Mohini kyon nahin?

~ on an oddity in the Dashaavataara ~

A parade of heroes - aswim, pedestrian or mounted;

One wonders (or should) why Mohini is not counted.

Put this puzzling situation to the test,

And revealed is gender discrimination among the highest.

Matsya’s inclusion is not a bit fishy;

Parashurama wasn’t axed though he knocked off a rishi.

Kurma supports a mountain and his position is fit;

Vamana’s gambit dwarfs his ambit.

Varaha, a ‘boar’, doesn’t leave you cold;

Narasimha romps home past the threshold.

Rama tirelessly takes bows as the ideal, free from sin;

Krishna is the hot favourite whose mouth butter does melt in.

Balarama manages to plough through,

Though the light may resist shifting from Buddha and crew.

Kalki gets the benefit of the doubt,

Safe on the roster though he still isn’t out.

But Mohini, woman enough for a top priority mission,

Maintainer of the nectar-recipient deva-asura fission,

Collaborator of Shiva on a divine issue,

Is coolly denied a place among the luminaries - her due.

Not because only human forms qualify

As Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and –simha testify.

Krishna and Balarama shared space and time

As they celebrated their arts and curbed crime.

So it isn’t because two incarnations cannot coexist.

Alas, it’s simply because the gods are not at all feminist.