This stream-of-consciousness yarn, spun on an impulse, was triggered by a recent news item and video doing the rounds on social media about a fight over pappadams at a feast in Alappuzha, Kerala, with the festive Onam season round the corner. Absence or shortage of pappadams, which have a rightful place in the top left corner of the traditional banana-leaf ‘sadhya’ of the Malayalee, led to a verbal spat that quickly progressed into fisticuffs, setting off this speculative flashback.
Statutory warning: This fib is not to be confused with mythology.
So, as the story goes, there once was this king, Maveli or Mahabali, whose rule was so munificent and egalitarian, taking care of everything every one of his subjects required or desired, that they had no worries or troubles or unfulfilled needs or aspirations, and gave no thought to after-life and didn’t bother to pray or worship their gods. The gods, in utter panic, convened an emergency meeting and decided something had to be done, and urgently, to get the people back to prayer and worship – because otherwise gods as a heavenly category supposedly in ultimate charge of everything would be rendered redundant and useless. After much divine deliberation they came up with a plan and entrusted Vishnu with the task of executing it.
