BRINJAL STORY

My dad used to be a wonderful story teller among many other things. He used to enthrall the children around him with his animated sessions in which the demons and gods from the Indian epics would come alive. He would act out so well miming the characters that the episode he was narrating would come alive in our mind, like a movie!

Even the adults used to be drawn into the hypnotic performance. The more he said the more the kids adored him. 

One day the brinjal fry made for the lunch was unanimously rejected by us kids, which made my mom mad. No amount of tempting, cajoling, bribing and chiding would make us eat the stuff. If the leader rejected all the disciples would not dare eat it! Finally mom came to her wits end and turned to dad.

Then he embarked on a story which went like this: There was once a Brahmin who abandoned his righteous deity and resorted to baser life. His only qualification was his culinary expertise, which made him sufficiently rich to indulge in nefarious activities. 

As his life span came to an end, Yama, the snatcher of life called on him to announce about his impending departure to the netherworld. The Brahmin nonchalantly, but politely suggested the Lord of Death should accept his hospitality and should have the brinjal fry that he had just made. It was hot and tasty, so it was such a shame to abandon it to rot! 

Yama who was hungry, readily agreed to have it and soon forgot all about his mission. 

Irked by the undue delay, Brahman came to the Brahmin's house to enquire. Yama, knowing this, was flustered. The vile Brahmin assured him he could park himself in one of the rooms and to keep him company, a plate of the succulent brinjal would be served. 

The lord of Creation soon landed and pompously asked the whereabouts of Yama who was supposed to have bound his soul and left. Again the Brahmin used the same ploy to trap the unsuspecting Brahma and he too was rushed in in a hurry when the angry Shiva descended. 

Shiva too was ensnared the very same way. Finally it was the turn of Lord Vishnu, who presently came to ask the Brahmin to pack up and get ready to leave. The cunning cook tried to fool the Supreme God, but He knew better. The brahmin having come to realize the futility of trying to con the Lord, agreed to go to hell but wanted a question answered. 

The Culinary expert informed the irritated God, that according to the scholars it was not possible for an individual to land in hell if he saw the Holy Trinity. Vishnu agreed with him. 

Soon a smile lit up on the God's countenance. He knew the sinner had had him! He couldn't but admire the presence of mind of the noxious individual and allowed him to go to heaven, and the sheepish looking Brahma, Shiva and Yama went away fancying how brinjal could be made this tasty! 

At the end, all of us ate the brinjal fry that mom had made without any further fuss and realized it was tasty indeed.