The moment when Ram semi-opened his eyes for the first time and the lady in white rejoiced “It’s a boy”, Ram knew he had won HALF the battle.
The second half of the battle, called life, was an intense struggle for freedom and superiority. Ram was constantly subdued by the overachieving Sita. While he was forced to go to school and study, she had it simple with little coercion towards education. She could afford to get low marks (which she seldom did) but he would be scolded, insulted and threatened and he had to get high grades (which he seldom did). While he had only to play games, she also got to learn household activities. Sita even got first preference to worship the almighty Gods (and Goddesses), doing puja and getting first darshan, while Ram had to be satisfied with the prasadam in the end.
No matter…he vowed to have his vengeance later on.
But even later, Sita had life simple and handed on a silver platter. Early retirement from education, no remarks when being jobless at home, complete rest for the 10 months of torture and excruciating pain and don’t even get started on the attention after that! Earlier, it was still OK when Sita used to do all the household work, take care of the house, children, Ram, relatives, guests and herself, while Ram worked tirelessly and came back home. But now, thanks to gender equality, She took control of working tirelessly as well…along with household work, taking care etc. What a biased world, wondered Ram!? No amount of compensation during marriage seemed to suffice the takeover of life by Sita.
Finally, illness passed along and Ram got sick; Sita tried to redeem herself of her past deeds with dutiful servicing and unconditional care, but to no avail. The circle of death eventually took Ram’s life away and that’s when Sita realized… she had lost the other HALF of the battle too.
