Looking back at his brother, Lakshmana, he pushed his way into the crowd to join in the revelry. Although he had never been here before, the sights and smells seemed familiar. His feet carried him down seemingly random streets, every once in a while stopping to buy something from a street vendor, or stopping to watch a show.
While checking out the merchandise at a jewelry stand, Rama felt an odd tugging sensation, almost as though his eyes were being drawn up to the sky. He glanced up towards the balconies, each one full of people appreciating the festivities from afar, but one person in particular caught his eye.
A young woman, about his age was laughing, watching a street performer juggle what looked like bows and arrows. As he watched her face, it seemed to shift and change, almost as though there was another face underneath her own. He knew this girl. He'd never seen her face, but he felt as though he had known her for a thousand years.
Almost as though she could feel his eyes on her, she glanced his way. When they made eye contact, he saw his own recognition reflected in her eyes. Could she feel this sensation, too? Did his face shift under her gaze, showing a thousand other faces? Before he could go to her and answer these questions for himself, he was bumped from behind by another tourist and he lost sight of her.
All day, he couldn't get the stranger out of his head. Rama knew he had to find her. Nothing but fate could have led his feet to that particular spot at that specific time so that he could catch a glimpse of her radiant smile. He fell asleep, dreaming of her eyes meeting his.
***
The next day, Lakshmana and Rama continued their tour of the city. On their way to one of the more historic buildings that had been transformed into a museum, Rama felt a similar tugging sensation to the one he had felt the day before. He looked up and noticed a middle-aged man hunched over, reading a newspaper. What the man did not know, but Rama now did, was that a street performers' trick had malfunctioned, sending a flaming arrow towards the unsuspecting man. Rama was not sure how he knew, but he did. Breaking into a sprint, Rama ran towards the man, tackling him just as the arrow embedded itself in the wall behind him.
As he helped the man to his feet, Rama noticed that he knew this man. Although they had never met, he was an acquaintance of his father.
"Why, young man, you've just saved my life!" the man said after he caught his breath. "I'm Janaka, please, tell me what is your name?"
"I'm Rama," he said, inclining his head. "I believe you know my father, Dasartha?"
At this, Janaka's eyes lit up with recognition. "Of course, my boy! Of course, you must come to dinner," he said, his eyes twinkling.
***
Later that evening, Rama arrived at Janaka's house for dinner. The area seemed familiar to him, but that feeling had not left him for the entirety of his stay here, so he thought nothing of it. He walked in, greeted his host, and took a seat on the couch. Before he could get comfortable, Janaka returned with, to Rama's surprise, the woman he had seen on the balcony the day before.
"Rama, I would like you to meet my lovely daughter, Sita," Janaka said, a mischievous smile on his face.
Rama's heart stopped, and then began racing. She was even more lovely up close! He could not believe that, of all the people he could have saved, it was the father of the mysteriously familiar woman on the balcony. It must have been fate, there was no other explanation.
Rama inclined his head toward Sita, smiling slightly at his fortune, "It is very nice to meet you, Sita."
As he looked up, he noticed she was smiling as well.
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| An image of Rama and Sita found on Wikimedia Commons |
Author's Notes
For this story, I decided to draw from the story of how Rama and Sita first met and fell in love. I tried to modernize my version, but I also tried to draw on some of the other ideas from the story. I always like the idea of reincarnation and cyclical storytelling, so I decided to draw on those aspects. It's a similar setting in the future, after the same thing has happened before. Not only are they incarnations of Vishnu and Lakshmi, they are also reincarnations of Sita and Rama. This story is kind of 'history repeating itself' in a way. That's why I referenced the flashing, familiar faces that Rama noticed, and presumably Sita also noticed, when they first saw each other. I wanted the story to be more practical in modern times, so I did not have him draw a bow, but rather save her father from a bow and arrow mishap, and they also did not get married right away. I tried to imply that Janaka is trying to get them to marry, but I did not want to push it too hard so that it would be more realistic in this setting. I drew my story from the R.K. Narayan version of The Ramayana. There are details on this version here.
Bibliography
"The Wedding" by R.K. Narayan, from The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (2006)
I also chose this story for the second week of the storytelling project! However, I was not as creative as you were! This story that you invented based on the original one is amazing! Your story is from the Narayan Ramyana and mine comes from the Public Domain Ramayana. I love how we can write on the same story, yet they can be so different!
ReplyDeleteThis was a skilled retelling of the original story. I don’t know if you have ever seen BBC Sherlock, but basically they modernize Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s version. Reading your story reminded me of how they did that in the show. I appreciate the way you changed Rama snapping the bow to Rama saving the father. This makes more sense in a modern version. I like the feeling that you present with your writing. The way that the romance was almost silently building was a great depiction. It reminded me of a Nicholas Sparks story.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if I would change a lot of things about the way you wrote this. There was not a lot of dialogue, but I think that kind of lent to the unspoken romance that was developing. I probably would have built of the scene were Rama saves Sita’s father. That was a big climactic event of your story. Perhaps you could have described the way Rama knew to save the father. Otherwise, it was a great story.
Reading your story, I really liked how you retold how Sita and Rama originally fell in love. The setting was immediately evident in your story, and I liked how you told a lot of the story without dialogue. One of the things I really liked was the indication that this was a love that lasted for lifetimes, a thousand years, a thousand faces; the repetition of the time and number drove home the idea that they were always destined for each other.
ReplyDeleteI might have spent a little more time on Rama saving Janaka. It's a major turning point in the story, and they seem to get over the fact that Janaka almost died fairly quickly. Definitely not a major flaw though, it still worked great for the story!
I didn't quite get that Janaka was playing a long game, trying to get the two to marry, but at the same time, if that had happened too quickly, it wouldn't have made sense for the time period. I loved the last line of your story. I so want to know what happened after they met officially, but I know if there was more it would take the power out of that line, so I think you made a good decision there. Nice work!
Interesting modern take on this epic. I was thinking it is hard and fun to try to take these stories and put them in context we better understand. By placing theme in a more modern time, I think it helps us relate to these epics. Many of these characters and storylines we have never been exposed too. The story overall I liked how you split it up into days. One suggestion could be a deeper interaction between the two before they meet. I just thought of this but a flashback into one of their other lives while he was dreaming would have been trippy!
ReplyDeleteJanaka character could have potentially had more depth. But, I liked how he was saved by Rama and the arrow. It could have been a little more suspenseful or elaborated better. I didn't get the feel though that we was trying to connect them. Other observation/suggestion would have been if Rama said a statement or recalled something that she responded to that was from a past life such as a statement or a nickname he gave her. Maybe it could have been something about her that no one else would know but Rama. Right now, I am just trying to brainstorm on other ideas on top of a great story already.