Harry Potter and the Mahabharata

Have been a silent observer of the Harry Potter buzz - at its crescendo now with the 7th and final (?) serving - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, millions of copies of which, I am told are being guarded by specially trained ninjas with 0071/2 privileges ... lest someone spill the beans (and pages) before 21 July 2007! shudder shudder ...


If you are a religious zealot, now is the time to leave ... OK Bye.

No - seriously.

My daily dose of Google news today enlightened me with the fact that there are some religious groups out there that protest the Harry Potter phenomenon since it promotes the idea of witchcraft - and makes people believe in the occult and likes ... and more importantly it takes them further away from a 2000 year old religion that furiously scoffs at geologists and the likes. These groups "firmly" believe that the crude-Oil in Angola was formed sometime between 8:32pm and 8:47pm on the 4th Day a couple of hours after sunset - about 24 hours after the Mountains were completed! And oh - they tell me that the whole dinosaur business is a scam!**

But this is not about that at all ... really.

There was talk in the same article on how the Church is using Harry to spread Christianity especially among the youth. This at the same time when Mr. Eli Yishai in Israel is irked over the launch "time" of the book - strange world we live in I must say. ( But I have to be amazed at the amazing coincidence of the timing of 2:01 am – down to the minute!)


And then ... It came to me (about time)

10 years and 325 million copies sold already. That's a third of India's population give or take a few (million) . Fast forward a few more decades (and a few more movies, a few billion blogs, comics, animation yada yada yada ) and this book might probably end up in everyone's homes ... each and everyone on the Planet!!! Now I don't own a copy of the Gita but I do have a Bible which I'm guessing is the most "available" book in the world ... and we all know the basic story of Jesus in some form or the other.

Brace Yourself -

~I think Harry Potter could be even bigger~

There I said it!

Give it a 1000 years or two and Harry Potter may transcend from fiction to Mythology ... various caveats and "additional chapters" later we might be looking at a whole new religion … the backbone of which would be this trilogy in 7 parts! There's lots of action, revenge, some romance, torture ... and of course lots of messages. The perfect Mix if you ask me.

Ah! Maybe that’s what the Ramayana and Mahabharata were - record-breaking bestsellers, some 10-20 thousand years ago ... innocent readers at the time were not aware of the mass phenomenon to come …

...

That’s it! I need to start reading these books ASAP … And then write some “previously-unreleased” material! You won’t be laughing when a few thousand years from now my family will enjoy special privileges in society because they are direct descendants of Harry’s special friend from India – me – ! Heck they might even make a “Code” movie then … but for now I need a serving of Hari Puttar …

** In my weeks in Angola, I have had the fortune of experiencing the jovial nature of geologists and seismic engineers and I can see some of their serious predicaments as far as faith and job are concerned!