Today, I received news that Rama was to be crowned King… I overheard King Dasharatha discussing this with his court. How could this happen? I do not understand why everyone thinks Rama is so wonderful. I certainly do not. I think he is cruel and deceitful. He leads with the facade that he is so kind and auspicious, but his heart is that of a serpent. I remember when he was little…he used to relentlessly taunt me for my hunchback. You know, I used to not have this wretched deformity. Actually, I used to be quite handsome before my terrible fall…not that anyone would know it to look at me now. Ugh. That horrible Rama. He would call me names and throw things at me. He would mock me with imitations and jokes. Not even the lowliest of people deserved the treatment I received from that young man. Now that he is older, I thought he might show some remorse as to how he treated me, but there is none as far as I can tell. This is why I simply can not let him become the next king…especially not at the expense of my mistress, Kaikeyi. She is so dear to me, I could not let a similar cruel fate as my own befall on her. That is why I have devised a plan to get rid of Rama forever. This afternoon, when the Queen summons me, I shall seek to place thoughts of doubt and malice in her in order to convince Kaikeyi to use her two boons to make Bharata king and banish Rama into exile for 14 years. Surely that will be long enough for the whole country to forget Rama’s name! Then, I shall never again have to see that face that ceaselessly taunts my memory. Rama’s karma has finally come to him.
Below is an image titled "Kakaye and Manthara", which was published by BP Banerjee biography. Kooni also goes by the name of Manthara.
Author’s Note: This story is told from the perspective of Kooni in the Ramayana. It is what I imagine is the backstory as to why she convinced Kaikeyi to send Rama into exile. I remember there being a sentence in the Ramayana where Rama discusses being kind to everyone and recalling when he was unkind to Kooni. That is where all of her bitter thought towards Rama come from. I also am telling Kooni’s story for my storybook project and I wanted to experiment with the first person narrative some more!
Hi Piper! I like the perspective offered by your story a lot. Kooni is an easy person to dislike and then dismiss, at least from how it read her in the Ramayana, so I like that you addressed that by using the first-person perspective and helping the reader understand where she's coming from a little more. My only suggestion is that I was surprised that Rama was mean to Kooni because I remember him being described as nice to everyone, and not the sentence that you mention in your Author's Note--if it's only a sentence, it might be worth tracking down and quoting directly in your Note to remind the reader where that came from.
ReplyDeleteHi, good job on this blog post. I liked how you talked about the different point of views and the perspectives used by Ramayana and Kooni. I like the fact that you tied Kaikeyi into the story and referred to her as being the downfall of the story. The authors note really helped me understand who and what was happening and which characters referred to what as the story itself was a little hard to follow in my opinion. Maybe make the story more straightforward and more direct to what the plot was intended to be and otherwise, good job.
ReplyDeleteHey Piper! I really like the point of view you've gone with here. It's sometimes hard to remember why Kooni was so hateful of Rama and you've done a really great job of reminding the audience why it is. I also really like how well your story ties in with the original story, seeming to flawlessly go into the start of the next story, I'm excited to see what your storybook looks like as well!
ReplyDeleteHi Piper! I have read a quite of few of your stories this semester and I am always really impressed by your stories! I think your idea of focusing on a character and giving their point of view was very creative. I am glad I go to read this story because I have not read something like this yet. Overall, great job with this story!
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