Storytelling Week 3: A Cinderella Story... continued

(Image Information: Rama returns to Ayodhya. Source: Giriraj Swami)

Last time on "Rama, A Cinderella Story"... Rama was exiled from Ayodhya and Bharata came to try to get him to return and become king. Rama refused and Bharata decided to place an item of his brother's, his glass slippers, on the throne to represent his rule while he was away in exile.

Sita had requested Rama to go into the forest to fetch her the most beautiful animal he could find. Being deeply in love with his lady, Rama set out to do such. However, while Rama was gone, an elderly man wandered into their cottage and asked Sita if she could spare some food. Since she was such a gentle spirit, she would never refuse to help someone if it was possible. While Sita had her back turned, the elderly man took off his disguise and showed himself as the evil King of Lanka, Ravana. Sita tried to scream for Rama, but before she could Ravana stuffed her in a bag and put her in the back of his carriage and sped off to his palace.

Rama returned to find that Sita was gone. He knew something was wrong, however, because he saw food spread across the kitchen. He stepped outside to call for her, but while doing so he heard a "CRUNCH!" He had stepped on a Dorito, Sita's favorite food. He noticed there were Doritos leading out from the house. He began to follow the Doritos and they took him all the way to Ravana's palace. Infuriated about Sita being kidnaped, Rama let out a great sound. Suddenly, thousands of monkey responded to his call and began to stampede towards him.

Ravana heard the sound of the monkey swarming the city, and he ran outside to confront Rama. When he finally got outside, he saw the army of monkeys burning down his city. Ravana was furious and shouted, "WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THE MONKEYS FIRE? DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU LET THEM JUMP ON THE BED?!" Before Rama could answer, he grabbed his bow and arrows and shot Ravana directly in the head. Ravana fell to the ground and Sita ran outside to meet her hero.

In the background, Lanka was burning in flames and its King lay slain on the ground. Rama took Sita in his arms and began to walk off towards his home of Ayodhya. Once they arrived, Rama walked up to his brother who was sitting on the steps leading up to the thrown. Rama noticed that Bharata was taking a Snapchat with the glass slippers in the background. The snap was entitled "lol waiting for the bro to come back". Rama put his head in the photo's background and he saw his brother's eyes light up on the phone's screen. The King had finally arrived.



Author's note: So, I decided to keep up with my promise last week and finish my fairytale story. I decided to right this in a little bit different fashion. Since the rest of the Ramayana did not exactly make a connection in my head to any childhood story that I knew of, I decided to make my own ending to the story. I pretty much kept up with the story of the Ramayana, but added some more modern symbols in the piece. By doing so, I hope to reach out to my audience (considering it’s mostly full of college students). I actually added some of my favorite things to thing story: Doritos, snapchat, childhood rhymes. Yes, I do love all those things, Cool Ranch Doritos, especially. I decided to also speed up some aspects of the story and completely leave out other parts in order to make the story seem more fairytale like. I left out a lot of the fighting that took place in Lanka, although I did not take it out completely because being a hero is a huge theme in princess stories. I also left out the part about Rama forcing Sita to leave because the town did not trust her loyalty. Something about that just did not scream “fairytale” to me.



References: "Rama and Bharata", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"Ravana's Death", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Chase", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Burning of Lanka", Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914)