Naming of the Blog

It’s a bit smart-alecky to bill this blog, Chakraview. Pretentious, even—I’ll grant extremists that. But I’m driven by an idea beyond a convenient pun. Those of you up to speed on Hindu mythology would recognize this bastardization of “chakravyuh” from Mahabharata.

That strategy of a battlefield maze of concentric circles of soldiers and other belligerent obstacles led to the death of the young warrior Abhimanyu of the Pandava clan. He was the son of archery wizard and that great sower of wild rice, Arjuna. Abhimanyu died, cunningly trapped by strategists of the Kaurava clan, over which the Pandavas ultimately--and pyrrhically--gained victory. You will know the frustrating strategy. Scientists among you who watch rats work a maze, or children among you who try to work little steel balls into the centre of a plastic chakravyuh, will know what this means.

The rats and steel balls try to get in. Abhimanyu was trying to get out.

Abhimanyu died a martyr to a lost cause, without knowing the cause was lost. The Japanese worship this attitude of full living. Seppuku, or hara-kiri, is only one of the manifestations, and an extreme one, of what they call “nobility of failure”.

Dear friends of mine in Delhi have a son called Abhimanyu. When he and my daughter were infants, us parents would joke about matchmaking. Then it was discovered that jolly little Abhimanyu is autistic. That dream drowned in tears, and was reworked in fortitude. Brave little Abhimanyu. He screams. He is difficult. He loves music. He swims like a dolphin. He rides a horse as if he and the animal are melded as a centaur. He and my daughter, who is “normal”, are friends. I am so proud.

A German friend married to an Indian lady had a son by each other (these days, such distinctions can be important). He e-mailed me asking for names. I thought, what the hell: Abhimanyu. I explained the legend. His reply had an alternate name: Nikhil.

Chicken.

Since, I have met several Abhimanyus. Some are very successful, some are not. Most appear contented battling the chakravyuh of life.

They are survivors. They are winners. Some know of the nobility of failure without even knowing of this beautiful phrase. They aren’t losers. They live life fully without knowledge of ultimate failure or success. How do you tell the future? As that is difficult, the present remains a noble pursuit.

This is the story of the naming of this blog, such as it is. It’s a pun on my name, and my point of view. But you should know where it comes from, even if you don’t agree with it. As this blog develops, if this blog develops (chakravyuh, chakraview), I hope to share stray thoughts and feelings about what I have seen, heard and read.

Writers and journalists know, as much as any other subspecies of Homo sapiens, the meaning of Abhimanyu, the chakravyuh, and the nobility of failure.

Yet, we persist.