Week 4 Story: Busy Season
Rama was feeling SAD. His seasonal affective disorder heightened over this long rainy season. He missed his sun, Sita. The days were dark and gloomy and Rama felt like he was wasting away. Lakshmana and Rama spent their time sparring in preparation for the great battle ahead. They worked day in and night. While training, they noticed that Sugriva spent his days in preparation for a famine. He ate all day and danced with his wives all night. This continued throughout the rainy season.
Towards the end of the season, Rama became very angry. He didn't understand why Sugriva was doing nothing to prepare for the war against Ravana. Rama sent Lakshaman to confront Sugriva of his idleness. Lakshaman approached Sugriva and demanded that he call his armies to come and search for Sita. Of course, the loyal Sugriva called upon his armies and deployed thousands of them in search of Sita. Satisfied, Lakshaman left to report the good news to Rama.
As the rainy season came to an end, Sugriva thought back to the beginning. He had enlisted that six of his armies to begin training. The armies were being prepared to travel far and wide to search for Sita. They were going to travel on different terrain and in different climates. The training included strength training and tactical skills. They were expected to stick to a strict regime and diet. They trained 14 hours a day. Sugriva, worried that his armies wouldn't be good enough to find Sita, ate away his worries during the day and danced them away at night. The day Lakshmana approached him was the same day that Sugriva received word from his generals that the armies were prepped and ready to go. Sugriva breathed a sigh of relief and bide ado to this dreadful busy season.
Authors Note:
Rama was angry to see that Sugriva had done nothing during the rainy season. He told his brother Lakshaman to confront Sugriva. After the confrontation, Sugriva sent out 6 of his armies to search for Sita. In my story, Sugriva was actually training his armies to find Sita.
Bibliography:
The Armies by Donald A. Mackenzie
Towards the end of the season, Rama became very angry. He didn't understand why Sugriva was doing nothing to prepare for the war against Ravana. Rama sent Lakshaman to confront Sugriva of his idleness. Lakshaman approached Sugriva and demanded that he call his armies to come and search for Sita. Of course, the loyal Sugriva called upon his armies and deployed thousands of them in search of Sita. Satisfied, Lakshaman left to report the good news to Rama.
As the rainy season came to an end, Sugriva thought back to the beginning. He had enlisted that six of his armies to begin training. The armies were being prepared to travel far and wide to search for Sita. They were going to travel on different terrain and in different climates. The training included strength training and tactical skills. They were expected to stick to a strict regime and diet. They trained 14 hours a day. Sugriva, worried that his armies wouldn't be good enough to find Sita, ate away his worries during the day and danced them away at night. The day Lakshmana approached him was the same day that Sugriva received word from his generals that the armies were prepped and ready to go. Sugriva breathed a sigh of relief and bide ado to this dreadful busy season.
Authors Note:
Rama was angry to see that Sugriva had done nothing during the rainy season. He told his brother Lakshaman to confront Sugriva. After the confrontation, Sugriva sent out 6 of his armies to search for Sita. In my story, Sugriva was actually training his armies to find Sita.
Bibliography:
The Armies by Donald A. Mackenzie
Lakshaman talking to Sugriva. web source
Jasmin – I very much loved your play on words [or whatever you call it] with the SAD thing, Rama, and Sita as the sun. Very creative and pretty adorable. Also, what the heck? Sugriva’s armies were expected to stick to a strict regime and diet but Sugriva was just over there eating all day? What a hypocrite. He should be deposed.
ReplyDeleteHey Jasmin, I really enjoyed this read and loved how you were able to show your creativity in a story like this. By showing how hypocritical Sugriva is a shows a lot about what may of us perceive rulers to be, I do not know if you did this on purpose or not but it is a great parallel to our society and how we view those with power.
ReplyDeleteHey Jasmin! I really loved your version of the story. I loved how you included how hypocritical rulers like Sugriva often are in stories (and history). I really loved that you changed it to where Rama was training them all this time. It makes it feel like a much more active story and that Sita's absence was really affecting him.
ReplyDeleteHi Jasmin! I like how Sugriva gets a deeper, more complicated character in your story. Originally, he is dancing and eating for pure frivolity but in yours I love how it is a distraction from his fears and anxieties. I would have really loved to see more of that, his complex thought process about how it feels freeing to behave that way. I wondered if others, like his generals, saw it as abandoning or neglecting his duties and his promise to Rama? My suggestion would be to lengthen the story a bit, giving it more room to develop Sugriva and the story's potency. I would have loved some imagery of him dancing about, but it was also a good story without it! Another thing that could help a reader is to place your author's note before the story. Once I read the author's note, things made more sense to me and I understood a little better where we were in the Ramayana.
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