Platonic relationships in Literature

Eugenie Grandet is the eponymous heroine of Balzac's famous novel. She, the daughter of a rich miser, falls in love with her cousin. He, however, after promising to marry her, leaves & on his return, (in debt), wants to marry someone else for his social advancement. Eugenie pays his debts & sets him free. On the advice of the local clergyman, she marries a local luminary, stipulating however that he not insist on his conjugal rights. He dies after a few years, leaving her a richer widow. Though in her thirties & still handsome, she leads the rest of her life  devoted to philanthropy.

Lucia, in the Mapp & Lucia set of novels by E. F. Benson, is married to "Pepino" & is attended by "Georgie" as knight errant. After Pepino's death, Lucia & Georgie decide to marry for social reasons only, They are still only middle aged but holding contemporary Freud's ideas in abhorrence, decide not to consummate their marriage.

Hoovaiah & Seeta in Kuvempu's "Kanooru Heggadithi", fall in love. But due to elders'  machinations, Seeta is married off to Hoovaiah's younger cousin. But the cousin commits suicide, due to a traumatic event in the family. Hoovaiah is of a spiritual disposition much like Alyosha in Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", & has remained unmarried. Though Seeta, now widowed, lives in the same village, their earlier romance moves into a spiritual plane, not needing physical proximity. Both engage in social service in the village.

"World Elder Abuse Awareness Day - June 15"

It is the "new normal" to neglect elderly parents & consign them to old age homes. It may also be due to the fact that millennials are not well read enough to realise that there are better role models in literature.

In Ramayana, a teenager named Shravan Kumar appears, whose filial piety is exemplary. Dasharatha, Rama's father, kills him accidentally & is cursed by his grieving parents to die when separated from his son, Rama.

In Padma Purana, the story of Pundalik appears. Unlike Shravan Kumar, he was married, uxorious & neglected his parents at first. However, a Sage named Kukkuta, advised him to mend his ways. He did, to such an extent that when Krishna visited him, he asked him to wait till he finished serving his parents!

Even in Western literature, two novels stand out. In George Eliot's "Silas Marner", Eppie, abandoned by her rich father, is brought up by Silas. When her biological father later offers her wealth & status, she refuses & stays with Silas as a loving pillar of strength even after marrying a poor but good farmer.

In L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" Anne Shirley, an orphan, adopted by elderly siblings Matthew & Marilla, sacrifices her higher education to live with Marilla in her old age after Matthew's death. It should be noted that both Eppie & Anne are not even related by blood to the elderly people they choose to live with!

Raga of Two Legends

When Satyajit Ray passed away in 1992, his friend & early collaborator in providing music for his films, Pandit Ravi Shankar created a Raga named "Satyajit" to pay respect to his memory. He recorded it in 2012, when he himself was 92!

As Panditji himself has stated, this Raga is derived using the "murchana" system from the popular morning Raga, Ahir Bhairav, by shifting the tonic to the fourth. So the notes of the new Raga are, 

1.Shadja.                      C

2.Shuddha Rishabha       D

3.Komal Gandhara.        Eb

4.Shuddh Madhyama.    F

5.Teevra Madhyama.     F#

6 Shuddha Dhaivata.     A

7.⁠ ⁠Komal Nishada.         Bb

Panchama (G) is omitted. The use of both Madhyamas (F & F#) side by side, gives the Raga shades of another morning raga, Lalit.

Connosieurs of Western Classical Music will notice that "Murchana" is conspicuous there also by the name of "Modulation." The Master of Modulation was Mozart.