First Story: Kooni's Origin

"What a freak!"

"What an ugly hunchback!"

"No one will ever love her."

These were the words Kooni heard every day since her birth. Her own parents did not even want her. Her deformities were too much to handle. Between her hunched back and terrible walk, she would have been useless to her family. No man would ever marry her. She would just be a burden and extra mouth to feed. Therefore, they dumped her in the Ganges. However, a lovely elderly lady found the baby left in the Ganges and picked her up and raised her.

One day, Kooni was out playing when she heard this huge announcement. The king, Dasharatha, was arriving at their town. He was bringing his beautiful wife, Kaikeyi, and their son, Bharatha. Kooni and the rest of the townsfolk gasped in awe as they saw the king and his family dressed in elegance. They were coming right in her direction.

"Get out of the way, you stupid hunchback."

"Just let them run her over. It would do us all a favor."

"Maybe if they hit her she will look more attractive."

These were words Kooni heard every day. Eventually these words stopped bothering her. However, Bharatha heard these mean words and got down from their ride. Bharatha was enraged that the people were treating her with such disrespect. Kaikeyi looked down at the girl with favor, and saw something special within Kooni. She thought Kooni would prove useful possibly as one her maids. It would be a step up from the town she currently lived in.

"What is your name?" asked Bharatha.

"My name is Kooni," said Kooni.

"Come join us, Kooni. I will not take no for an answer!" said Bharatha.

"Oh my, are you sure?" said Kooni.

Kooni rode with the royal family until they reached their destination. She was quite nervous. Never had she been in the presence of royalty and her thoughts were running rampant about how she should act. Kaikeyi noticed that Kooni was nervous; therefore, she sat by the girl telling stories of the crazy experiences she had when she was Kooni's age. It was at their destination that Kooni ate dinner with the family and talk to them. It felt like a dream to Kooni. Then Kaikeyi asked Kooni an important question. She was wondering if Kooni would want to possibly be a maid for her. She favored Kooni and thought that being a maid would be a grand step from the lifestyle that she was currently living. Kooni was excited and told them she would love to; however, she had to ask the elderly lady who took her in, for she was all the family Kooni had.

It was difficult for Kooni to find the courage to ask the elderly lady to leave and go with the royal family. It all felt like a crazy dream that as happening so fast for Kooni, but this was her reality. The elderly lady who took Kooni in as a baby granted her permission to leave. She was so happy for Kooni and knew great things awaited her. As the royal family prepared to leave, Kooni left with them. The only person who ever loved Kooni was the elderly lady. However, Kooni found love in new people, including Kaikeyi and Bharatha. This love she felt for Bharatha was a dangerous love, that in the future will play out to cause much commotion.

Author's Note: In this weeks reading I wanted to expand on Kooni who is found within the Ramayana. I felt like she was a minor character, yet she plays such a large role within the story. The events may not have played out the way they did if Kooni had not convinced Kaikeyi to get Bharatha on the throne rather than Rama. Kooni has so much potential character development especially since there is not a lot of information about her.

Narayan does a great job portraying Kooni and I use the descriptions provided by Narayan to form Kooni into who I believe she is. One aspect of the story I would like to note includes the age of Kooni. I was unsure of Kooni's age; however, by reading the Ramayana I assumed Kooni was an older woman. I wanted to make Kooni a younger girl within my story to possibly further develop a love interest that Kooni has for Bharatha. There may be more in store concerning Kooni; we shall see. I wanted to start out with a tragic character and end with a tragedy as well. Not only may there be character development for Kooni, but I may focus on Kaikeyi as well. Both characters have interesting personalities and I believe much can be done to transform those characters.

Bibliography: R. K. Narayan, Ramayana

Below is the Picture of the Ganges River where Kooni was left as a baby. Source Wikipedia