Modern love

"Phir se Radha-Krishna! Can't classical dancers find some new, real things to say that are relevant to the modern world?! Same old perfect love stories." I've heard this thought aloud very often. And I've thought a lot about it: Is Odissi really outdated in such ways? Can it not speak to the everyday, only to the sublime?

But the more I dance Radha-Krishna dances, the more I feel that theirs is the strangest love, far from perfect. Krishna is a god born as a human avatar, aware of his destiny and future that will have nothing to do with Radha: he will leave Vrindavan, go to Dwarka where he will rule as a good king married to the good queen Rukmini. Radha is already an older woman, much married and entrenched in a domestic reality; she will go back to grihast jeevan while in love with a man who will never be a part of her worldly life. Their love is tragic; doomed from the start.

But they still love. Not always in a sublime way: they make love, they sweat, they betray, they play games, they suffer heartbreak, confront each other sometimes and stay in denial at other times. "It's complicated", to put it very crudely in words 'relevant' to our times.

Perhaps what's really modern about this relationship, like all deep relationships in our world, is that it embodies the sublime in the everyday. Like an idea or a belief, Krishna is not just a man, but an emotion - that makes Radha a hero, inspired to act with a courage unknown to her before, rising beyond the definitions she was raised with. We all are her, looking for that one phenomenon or force - that one madness that gives us meaning. Some of us find that Krishna in an idol, some in art, some in family, some in humanity. If that isn't sublime, I don't know what is.

Photo credit: Mansi Thapliyal