Storytelling for Week 2: Ravana in Love

He was at it again…

Vayu, Yama, and Agni watched their roommate Ravana as he went about doing rather strange tasks. However, it hadn’t been the first time they had seen the man do these kinds of things. The first time had been when he had failed a class, the second time had been when he had a twenty paged paper due in nine hours that he hadn’t even began at that point, and the third time had been when he had stayed up for 50 hours straight playing videogames. This was the fourth time in a year and it was tiring, yet they had already signed a housing contract to live with him next year as well.

What was he doing, you ask? Quite bizarre things.

He couldn’t decide whether or not he wanted the fan in his bedroom to be on or off. He said he was too cold when it was on, and too hot when it was off.

He couldn’t stand still. He had been pacing the entire apartment since early this morning after he had gotten back from the gym.

He kept turning his light on and off again. He was either being given too much light from the thing, or not enough at all.

In short, he was irrational.

“We must figure out what it wrong with him this time. I can’t deal with him when he is like this,” Agni muttered in annoyance.

“Who will do it, though?” Yama asked, looking at the other two men wearily.

Suddenly, Agni had his finger to his nose, “The nose goes,” he claimed, and Yama followed in suit.

Vayu huffed, “That’s not fair, guys. I had to talk him down from this last time.” The other two didn’t care, though. Yama was the long-winded one after all. He was good at talking.

With another huff, Vayu approached Ravana cautiously. “My roommate, whatever is the matter?”

“Can you quiet down? Your voice is much too loud,” Ravana snapped, flipping his light switch and then his switch for the fan yet again.

“I’m sorry, but we’re worried about you,” Vayu responded, this time in a whisper.

Stomping his foot, Ravana glared at the other, “What is wrong with you, man? Your voice is much too soft, speak with more gusto!”

Vayu felt like slapping the other man. “Ravana, what is wrong? Are you having trouble with school, again?”

“No, of course not!” Ravana snapped. “It is only the fourth week of the semester, my grades are fine!”

“Then what’s wrong if it isn’t school?” Vayu persisted; he was going to settle this so that Ravana would calm down.

“It’s her. While I was at the gym, I heard about a…a… goddess. I heard her voice, and I heard the other men speak of her, but I did not lay my eyes on her face. I do know that she is the most beautiful woman in the world, though.”

Shaking his head, Vayu crossed his arms. All this for a woman? Ridiculous. “If you didn’t even see her, then how could you know? You are being irrational, and it's possible that you could never even see her again.”

Clasping a hand on the other man’s shoulder, Ravana got very close to him with a serious expression. “A man just knows. She is the one, and I love her already. The others said that she has been at the gym every Tuesday morning this month around the same time. And I have to see her and ask her to be my girlfriend!”

Ravana could definitely be irrational at times, and this was definitely one of them. He was already in love with this woman and he hadn’t even seen her yet. Vayu knew he was crazy, but the only way to calm his roommate would be to let him work this out whether through seeing the woman again, or letting it out of his system through his bizarre antics. “Alright, then. Make sure to go to the gym at that time next week and find her. Do you know her name?”

“Yes, yes I do,” Ravana replied with gusto, “Her name is Sita, a beautiful name for a beautiful soul.”

Vayu nodded, “Okay, then. Next week, go and ask this Sita out and she will hopefully say yes.” Or at least he hoped that she would say yes so that his roommate would calm down and be normal again for a while.

Ravana did seem to calm down a little, and there was a longing in his eyes. “I will do that. By this time next week, Sita will be mine!” 

Standard Gym. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note:

During The Ramayana, Ravana learns of Sita from his sister as a ploy to get him to take out Rama for her. She tells him about Sita’s beauty and expresses how wonderful she is to him. Ravan then falls deeply in love with her and begins to become incredibly indecisive and frankly, nearly crazy. It disturbs the gods that he has captive within his palace because he is practically taking it out on them.

I really liked this part of The Ramayana, and when I read it I thought that it sounded like a typical college student when they have some sort of large discovery and don't know what to do with themselves (of course not as drastically as Ravana, though). I pretty much wanted to make a story that would make people laugh and think of friends who have done the same kinds of things Ravana was doing in his pining for love.

Instead of his sister telling him about Sita, I thought Ravana could learn of her at the gym because I see posts on social media about people pining over other at the gym all the time. Since the three gods already live in Ravana's palace, I thought they would make good roommates. Since he learned about Sita at the gym and isn't going to war with Rama in thanks to his sister, I thought I would leave that out. Perhaps he could go to war with Rama after learning he is already Sita's boyfriend, though.

Bibliography:

The image is what I imagine when I think of a standard gym, it was found at Wikimedia Commons. 

Story retold from pages 74-78: 

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.