[Raj_Copi_Jin]

Anyway, hehewalrus, that was Shantanu. He was Bheesma's father. It was he who married Ganga.

Badri, thanks for correcting Nice recollection there! I forgot how Bheeshma was born. I remember the point where Ganga takes another baby to the river and Shanthanu follows her and stops her before she tosses that one. Who exactly was Bheeshma's mother?

About Yayati, I am not able to remember much. I can only recollect this fragment : Yayati is going on a chariot with his first wife and they approach a group of boys playing in the forest. The boys note him and cry out "It's father"! Yayati's wife cries out, "Father?? Nooooooo!!!" :P Is that the same Yayati or am I totally wrong there?

Its not true that other than TV there is no way of recollecting these stories. Starting with Krishna(1980) Amar Chitra Katha was released as a fortnightly and covered one character from history/mythology each issue. This was the bread-and-butter of most school kids and they covered arguably lesser known characters in great detail, such as Shikhandi, Parasurama, Hari Singh Nalva. (When I was 12, I fractured my hand and was exempt from school for 2 months. My mother used to get half dozen books daily from the nearby library to keep me occupied. When Mahabharat started in October, my joy knew no bounds - Ramayan had ended in July 88 and the scenes of those funny graphic wars between Indrajith and Ram/Lakshman vanished for a while. Good to see those funny fights where the TV screen shows two toy arrows approaching each other at top speed, with a loud whoooooooooosh sound in the background, and then one arrow hits the other exactly in the middle and splits it into two! After watching those fights, we kids started collecting ballpen refills and fire away on "targets" all over the neighborhood)