Author's Notes

For the first story, I really wanted to emphasize the romantic aspect of how Hanuman's parents, Anjana and Kesari, met. There are a lot of stories about how the two met, but I really wanted to make it into a fantasy love story. In order to do that, I had to create a reason as to why she would enter the woods that particular day. I wanted the idea of her curse to appear pretty quickly, around the time she enters the woods and sees a hunter. From there, I tried to tie in some romantic scenes as she is about to meet the love that she has been waiting for.

For this to happen realistically, I needed Anjana to be cursed at a young age. The reason why is so that she would be constantly thinking about how to get rid of the curse as she gets older. This is why Anjana was cursed by the sage when she was young for throwing sticks at him. I eventually came up with the idea that she would be able to break her curse when she was of marrying age. I wanted Anjana to venture off and become her own person and to find her true love. Although she knows that if she falls in love, she will be turned into a monkey. That did not stop her. She finally met Kesari, Leader of the Monkeys, and was able to break her curse once she had a son with him. That son was Hanuman. I wanted to stay pretty close to the original story. That being said, the only major change in the story was that Hanuman was not a reincarnation of Shiva. I did this because I wanted Hanuman to be born as his own person. I wanted a happy ending to this story so that the world of the Ramayana could end on a happy note.

For this story, I really wanted to bring attention to the background information. I know that in a lot of Indian tales most of the story is pretty straightforward. So, I thought it would be interesting for Hanuman to tell this story from his perspective of what he remembers. I wanted to keep the story relatively the same. In order to do that, I had to have Anjana tell him the story when he was little. Because of that, Hanuman was able to recall the story as to how he remembered it.

In the original version, Hanuman was not with any of his friends and his parents were not around. The scene where he was playing with his friends is significant because it shows that he was a normal kid before receiving his powers. I wanted Hanuman to grow up in a normal household because I think it adds to the story nicely. Hanuman, a normal monkey child, went through quite an ordeal when he was younger and became this great warrior that we know him to be today.

I changed the story to where Kesari was Hanuman's father and not Lord Vayu. I wanted Hanuman to have "normal" parents meaning that his parents were not gods. I wanted him to become his own person through his own personal struggles. I believe it was important to add a conclusion where Hanuman understood what had happened to him. It is crucial that Hanuman knows how he got his powers, so he is not always questioning why he is different. I hope you enjoyed my rendition of how Hanuman received his powers and name.

This story was one of my favorites to write. I have read several of Hanuman's life stories, and in all of those that I have read, I have never seen Hanuman get a happy ending. That is why I wanted to focus on Hanuman being happy for however long he was able to. At the beginning of my story, Hanuman is on a mission to help Rama rescue Sita from Ravana. I wondered when was Hanuman ever going to have an epic love story as Rama did?

In the original version, there was no romance between Hanuman and Suvannamaccha. Hanuman found out that Suvannamaccha's people destroyed the bridge. Since she thought Hanuman was cute, she decided to help Rama rebuild the bridge. It was later known that she would give birth to Hanuman's child: Macchanu. I saw the potential for this story, so I decided to include romance and make the story longer.

I kept the story pretty much the same up until Hanuman visited Suvannamaccha's castle. One key difference was that Suvannamaccha did not sense Hanuman entering the ocean. I wanted to add a lot of detail leading up to their well-deserved romance. I did this when Hanuman first saw Suvannamaccha and when she first felt his presence entering the water. I thought their little stroll around the kingdom would add a nice touch to the story. I changed the duration of the story to where Hanuman stayed in Nesha for about 15 years, while time stood still on the surface. Hanuman knew that his mission was important but since time was still, he decided to start a family. I left the ending kind of ambiguous so that the readers are able to use their imagination to come up with an ending that they feel gives justice to the story. I hoped you liked my rendition of the story.