Week 3 Reading Diary: Ramayana Part 3

Ramayana PDE

Baby Ginger Monkey from Wiki Commons

The Armies from  Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) and Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899)

I think this would be a great story to recreate. One of the first things that comes to mind is telling the story from a monkey's perspective. Follow their journey to find Sita. Maybe he could be really annoyed with Sugriva and complain about his boss. I think this would be a fun story to write about. Another idea with this story is to write it like a Dr. Suess book. Perhaps give it an "Oh, the places you'll go" or a "Green Eggs and Ham" vibe. It could be difficult finding a way to make it rhyme, but I think it would be so fun! 

Sampati and Jatayu  from The Iliad of the East: The Ramayana, by Frederika Richardson Macdonald (1870). 

I love the talk of a bird race! I could have a lot of fun with that! Maybe it's a bird race competition and there is a tragic accident that ends up with one racer losing both wings. Afterwards, you can see how he is coping with it. Perhaps he is telling his therapist about the incident. Another take on this is to go off of the sentence "Of what good is life to a bird who has no wings?" I think I could create a great tragedy based off of this. Or talk about how that sacrifice, although painful and with lifelong consequences could be worth it to save someone you love.  

Sita and Ravana from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914).

I would like to go into more detail on the interactions Ravana and Sita had. I can definitely imagine her painting a great story of how her Rama would defeat him for her. I also believe that each time he came it would be more colorful and dramatic. It could be funny to have him walk in there asking how he was supposed to die today and Sita having an entire story already planned out for him.