Why South Indian Heroes Look Like Ravana

I just had to write this.

I have wondered for sometime as to why my post "Why do South Indian Heroes look like Ravana?" seems to receive the maximum traffic on my blog. I have received so many colourful comments on it so far:

  1. A recommendation to read Ravana Kaviyam by Pulavar Kuzhandai
  2. A recommendation to write pieces on other mythical characters
  3. A touch of sympathy and a comparison with racism
  4. Empathy from a Sri Lankan
  5. A scholastic article on Shaivism vs. Vaishnavism (why my blog, rather than Tattvaloka?)
  6. And a badly hurt Bengali upset that I didn't count Bengali Nobel laureates in the picture
  7. A comment that went on an on about how all Indians are racially one as shown by mtDNA (I know, I know, I've worked on these things myself).
I'd have let the last one be if it hadn't accused me of writing shit. My writings may not exactly be the flower of Indian literature, but I never write shit.

I wonder why I get these comments. My piece does not eulogise Ravana, nor is it an exposition on myth, nor has it anything to do with religious discourse, and certainly not about the racial differences between Aryans & Dravidians. It was an attempt at being a subtle critique of ignorance and parochialism. I guess I have had as much success as Canadian Bacon had poking fun at Americans about their ignorance.

And I wasn't counting Nobel prizes either as a schoolboy oneupmanship game. (Can't you identify a sarcastic remark, folks? Even if it did the Can-can wearing a three-piece suit?)

But now I know the reason why. My blog entry shows up as number 7 on Google for the search term "South Indian Heroes". Why anybody searches for this term, I don't know. One would think the actors were searched for by individual name.

Even worse, why does my blog show up, given I am not in praise of any single one of them?

anyway, thanks to Google, I must pt up with the occassional opinion-haver who must spout forth on Ravana!

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