I despise her. I despise her with an undying passion that burns to the core of my woeful soul. How dare she ask me to exile my beloved son... Our beloved son! My dear Rama will be banished from his kingdom. Bharata will take his place as crown prince. How could she do this to me! Is this a dream? A terrifying dream? Please someone awake me from this nightmare! Is this the work of a rakshasa? Am I mad? I can still remember her poisonous words slipping from her forked tongue, "Banish Rama and crown Bharata! Deny my wishes and I shall drink poison tonight!" What evil has transformed my beautiful wife into a heartless wench? I cannot live with this shame. I feel my heavy heart drowning in the black ink of my guilt. Tonight, the world will hear my sobs echo into the darkness. Although a full moon greets me tonight with such beauty, I must hide my sin from the world. I refuse to be seen in my mournful state. No light shall fall upon my undeserving being. There was no arguing with her. I had to grant my wife her wishes. No.. she is no longer my wife. She is a malicious woman. My hatred for her grows darker with every passing day. I will forever reject Kaikeyi. I despise her.
Kaikeyi
What a stunning night! The moon greets me with its silver light to celebrate the granting of my wishes! Tomorrow my Bharata will be the heir to the kingdom, and Rama will be exiled into the wilderness! It is only fair that Dasharatha grants me my wishes. He vowed to grant me two wishes, therefore he must. He cannot deny me. Oh but how pitiful he is tonight... He sobs in the darkest corner of the palace, asking the gods for forgiveness. He has always been a dramatic king. He refuses to see the ingenuity of my plan. Bharata was living in the shadow of Rama. The healthiest solution was to make Bharata heir to the throne, and banish Rama. If anything Dasharatha should be appreciative that I did not ask for Rama's death! 'Tis true, I am the most kind and loving wife that he has. It is not personal with Rama. I just believe that it is time for the kingdom to recognize Bharata for his noble deeds. Did I force the king? Of course not! I gave him a choice: Me or Rama. I may have threatened that I would poison myself, but I was just being ridiculous of course. He knows that I am always teasing. That's why he married me. Well, my work here is done. Tomorrow, Rama leaves and Bharata is heir! Ah... I love happy endings.
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| Kaikeyi and Dasharatha arguing. |
Author's Note: The epic I chose for this week's storytelling came from Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913). and is called Kaikeyi and Dasaratha. In the original story, Kaikeyi demands that Dasaratha grants her two boons by banishing Rama and making Bharata his heir. Dasaratha was devastated. He refused to grant Kaikeyi her boons, but she threatened to poison herself if he did not keep his word. Consequently, Dasaratha had to keep his promises, but he told his wife that he would forever reject her and Bharata. I approached the story with a different writing style. I wrote it in a way that resembled diary entries to present each character's point of view of the situation. I deviated from the story by changing Kaikeyi's motive. She was persuaded by Manthara, a rakshasa, to demand the banishment of Rama. In my story, the wife demanded Bharata as the heir to be recognized by the kingdom. The goal of my story was to give insight into each character's thoughts and feelings about their current situation. I wanted to my audience to feel Dasaratha's hatred for his wife and compare it to Kaikeyi's immature gloating. The image that I chose shows Kaikeyi and Dasaratha fighting about her boons. I liked this image because it gives a visual of the characters and their conflict.
Bibliography: Donald A. Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend (1913).
Nice narration of both viewpoints from Dasharatha and Kaikeyi! I also feel like the hunchback, Kooni is also responsible for the outcome of Rama’s fate, since she originally implanted the idea into Kaikeyi’s head that Rama’s coronation would be Kaikeyi’s undoing. I think it’d be fun to write up the story as transcript for a court show, such as Judge Judy. She would’ve put Kaikeyi in her place or at least I can only imagine how Judge Judy would’ve handled this case.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the first person point of view that you used to write both of these pieces of the scene. I like that you used what they were thinking to convey what happened, and it made King Dasharatha look very pitiful and it also made Kaikeyi seemed very childlike. It's like she didn't really understand that her actions had consequences and as if she thought that Dasharatha would eventually come back to her, but unfortunately for her, he does have two other wives!
ReplyDeleteFirst thing i have to say is that the title of this story is great. It matches the setting of your story so well. I liked the idea of doing two different perspectives and the opposite ending each character had. I found a few parts that were a little repetitive like, "It is only fair that Dasharatha grants me my wishes. He vowed to grant me two wishes, therefore he must." Those parts did not really diminish any value of the story only added to length,. One thing you could have added was maybe a third perspective of Judge. You could have also spiced things up with a little paternity test here and there, a lie detector test, and maybe even a guest appearance by Maury! My favorite aspect of the story is how you got the characters dialogue down so well. It felt like i was really watching a T.V show.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing i have to say is that the title of this story is great. It matches the setting of your story so well. I liked the idea of doing two different perspectives and the opposite ending each character had. I found a few parts that were a little repetitive like, "It is only fair that Dasharatha grants me my wishes. He vowed to grant me two wishes, therefore he must." Those parts did not really diminish any value of the story only added to length,. One thing you could have added was maybe a third perspective of Judge. You could have also spiced things up with a little paternity test here and there, a lie detector test, and maybe even a guest appearance by Maury! My favorite aspect of the story is how you got the characters dialogue down so well. It felt like i was really watching a T.V show.
ReplyDelete