and mailers. And by the time the first tourists arrived hoping to catch a glimpse of the Sea Monster, Parvati’s team had already set up a boardwalk, with souvenir stalls, a ferris wheel, a bhel puri stand, and an instant photo booth. Well not an instant photo booth, but an instant painting booth, you know, for tourists to get a painting of themselves in mock shocked reaction to a massive shark that the painter added to every canvas. I have one myself. I think I look rather good in it!

Anyway, besides these stereotypical touristy things, the main draw was a contest. A challenge. Whoever caught the massive shark would win a year’s supply of shark meat. The fine print read that they were responsible for their own transportation costs of hauling away all that meat.

Fishermen and Fisherwomen from everywhere arrived to try to win this challenge. Some fishermen inquired why the prize was so unusual? They had expected a different prize – like Parvati’s hand in marriage. But the villagers quickly corrected the idea – we are a very progressive village here, they said. A girl gets to make her own choices here. And they should also know that Parvati was certain to win this contest. She was entering it too, being a first rate fisherwoman herself.

The contest began the next morning. Dozens of boats of all sizes dashed off when Minvar waved the starting flag. Parvati’s specially modified boat dashed into the lead. She and her crewmate, Meena, had a net ready to go. The Shark jumped out of the water here and there. But it seemed like its movements were designed to disqualify as many of the competitors as possible. Some boats were cleverly tricked into colliding with each other. Others ran aground. A few others capsized. Until finally two boats were all that remained. Parvati’s boat and one other. The other boat was piloted solo by a fisherman called Shankar.

More than once, Meena nudged Parvati and said what a handsome guy Shankar was. But Parvati didn’t pay attention.

The shark was trying his hardest to make Parvati’s boat crash, and it seemed to give Shankar’s boat a completely free pass. Meena said that if she didn’t know better, the fish was in a conspiracy with Shankar. She was ready to cry match-fixing, but didn’t yet because it looked like Parvati might win this. 

Parvati cast out her net, the Shark ducked left and ended up smack in the center of where the second net would have been if Meena hadn’t been a split second too late.

Nandi had hoped to crash Parvati’s boat too. Then Shankar, who was really Shiva, could appear on the scene, rescue Parvati, capture the Shark and maybe win her heart again. But it was getting harder and harder to avoid Parvati’s attempts to capture him. If Parvati did capture him, all of their efforts would be wasted. He was exhausted, but he had to make a mad dash for Shiva’s boat so that Shiva could capture him. He made a beeline for Shiva’s boat, with Parvati’s boat in fast pursuit. Just when Nandi was about to be within’s Shiva net casting distance, he ran straight into another net. Parvati’s net.

“You did it!” Meena said to Parvati. “Oh well, at least that handsome Shankar guy gets second place. When you’re on the podium with him, ask him for his address please”

“I already know his address. You won’t need it, Meena, it’s a lot colder than here. Anyway, we aren’t done yet. We have to haul in this shark. Here, help me with this rope…. Oops”. Parvati exclaimed and dropped her end of the rope into the water. Seeing his opportunity, Shankar immediately cast out his net. Not just that, but it looked like the Shark practically jumped into Shankar’s net.

“You did that deliberately didn’t you?” Meena asked. “Why?”

“Kabhie Kabhie kuch jeetne ke liye kuch haarna padta hain. Aur haar kar jitne wali ko Baazigar kehte hain,” which loosely translated means – “sometimes you have to lose something to win something else. And those who win despite losing are called Gamblers”

“They are called runner-ups,” Meena corrected. Well at least, all this tourism has been good for our village.

They went back to the shore. Shankar announced magnanimously that the Shark was just a friendly fish and that he would not be claiming his 1st prize of all that shark meat. In fact, he was going to let the Shark go, with a stern warning to never come to these waters again. And what’s more, the shark would have to scare a bunch of fish into these waters as a kind of compensation for scaring that poor fisherwoman, and breaking all those boats. The shark nodded enthusiastically, winked a couple of times at Shankar and dashed off when Shankar cut the net holding it.

Parvati announced that the village was all set for the future, without her. Even if tourism dwindled, there would be a steady supply of fish from now on. As for her own future, she was going to marry Shankar and go live in his home. She knew they would want to visit, but hey it was very far. Why not just write a letter?

As for the village, Meena is the only character besides the existing chief and his daughter whom we bothered to name. So let’s pretend Meena became the new chief after Minavar retired.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Meena and Minavar are names derived from the Tamil word for Fish.

The original story didn’t quite show Parvati in the light of the strong independent goddess that she is. So I felt compelled to change that. But don’t worry. Before doing this episode I checked with Shiva, Parvati and Nandi, and they were all fully aligned with the way I portrayed them.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll see some very different and completely contradictory origins for my brother. Yeah, when your father is the creator of the Universe, it should not surprise you to know that I have many brothers. This one’s special though. He’s a River. He’s called Brahmaputra in parts of India, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Luit in Assam.

Feedback

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The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!