Rama And Me

Richard Marcus

2 April 2007, 18:46

I suppose some of you must be wondering how it is that someone with the decidedly non-Desi name of Richard Marcus came to be editor of a web magazine with the name of Epic India. Well the answer is really quite simple and can be summed up with one word, Rama.

You see if I had never picked up a copy of Ashok Banker’s Prince of Ayodhya I never would have even probably started reviewing or blogging, which means I would have never ended up here. Let me backtrack a bit and I’ll try to explain.

Almost three years ago now I was walking through a book store and saw Prince of Ayodhya sitting on the shelf of a store. Something, and if you have ever seen the original North American edition you’ll know it wasn’t the cover, about it caused me to pick it up and read the back cover. Now it so happens I knew the name Valmiki, and not because of the story of Rama, but because a friend’s ex- boy friend ran a teashop called Valmiki’s for a while in Kingston Ontario, Canada where I lived.

Like Valmiki, and a number of Kinstonians, as we have seven federal prisons in our vicinity, he was a reformed thief who had found his way clear following a yogic path of non-violence. My friend who had partnered with him is a convert to Hindu and had taught him enough that he was able to work his way clear of most of his demons. Upon his release he continued to follow that path and even went the ashram in Quebec that my friend’s family were part of.

So I already had a connection with Valmiki before I had even picked up the books, and when I read on the back that this was a modern adaptation of something he had come up with 3,000 years ago I was hooked. Of course once I started reading the first book it was Ashok who hooked me.

I entered a whole new world that I knew absolutely nothing about and it was like having a personal tour guide into the history of another culture. At that time the first three books were available in Canada so immediately upon finishing the first I went out and bought Siege Of Mithila and Demons Of Chitrakut.

I didn’t have my own blog at them time but I felt I had to write something about these great books. So I found a web site called MouthShut.com that published reviews of all sorts of items, and posted a review that I called “A Taste Of Curry”, as I felt like a foreigner sampling someone else’s culture at the time. Shortly after that I started my first blog and it was one of the first reviews I ever published on it.

It was also around this time that I discovered Ashok Banker’s original web site and saw that he had a place where readers could write into. So I wrote him about the story of the Valmiki tearoom and gave him a link to my review of the first three books. He sent me a very nice reply and we began a sporadic correspondence.

When Armies Of Hanuman was released I grabbed a copy immediately, read it and reviewed it. By this time I was writing for Blogcritics.org as well as my own blog and posted my Hanuman review to both sites and again submitted it to Ashok’s site. I was one of the fortunate number that he chose to receive a free copy of Bridge Of Rama when it was released based on my review.

It was because of that confidence Ashok instilled in me through his generous support that I worked up the nerve to approach him for an interview. To my delight he agreed and we spent a day for him and a night for me exchanging emails containing questions and answers about him, the books, his plans, and the nature of the world.

Now I have my own spiritual path which I’m very happy with, but that doesn’t stop me from seeing the value or being interested in the ideas and concepts expressed by other faiths. In particular the concept of dharma attracted me because being an artist is all about fulfilling your duty to your art and yourself. It’s only by doing that you are complete as a human being; denying your need to express yourself artistically is to deny a large portion of yourself and the obligation you have to creative energy.

What I found so amazing about this was how closely it articulated how I’d always felt about my relationship to my creativity. There had been many occasions where I’d heard the word dharma used either idiotically, Dharma and Greg springs to mind, or in all seriousness but Id never even come close to understanding it before reading Ashok’s Ramayana.

What I took from it was that I was a writer because I had no choice but to write and by not writing I was denying myself not only the pleasure I get from writing, but my dharma. So I write – everyday almost without fail because I have to write something or I feel less then complete. Since November of 2005 I have written a 125,000 word novel, close to 700 article of various size and nature, self published two collections of my articles through Lulu.com and tossed off the occasional poem.

Of course two of the items I reviewed during this time were Bridge Of Rama and King Of Ayodhya, and it was early in 2006 that Ashok invited me to start blogging through his Epic India portal. Since then we have been in touch on a regular basis with Ashok giving me advice and encouragement with trying to find a publisher for my book.

So when he asked me if I could take over the editing of his web portal Epic India with an eye for turning it in to an online Arts and Culture magazine I only had to think about it for a bit before saying yes. Not only is this a great opportunity for me, it’s also my chance to repay a friend for all the assistance that he has given me of over the last couple of years. To me that is as important as any other reason.

Comment

  1. Rama…

    how many times have i chanted this name… felt his presence..desired to see him atleast once…
    As a person who tries for spiritual perfection, rama has always been my role model.. hero…guru…and above all my god to whose feet I would like to surrender whatever i had of me…

    Two years ago… must be september of 2005… i saw him in my dream… not his picture… not his sculpture… it was him… the real rama… in his original form… he was in his private chamber…with mother sita… which i guessed could be their first night…

    The most handsome face i ever saw in my life time… skin dark blue in colour… physic in perfect shape… muscular… not fat not thin just pefect… not a single extra loose muscle….hair combed neatly towards the back of the head ending in a curve behind the neck…he only wore two ornaments… one a gold necklace with a single pendant…. the other was a ring on his right hand’s ring finger…

    He was sitting on the bed and facing mother sita… i could not see her face but could sense… that she was very shy…yet very happy… at the same time she had a lot of respect for him…......

    After i had this dream… i found happiness in thinking of rama… i took him with me in my mind where ever i go… in any circumstance i started to think how rama would behave in that situation and behaved the same way…

    I am happy and proud that i got a glimpse of him like valmiki… so i wanted more of his visions.. i wanted to watch his life like a flash back ….

    I purchased a ramayana… which only resulted in disappointment… that book was only a narration of incidents… it did not show me rama the way i wanted to see…

    After some time when i was in LANDMARK-chennai… i saw the book PRINCE OF AYODHYA... you know how i would have felt…thank you ASHOK BANKER... YOU SHOWED ME MY RAMA... i am grate ful… i have just completed the first book… going to start THE SEIGE OF MITHILA... i feel a like a child who is eager to wear his birthday dress the next morning….

    thank you…

    — Ramesh Sadasivam · Apr 12, 02:48 · #

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