We discussed it in office the next day. It turned out that one needs to know who Tataka is to understand what the poem is all about ("poem, hence badly sung", Abhi claims). As the discussion continued, I learnt that Tataka is a female character from the great epic 'Ramayana' and she is a Dravidian Asura. Abhi has posted a comment on Facebook, making fun of me asking if Rahul "Dravid" was an asura, when Abhi said dravidians are asuras. (Asura or rakhsasa means a demon). I digress here.
The next few moments of the discussion were as embarassing as it could get, for everyone but me (and Naresh, thank God for him) knew who Tataka was. When I came back home, I posted the question on Facebook, trying to find out how many ignorants lived out there. Some responded and some didn't - those who didn't, I shall safely assume that they are clueless. The responses I received were quite hilarious.
Mahtab thought it was tadka spelt wrong and insisted it was something you add to dal. He also wanted ghee in his dal! Gautam guessed that it was a short Bangladeshi grandfather! Sorry, what? Who? Sowmya sort of got it right when she said a demon in skirt but Prada skirts? Really? Some classy monster that! Then followed Abhi's post in a drunken stupor, explaining that there was no electricity at home because he had not paid his bill in three months. So? Tataka did that?? He deleted the post later and posted equally crazy ones but I won't go into it. One person gets a mention only once. Jeena couldn't take it anymore and found a wiki link which explained who Tataka was. Even after that post, Mahtab took off on another wild goose chase. He wondered if it was another 'Tata car' venture. Guys are crazy, that's what makes them fun I guess :)
Now that I learned who Tataka is, I went back and listened to the poem again. Abhi said I ought to be able to understand the poem now. I tried, did not understand. I give up!
Moral of the story: Buy a copy of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and read up!
Shame on you...
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