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Ekalaya bowed at Resi Dorna’s feet. As he did this, his long and loosened hair fell forward, brushing the elderly man’s toes and causing him to finally feel the sincerity of the young man’s plea.

He stroked Ekalaya’s head. “All right then, my son, I shall grant your wish.”

Fireworks exploded in Ekalaya’s eyes. His happiness was so real, he kissed Dorna’s feet and then ran off shouting through the forest. He cried to all of nature that one day he would be the best bowman in the world.

Dorna watched the young man with a slight but distinct feeling of unease. What might transpire in the future, he wondered, as a result of his rashness in granting the wishes of a young man, a stranger to him, who had suddenly appeared before him in the forest?

“And then what happened?” I asked, because Ayah had paused for such a long time.

“Shush, the film is about to begin.”

Ayah turned his head and pointed to the other film-goers who were preparing their blankets on the ground. As twilight fell on Domaine de Saint-Cloud, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai began to play on the large outdoor screen. Usually, this was the time I had been waiting for, this shared time of easy intimacy with my parents as we snuggled together between blankets. Maman always brought an extra blanket with her to these viewings, because lying on the ground, close together in the open air, was something the Dimas Suryo family always did. We felt as one together. Warm and close. To this day Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Rashomon are for me two of the best films ever made. Between childhood and the time I enrolled at the Sorbonne, I must have watched Rashomon eight times, and at least four of those times with my parents. At each viewing, my father always said the same thing: “Everyone has his own version of history.”

When I was older, I often fantasized about Akira Kurosawa being entrusted to adapt the Mahabharata to screen, as he had done with King Lear and Macbeth , transforming them into distinctly Japanese films. As an adolescent I also watched and came to love the works of Federico Fellini and Jean-Luc Godard; but for me their films could never compare with shadow tales from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana , and Panji Semirang . In wayang tales there are always unexpected surprises — which is why, when Ayah stopped telling me the story of Ekalaya before it was finished, I was unable to concentrate on watching Seven Samurai .

As soon as the film was over, we dug into the hamper Maman had brought along containing food Ayah had prepared: nasi kuning , tiny potato sticks seasoned with chili, and dried rendang . Usually after a film, it being late in the evening, I was so hungry that I wouldn’t speak until I had gobbled all my food. But that night, even with my mouth full, I tried to force Ayah to finish the story of Ekalaya. He resisted my pleas, saying that he wouldn’t tell me the rest until after he’d finished his meal. He chewed his rice slowly as if he had all the time in the world ahead of him. Meanwhile, I hurriedly finished my rice, expecting that Ayah would take notice and heed my wishes. And, after ever so long, he finally did…

Years passed, and after the five Pandawa brothers and their one hundred Kurawa cousins reached adulthood, the third brother, Arjuna, came to be the best bowman in the entire universe, just as it had been foretold. No one could deny this; no one could challenge him. From every shooting contest, large or small, Arjuna always emerged victorious.

And so it was, one day, in a forest sprinkled with the color of lavender because of the many purple flowers growing there, Arjuna, Bima, and their group of hunters espied a deer in the distance. Arjuna was just preparing to shoot his arrow when, suddenly, a sharp series of sounds was heard — Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! — that came in impossibly rapid succession.

At almost the same instant, five arrows impaled themselves into the heart of the unlucky deer, killing it immediately. It was not only Arjuna’s courtiers who shook their heads in wonder; no one was more surprised or chagrined than Arjuna, the world’s best bowman. He asked himself who could possibly kill a deer with such expertise and with no less than five arrows in the deer’s heart. All the knights and jesters and, even more so, Arjuna, knew very well that a person who could shoot five arrows directly into the heart of a deer was someone to be reckoned with.

After calming his breathing, Bima finally asked his brother Arjuna the question on everyone’s mind: “Who shot those arrows? Did Resi Dorna follow us? Might our guru be testing us?”

Bima’s questions were meant to console Arjuna, who was now intensely disappointed to have discovered that there was in this world a better bowman than he. If that man were Resi Dorna, Arjuna reasoned, that would be acceptable, for Resi Dorna was their teacher, after all.

The bushes moved. Without a smile widening his face, Arjuna’s mien looked long — as well as clouded and dark from jealousy. He was sure the bowman was not Resi Dorna; his guru would not have devised such a test. It had to be another warrior.

Arjuna followed the rustling movement of the bushes. When he parted the bush with his arms, he saw before him a towering man with a bow and arrows. The man’s skin glistened in the sunlight. Arjuna was again surprised and his heart flamed hotter with jealousy. Who was this man with the dark and gleaming skin? From whence had he gained his mastery with the bow and arrow?

“Who are you?” asked Bima, who was now standing at Arjuna’s back.

“I am Ekalaya from the clan of Hiranyadanush.”

Arjuna leaned forward, breathing in gusts: “And where did you learn to shoot like that?”

With his eyes full of stars, Ekalaya answered, “From Resi Dorna.”

All the trees in the forest shook with Arjuna’s cries of anger.

Ayah stopped speaking.

“So, was Ekalaya lying?” I demanded to know.

“No, he was not. What he had done was this: he’d made an effigy of Resi Dorna to which he bowed every day before his practice. Even though he trained himself to shoot, he felt that Dorna’s spirit and soul had entered him through the effigy that he had created; it was this that had made him succeed in becoming a better bowman than Arjuna.”

I stopped to think. I knew for sure that the story didn’t end there, because in the Mahabharata, Arjuna was always referred to as the best bowman in the universe. What happened to Ekalaya?

“Arjuna whined and complained to Dorna. And Dorna, who was surprised to discover that someone had been able to learn from him at a distance, without ever having studied with him face to face, went to find Ekalaya. Dorna was astonished and proud, but then rankled, too, because he knew he had to do something to stop Arjuna from bellyaching like a spoiled brat.”

Ayah’s voice grew louder, as if he were angry. I wondered why.

“As was the custom, after a guru has transferred his knowledge to a student, there is a kind of handing-over ceremony called a guru-dakshina .”

“A guru-dakshina ? What happens there?” I asked.

“During such a ceremony, the student must present to his teacher something the teacher has requested as a formal sign that his lessons are now complete.”

“And did Resi Dorna ask for something from Ekalaya?” I asked, trying to guess what it was.

“Yes, he did,” Ayah said with a tremble in his voice.

“What was it?” I then asked.

“Dorna asked Ekalaya to give him the thumb of his right hand.”