Week 2, Storytelling: Love and Marriage...

One day Rama and Siva were sitting around their condo, drinking coffee, talking, and basically enjoying their morning. Rama went outside to get the morning newspaper as usual and as he stood up he saw this BEAUTIFUL woman walking by with her dog. His mouth literally dropped open and he stood there until he could not see her anymore. After shaking his head to regain his bearings, he turned around and went back inside. He told Siva, who had already started reading the paper, about the woman he had saw, but she just muttered a response, not really hearing him, already engrossed in the article. Rama spent the whole day in a daze daydreaming about the beautiful woman.

The next day, Rama went outside again to get the paper and the same beautiful woman was walking her dog again. He had thought all night about what he would say to her if he saw her again. He waved hello and she waved back. He then introduced himself as did she. Her name was Suparnakha. She said she had been walking by his house everyday waiting for him to notice her. Now that he had, she intended to have him. She was getting really close when Siva walked up into the doorway to see what was going on. When she realized what was happening she started shooing the woman away and telling her to leave. Rama turned on her and said he would not allow her to get in the way of his and Suparnakha's love and that he would be asking for a divorce. Siva was obviously not happy about the quick turn of events, but turned and walked back inside, not knowing what to do. Rama and Suparnakha walked off together as Siva watched from the window.

She could not believe he was doing this to her. She would make him PAY! Oh, yes, she would get him where it hurt. His dad was a big wig politician and had plenty of money for her to go after. She went and visited a lawyer who gladly took her case and won. Now Siva had the condo, enough alimony to keep her comfortable and nothing else to do. After the divorce was final, Siva began to become depressed. She bought a kitten to see if that would ease her loneliness. The kitten soon grew to a cat and no longer needed Siva's constant attention, so she bought another kitten. The dependence of that one soon waned and so her collection of cats began.

Now, if you want to see Siva, you can walk by the condo that she used to share with Rama and see children outside looking in and laughing at her. She is there on the couch every day watching soap operas and eating bonbon's surrounded by all of her cats.

Rama Spurs Suparnakha by Warwick Goble. Date unknown. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note: I based this story on the meeting of Soorpanaka, the demon sister of Ravana, and Rama, the protagonist of the story. In the original, Rama rejects Soorpanaka in her human form (Suparnakha) and decides to go back inside with his wife, Siva. In this story I wondered what would have happened to Siva if Rama had went with Soorpanaka. I kind of saw her as a Peg Bundy from "Married With Children".

Bibliography: "The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic" by R.K. Narayan, 1973.

Week 2, Reading Diary: Ramayana

This reading went a lot smoother than the last. I don't know if I just had to get into the swing of reading again or what, but this section was also more exciting to me.

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived ... Continued
The rest of the story pretty much goes like this...
So, Kaikey has pissed everyone off in the kingdom, ESPECIALLY Lakshmana, Rama's half brother. He basically went around town like a macho man on steroids wanting to fight everyone. Rama told him to chill and that it was fate's decision that he should go into the woods. Lakshmana and Situ, Rama's wife, go into the woods to be with him. On their way out of town, half of the town follows them. Rama decided to take off in the night with Situ and Lakshmana so he could finish his 14 years in peace. Soon after Rama's dad died, Bharatha came home and realized what his mother had done and took off after Rama. After much heeing and hawing they settled on the fact that Bharatha would be King until Rama returned 14 years later.

Ravana, Demon-King of Lanka. Watercolor painting by unknown artist, 1920.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Four Encounters in Exhile
In this chapter, as Rama and company are moving through the woods, they come upon Jatayru, a great eagle, who was once divine. He had also, at one point, been on the battlefield with Rama's father and so Jatayru joined the group. As they went to Panchuati to destroy some demons-especially Ravana, who was head MF in charge-some hot chick showed up in Rama's yard. Turns out, she was really Soorpanaka, Ravana's sister. So, she basically tried to con Rama into ditching Situ by saying that just by being with her he would be safe from Ravana. Rama then said he ain't scared, and told her to bugger off. She gets love sick and decides to take Situ out of the picture herself. Needless to say, she ends up noseless, earless, and boobless...not a good day for Soorpanaka for sure! So, she runs to her brother and gripes hoping he will take Situ for himself so she can run off with Rama. Ravana then goes to his unc's, who has already had two run-ins with Rama before this, and he's like, nope, nuh-huh, not beefin' with Rama again dude. Ravana then threatens his life, so he's like, well, I'm danged if I do and danged if I don't, so let's do this...

Week 2, Reading Diary A: Ramayana

Wow, where to start! Ramayana is a really cool story so far. I like how the story progresses pretty quickly in the beginning with the adventures of Rama and Viswanithia while telling stories of others along the way and then moves right into the good Jerry Springer kind of stuff going on in the family! I did find a few quotes that really stuck with me and wrote those down.

"A seed that sprouts at the foot of it's parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted." 

Viswanithia to King Dasaratha.

"We attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine

and other associations of every piece of ground we tread on."

Thataka's Story
This story is about Sukitha who is a demigod and her two sons, Mareecha and Subahu. Basically they went crazy and tore a bunch of stuff up on the earth. Sundra, their dad, dropped dead because a saint wanted him to. Sukitha and Sons wanted revenge! The saint said that since they were destroyers they would be degraded to demons. Their mother stayed and made the land bad, but the boys, I assume, just roamed about in whatever world that demons hang out in.

Mahabali's Story
This is a story about a sneaky little guy named Vishnu. Mahabali had seized the heavens and the earth and Vishnu told him he just wanted what he could cover in three steps. Vishnu appeared small to Mahabali, so he said, sure, why not, it can't be that bad and then BAM, Vishnu became HUGE and took one step on the earth, one step in heaven and the last on Mahabali's head and sent his butt straight to the netherworld. There are some other things that happened in that story towards the end, but that was the really cool part :)

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived
This is the story about how Rama and Situ met in this life. Before this life they had been husband and wife many times before. The beginning reminded me of Romeo and Juliet a little and I was hoping it wasn't going to end up the same and I wasn't disappointed. I was, however, surprised at the twist. So I guess the King had many wives, not sister wives, but anyway, so the one that wasn't Rama's mom decided she wanted her son, Bharatha, to have the kingdom and not Rama. Long story short, she conned the King into almost sending Rama away for 14 years.

Rama's Coronation. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Ravi Varma Press, 1910.