Sons, fathers & the cross

K Govindan Kutty

My friend Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, powerful secretary of Kerala’s still ruling Marxist party, is yet not in trouble, though his son Binoy — facing a paternity test in a case of rape and cheating filed by a Mumbai woman — is not out of it. If he does not prove his hard point, the party will have an undesired grandson. No one thankfully is baying now for Balakrishnan’s blood. Party and paternity are two different things, declaims the party. 

Clearly, the militant marxist has not made a model of sage Vibhandaka who groomed his son Rishyashringa in mortifying seclusion from carnal pleasures. When his time came, the young hermit eloped with a courtesan and brought rain to the parched kingdom of her employer-king. That was no act for which the dad thanked the son.  

Sons are wont to hold their parents to ransom. Nearer home and time, India’s most famous son was Sanjay Gandhi, who made a success of suppression of freedom for 19 long months. Such a feisty son he was that his mother’s (Indira Gandhi) acolytes attributed to him everything that went wrong. In the cow belt, the Yadava sons and fathers have fought from time immemorial. Their flute-playing chieftain had coming after him an irreverent son born of a mate from his enormous wifedom. 

What filial ingratitude, mused a self-seeking king whose daughters outwitted him. Kings who had more than their crowns to lose were at loggerheads with their sons through the course of history. One of them locked up his father in jail, charitably affording a view of the river and the landscape beyond, and the mausoleum of his wife. His son moved his troops against his benevolent father, and had his adviser Abul Fazal killed. Love of a son blinded a king. The son gave in to lust and conceit. War ensued, the blind old king being unable to ward it off. Sleeplessness, prajagara, was his final lot. 

Some sons thoughtfully did their dad’s bidding. Yes, Rama stole the thunder, courting a life of penury and forgoing his right to kingship to redeem his father’s word to his second wife. Prince Puru and Emperor Yayati exchanged their youth and old age, so that the father could have a second run of his sensuous life. 

Another illustrious son got this commendation from god the lord: ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ To earn the accolade, the son had to bear the fatal cross.