Week 3: Love at First Sight
Once upon a time, there was a good and virtuous prince named Rama. He lived in the beautiful city of Ayodhya was well-beloved by its people, especially by his father and brothers.
On the surface, Rama seemed to have everything a man could ever want. He had a loving family, grand adventures, riches, and good fortune…. yet, there was a part of his heart that felt hollow and empty. Yes, he was happy, but he was missing a piece of someone or something in his heart. He didn’t quite know what was he was missing, but the emptiness in his heart yearned to be filled.
One day, his brother Lakshmana saw him sitting mindlessly in the garden, unusually quiet. Curious, Lakshmana approached him and asked if something was wrong. He told his brother of his recent emotional revelations, so Lakshmana suggested that they take a trip to see the sights of the city.
The next day, with Vishvamitra’s permission, they set off on their small adventure. They spent the day in the bustling marketplace, surrounded by the enticing smells of delicious food and some shop sellers tried to convince them to buy their extravagant silks. They were met with the glances and whispers of the locals wherever they went, but they enjoyed their time nonetheless.
After a long and exhausting day of fun, they settled at their lodgings. Rama came upon a glorious garden filled with a multitude of colorful flowers, fruit trees adorned with plump fruit, and a water fountain spouting glistening water. With wonder, he asked whose magnificent garden it was and learned that it was the king’s.
He continued to wander around the garden, admiring its contents, when he caught sight of a beautiful girl strolling around the garden with her maids. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her. Time stopped for him and all he could see was her. She was talking to one of her maids, and he could see how graceful and ethereal she looked in her golden yellow dress. She looked like an angel.
Suddenly, she caught his eye, and he gave her a sheepish grin, embarrassed at being caught openly gawking at a beautiful girl he didn’t know. Her eyes widened in surprise but soon softened at the sight of him. Her brown eyes were kind and open, and from that one look, he could tell she had a gentle and giving spirit. She gave a shy smile in return, averting her eyes from his gaze.
Rama felt his heart burst and fill with warmth after her shy smile. It was like a dam had opened up in his heart and the warmth filled the hollow part of his heart. He suddenly realized that he had missing love in his life and that the feeling he felt before was loneliness. But deep within his heart, he knew that this mysterious girl held the answers for him.
In his daze, he didn’t notice that the girl had started glanced back up at him. He gave her a goofy smile and a wave and she blushed. She gave a small wave in return She held his gaze for a quick second, looking him straight in the eyes. Her mouth stretched in a wide smile, but then turned away and walked in the other direction with her maids at their beckoning. They walked away, whispering, but she stole another quick glance at him as she continued walking. That’s when he knew that she was just as enthralled with him as she was with her, yet he didn’t know her name.
Filled with giddiness and excitement, Rama ran back to his brother and rambled to his brother of what had just happened in the garden. Amused at his brother’s musing and his burst of energy, he remarked that the mysterious girl was most likely Princess Sita, who was the daughter of King Janaka. She was known to be one of the most beautiful and kind princesses across the kingdoms, so it was no surprise that Rama was so infatuated with her.
Yet, Rama denied that it was just mere infatuation. Even by just looking in her eyes, he felt a deep connection to her, as if their hearts were connected by a shimmering thread. He knew that she now held his heart and he held hers, so he vowed to see her again. Struck by love and determination, he then decided to ask Janaka for Sita’s hand in marriage and promised that he would do whatever it would take to earn Sita’s love and respect. And so, he set upon another journey to find his true love.
Rama and Sita
Source: Flickr
Author’s Note: The story that I picked was how Rama meets Sita. Since the story is pretty short and seems to focus more on the events unraveling in the story, I tried to focus on Rama’s internal feelings when he first meets her. I tried to set it up like a fairytale since the story of Rama has a lot of classic fairytale elements with the cast of princes, princesses, evil stepmothers, and heroes. Sorry for the lack of indenting. My blog went crazy when I did and the format was super weird.
Source: The Divine Archer by FJ Gould (1911)
Source: The Divine Archer by FJ Gould (1911)
Wowow this was super well written!! There wasn't any grammar mistakes that I could see and your descriptions of Rama's inner emotions were very vivid, and offered a lot of insight into the love story of Rama and Sita. I'm always skeptical of mythical "love at first sight" stories, but you definitely added a more nuanced layer to their love which made it a lot more believable in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim. I really like how you captured Rama's awkwardness when Sita caught him looking at her. That's something I feel like was missing a bit from the Ramayana - there's no way that someone can't feel a little embarrassed that their crush caught them looking at them. I liked how you focused on the moment itself rather than trying to incorporate a lot of stories. The simplicity really worked well and captured the story nicely.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the amount of detail you went into during your story. The adjectives and literary devices used to describe Rama and Sita interactions really brought the characters to life. Rama is so infatuated by Sita's beauty in the story and rambles to his brother about her, I wonder Sita spoke the same way about Rama to her siblings. Also, you mentioned that Sita was known as one of the most beautiful princesses in the kingdom, so I wonder if she was used to this kind of attention from the men in her kingdom. Were these interactions common for her and Rama was just the only man who stood out to her? Sita seems much more casual in this story compared to Rama, so I wonder what she was thinking during this interaction as well. What if the story also included Sita's thoughts and internal emotions when she first saw Rama. I think it would also be interesting to hear her perspective during their first meeting. I wonder if she was hoping Rama would win her in the competition.