Violence is a turn off for me, and that’s one of the reasons I have never been a fan of the Epic, Mahabharata. I always knew it had killings and negativity in elaborate. Roopa Pai, the ecstatic storyteller, turned things around for me.

I sat there, expecting to hear a boring session on the last day of the Jaipur Literature Festival. She began with an interactive session testing our knowledge about the Gita and Mahabharata. After her questions, she gave us a crash course on Mahabharata in her special style.

“So Arjun went, ‘What’s up Krishna?'”

“All good, Arjuna.”

She said, “Pandu just went and kinda died one day. And then Madri without the consultation of Kunti decided to kill herself. And Kunti is just there standing and saying- Okay so suddenly I’ve to raise five kids. Are you kidding me dead co-wife?“

Her storytelling style was hilarious, kinda made me want to stand up and give her a huge round of applause. She got to the part where Krishna helps Arjuna end his dilemma about killing his own teacher, family, and brothers.

Since Arjun and Krishna are “BFFS” as coined by Roopa, they trust each other. The shlokas written inside the Gita are Universal and applicable to all of us with moral dilemmas.

Out of the 18 chapters of her rendition of Gita, she explained us five:

1. Make a scene: The way Arjun made a big deal out of a family quarrel!
2. Practice: Talk to yourself! There’s an Arjun, a Yudhishtir, a Krishna and even a Duryodhan inside you. Keep practicing conversation with self and one day you’ll have all the answers.
3. Discipline: Every person who has ever achieved anything in his life is a highly disciplined person!
4. You are what you consume: They say, “You are what you eat” but “You are what you consume. The stories you hear, the movies you watch, the energy you allow to flow through you (positive/negative)
5. Do your duty: And don’t worry about the result. Do what must be done to you with no expectations.

She concluded her session by adding that “People are misguided, they are not evil.”

Her amazing course left our very own Sanchit jaw-dropped. He insisted on staying back to chit-chat with her. I hope he wasn’t *crushed*!

Wow, Roopa that’s insightful, your session changed the way I think. I already bought her book, if you want a copy, you can get it here.

Photo Courtesy: Sanchit Sethi

This article first appeared on January 25, 2016