A Sage Never Stops Learning

I was born Agni Sharma in the forest and have not left the forest ever since. Why would I ever leave? I have a never ending supply of luscious fruits, a forever flowing stream of melted snow running down from the Himalayas, and a plethora of forest friends in the form of animals to keep me company. The natural beauty surrounding me is everything a young poet could ever ask for.

As a young boy I met an old sage named Narada. I followed Narada around as his apprentice for three years watching his every movement and listening to all of his words. I hoped that I could one day be as wise as him. Narada taught me all about Vishnu, the god of protection and everything good. The lessons learned from Vishnu became my favorite stories to write.

A little later on, in my teenage years, I was sitting on the ground during a warm spring afternoon trying to come up with a plot inspired by the rays of sun sneaking through the trees. I wrote the story I envisioned, but I was not satisfied with it. This story writing process occurred for the next eighty years. I put story after story on the pages but never felt like any of them met my standard of perfection. Everyone seemed to enjoy my books, but I knew inside that they had not yet seen my full potential as a writer. One day, at the age of nearly one hundred, I found everything I was looking for.

During my morning stroll through the forest I came across a pregnant woman weeping. She told me her name was Sita, and I knew immediately that I had run across the wife of Rama, king of Ayodhya and avatar of Vishnu. Remembering all that I had learned about Vishnu from Narada, I was ecstatic to learn about Rama through Sita. I asked her why she was crying and she told me her life story. This story became the Ramayana, the epic I dreamed of composing my entire life. Of course, I focused my story on Rama.

The Ramayana became one of the most popular stories in the history of India. Immediately after I wrote the epic, huge anthills began to rise around me. This is where I was given the name that most know me by, Valmiki, meaning "born of an anthill."

Quickly, my dream story became a nightmare. My Ramayana was ruined by the younger Indian poets. They rewrote my story changing all the important details. What was perfect became polluted, and nobody seemed to know the real story of Rama.

While I was sulking and feeling sorry for myself I came across a young poet named Vyasa. Vyasa was one of the poets who rewrote my story. At first I was angry with him, but after I spent more time with him, we became good friends. He told me his perspective on newer writers coming up with new versions of my perfect story. Vyasa said that the Ramayana allowed new poets to explore their own creativity and grow as writers. It was an honor that they chose the Ramayana to rewrite.

My opinion of these writers quickly changed. They were able to explore all the possible plot twists in ways that I would not have been able to do. Maybe a story is greater when it is told from many angles.

Author's Note

My idea for writing this story came from Sita Sings the Blues. Sita who is sad after Rama sends her into the forest meets Valmiki to whom she tells her story. Valmiki is then credited with writing the Ramayana. I found Valmiki very interesting and looked up his story on Wikipedia. Some of his backstory I edited to make my story a little more interesting. To advance the plot I thought about how an author would react if many other authors rewrote his or her story. I imagine there might be some animosity towards the newer writers. I know there are many versions of the Ramayana, so it happened to be the perfect story for this plot. I ended the story with Valmiki realizing that the rewriting of his story was actually a good thing for the new storytellers. It allows them to learn how they can write a story using their own creativity. After all, that is what I have been able to do in this class, and it has been a bunch of fun. I ended the story with a theme I learned during last week's writing lab.

I also really enjoyed researching Valmiki, Vishnu, and Vyasa on Wikipedia. The stories from this class have so many wonderful characters. Learning about the characters that were not talked about in depth was fun.

Bibliography

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Valmiki on Wikipedia

Vishnu on Wikipedia

Vyasa on Wikipedia

Valmiki's Name from The Name Meaning

The Danger of the Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie