Happy
Rama Navami! On this day Hindus celebrate the birth of Lord Shree Rama - the 7th incarnation or Avatar (not the blue CGI kind, although I guess some could be blue ...) of Lord Mahavishnu, the Preserver. Rama was born on Earth to destroy the wicked King Raavana of Sri Lanka, which he did with the assistance of his brother Lakshmana and the monkey God Hanuman. Want to know more? The
Ramayana Epic is available in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com, or you could watch one of the fabulous mythological movies of India (my personal favorite was the one where
Jaya Prada played young Princess Sita). If you are really dedicated, you can watch the entire
detailed series by Ramanand Sagar in which Arun Govil plays Rama.
Anyway, I was singing some bhajans (Hindu hymns) this morning and then I started laughing to myself thinking of this song from
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1999), which is really a tragedy when you consider how beautiful the original bhajan is, but it's still kind of funny. Especially the little cameo by maestro singer
Shankar Mahadevan himself as an annoying hippie singing in
Shah Rukh Khan's ear.
Incidentally, there is also a great, soulful, moving version of
this song + "Vaishnava Janato" in the movie Gandhi (1982) that was sung by
Lata Mangeshkar. Beautiful!
Have a great Rama Navami all!
