Storytelling for Week 11: The Army is Off

Hanuman begins to sail across the firmament feeling so overwhelmed with happiness. He has finally discovered where Sita is and does not know how to approach Rama with the great news. He thinks to himself how he must approach this in a calm manner because this is what Rama expected from him. He does not want to come off too excited to Rama because, even though he found Sita. It will be such a hard task to get her back because of how protected she is by the enemy. He has this great news he thinks he still will approach Rama very excited even though she is still captured. When Rama finds out where she is Hanuman believes that Rama has the power to destroy everyone to get his love back.

Hanuman says to himself, “ I think I will say something along the lines of, Rama, to no surprise I have found where Sita has been. She is still alive and I have been flying for many hours as long as I could just to tell you the great news.”

While Hanuman goes over what he is going to say, he is approaching Rama with the good news and finally has reached him. Of course, Hanuman is still filled with joy when he tells Rama.

Hanuman says, “ Rama, we have found her. We finally found Sita.”

Rama is in shock when he hears the news about Sita but he thinks "is she okay? Is there something wrong with her?"

Rama says, “ My friend, I cannot believe you have finally found her but why is my beloved Sita not with you?”

Hanuman has been so worried about what he is going to tell Rama that he forgets Ravana still has Sita at his palace.

Hanuman says, “ Rama, I was not able to get her because of the strength of Ravana’s army. You must go to your wife and bring everyone you have because Ravana is ready for a battle.”

Rama thinks to himself that he must gather the strongest men to create an army that will defeat Ravana. While the time passes, Rama finds his army and he sets off to defeat Ravana.

Rama tells his army, “ My fellow soldiers, we have set off to find Sita and destroy our long-time enemy. This will be the battle of the century for us. We must be brave and we will outlast our enemy. “

Rama closes in on the palace and the first to await him is Ravana and his men. Without any words the battle begins and for many hours there is a lot of blood shed and many good men that are lost but at the end of the battle there are only two left.

Rama says, “ I will spare your life if you give me what I came for, Sita.”

Ravana says,” I will not just give up that easy. You must get past me first.”

Rama and Ravana go at it and through the strength of both men the fight lasts a long time but in the end…….

The battle

Author's Note: In the story of "The Army Sets Off" it begins with Hanuman setting off to tell Rama the good news about Sita. It deals with Ravana and Rama about to go to battle and that’s what I am going to focus on in my story. I am going to talk about a version that I think is more dealing with the beginning of this story. I am going to talk about how Rama and Ravana begin this battle and use dialogue that makes it more interesting to me. I am going to stick to the plot pretty close but add some details that I have imagined. I also have little interest in bringing in more characters because I think it will cause confusion on how I tell this story. I also started the story off exciting by telling the readers how Hanuman found Sita. The unfortunate part of the story is that Ravana and his men protect Sita and the hard part will be getting Sita. I also said in my story that Hanuman thinks Rama has the capabilities to get Sita back with his powers. This story is filled with excitement but it ends with curiosity and mystery. My story is a little bit different because the original story involves monkeys and bears but my story involves men. 


Bibliography: Ramayana: India's Immortal Tale of Adventure, Love and Wisdom,
Author: Krishna Dharma, 2008

Storytelling for Week 14: The Fatal Dice

Duryodhan came back from the Imperial Sacrifice with hatred towards Yuhishthir. He wants to strike back Yudhisthir with the help of Sakuni. The plan was to get Yudhisthir to start gambling his riches. What we know about Yudhisthir is he loves gambling.

The plan that Duryodhan and Sakuni set up was to get Yudhisthir to start gambling and get him to lose all of his gold and jewels. The game Yudhisthir loved to play was dice and he really could not get enough of it. He always wanted to play but he knew that it was not good for him. The only thing was it was dice night and Yudhisthir knew he could not pass this up.

The bad thing for Yudhisthir is that Duryodhan and Sakuni have a plan to get the dice to always be against Yudhishtir so he would lose all of his money. The overall plan was to pay off a man to throw rigged dice that would also land on the wrong numbers in order for Yudhishthir to lose everything. While the gambling will be going on Duryodhan and Sakuni will be hiding so they will not be seen. They will be there watching the dice dealer to make sure he does everything he gets paid to do.

The two men have been making up this plan for along time and will not risk it failing. They have been very angry and filled with jealousy and have made up this genius plan in order to shoot down Yudhishthir. The plan is about to be a go and Yudhishthir is walking up to the dice area with all of his riches. He starts being cocky and gets everyone off just for him to play. He begins to start playing and he starts to lose a few hands and is getting frustrated that he keeps losing. He then starts to bet more and more and Duryodhan and Sakuni start to grin with happiness that their plan is working.

He then starts to wonder why he is losing so much so fast and notices something wrong with the dealer, like he is nervous. He starts to look around and notices Yudhishthir and Sakuni hiding. He is furious and orders his guards to kill them immediately. The guards begin running to kill them and the two men start to run for their lives and before Yudhishthir can look back at the dice dealer he has vanished.

Author’s Note: The story is a twist to the story called Fatal Dice. I just use the same characters but switch up the story line a little bit.

Ramayana and Mahabharata

Bibliography: The Fatal Dice from The Ramayana and Mahabharata by Romesh Dutt. (1899)

Storytelling for Week 12: Rama and Laksman Laid Low

Rama and Lakman were traveling through the country side and they have met many enemies along the way including the very powerful Kumbhakarna. 

Kumbhakarna is one of the strongest guards Ravana has and while Rama was on his way to defeat Ravana he had run into Kumbhakarna. Rama and Kumbhakarnaka had a great battle and Rama was able to defeat one of Ravana’s strongest allies. This was a very important battle because it was one of Ravana’s last line of defenses. 

After the defeat Ravana was notified of the loss and that is when he started to set up a more strict defense. He started to tell his guards to kill anyone that is being neglectful. 

Ravana said to the city, “ We are in great danger my friends, Rama and Laksman have broke through our last line of defense and we must stay on full alert. We have strengthened our defense around the palace. This is a warning to my citizens but we will be ready when the time comes.”

Ravana does all the necessary ramifications to get his palace ready for an attack but what Ravana does not know is the Rama and Laksman are laying low until the right time to attack. Ravana knows that if they were to attack soon then he will never surrender and fight to the death. He knew surrender was not an option but he knew he had lots of help from his son Indrajit.

Indrajit is a very optimistic, cocky young kid and he has no fear of anyone or anything. He approached his father and said, “ My lord, you have nothing to worry about. Two people cannot destroy this palace you have created and will certainly not kill us. We are too powerful for them and we will destroy them if they even come close to us.”

Ravana responds, “ Indrajit, we must not overlook these two. They have killed our best guard and have killed many of our friends. They are just as powerful as us but we do have the advantage.”

Indrajit says, “ What’s that.”

Ravana responds, “ We are home. We know this palace better than anyone.”

While Ravana and Indrajit are preparing for an attack soon. Rama and Laksman are planning their attack on the palace and most importantly Ravana. In a matter of time the plan will be set and the attack will be under way but Ravana will have to wait longer then he plans too. 

Author’s Note: This story is about how Ravana starts to get worried about where Rama and Laksman are. He starts to tell his companions to be on full guard and if anyone is neglectful then they should be killed. Ravana also begins to think that he does not want to surrender at all and will do anything too defend himself. In my story I am going to change it up and describe why Ravana is worried and talk about Rama more at the beginning and make up my own twist to the story and describe more of why Ravana is worried. 

Bibliography: Rama and Laksman Laid Low, Ramayana: India’s Immortal Tale of Adventure, Love and Wisdom, Krishna Dharma, 2008, Link

Rama and Ravana

Storytelling for Week 10: We Shall Bring Back Rama

While Rama and Sita are in exile, the kingdom has become distraught without Rama. The king, Dasaratha has passed away and the prince Bharata does not know what to do without his father and Rama. While on the way to the funeral Vasistha is along Bharata and they begin to discuss the problem going on in the kingdom.

Bharata says, “ I must search for Rama and bring him back to this kingdom for him to take over the throne”.

Vasistha responds, “ The kingdom is a mess and I feel the same way, he is our only hope to keep this kingdom from collapsing”.

Bharata, “ What should we do my friend, maybe we should collect some of the citizens and go find Rama and Sita”.

Vasistha nervously says, “It is too dangerous to go into the forest to find Rama, we shall wait for him to come back”.

Bharata angered by Vasistha comments says, “ Do not be a coward, he is our only hope to lead this kingdom, if we do not go out now there is no hope for us or our people”.

Vasistha embarrassed by his comments says,” You are right my prince, we must lead a search for our great Rama, We shall bring Rama back”.

After their discussion they begin to proceed to find citizens that are willing to travel in to the forest and risk theirs lives just to find Rama. They are surprised about how many people are willing to risk theirs lives for Rama but at the same time they know that this means Rama is the right person to lead this kingdom by the response they have gotten. Bharata then gathers the search team together.

Bharata says, “ My fellow people, we must not be afraid to go on this voyage to bring back Rama, we shall risk our lives for him as he would do the same for us”.

The team cheers, “ We must find Rama”

Vasistha then says, “ Too any of those who do not want to go, this is your last chance to back out, there is no going back without our great leader”.

Bharata and Vasistha looked around but hear no voices or emotions from any of the search team. Bharata then begins to open up the gates and leads the team to find Rama.

Bharata says, “ This my friends is the kind of courage and bravery that Rama will show for us as our leader everyday”.

Rama is back

Author's Note: The story "We shall bring back Rama" is basically another story that the title speaks for itself. The story basically is about Rama being in exile and the citizens of the kingdom want him to come back. The King also wants his son to come back because everyone seems to want Rama back.

Bibliography : Sad Farewells, Ramayana: India's Immortal Tale of Adventure, Love and Wisdo,Krishna Dharma, 2008