Queen Kaikeyi and her servant Kooni
Have you ever had a friend who is so beautiful yet so daft? A friend who is so pretty and so naive that she does not see the knife aimed at her heart? That is my Queen Kaikeyi. She suffers from the affliction of beauty. You see, she is King Dasaratha’s favorite wife. Although, she is young enough to be his daughter, mind you. She saved the old sod when he was hurt in battle. She nursed him back to health and he granted her two requests, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.
My name is Kooni and unlike my beautiful queen, I certainly am not beautiful. Around the palace, I am called a freak because of my humpback. My nickname "Kooni" was given to me because of my deformity. People think that these people, these royals, are so noble and kind. They are wrong. The great and honorable Rama is the worst of them. He had me cleaning the floors of his mother's mansion even though he knew it would be near impossible for me to bend over and it would hurt my back. He personally came and gave me the order so he could see me struggle to kneel and laugh at me. I was deformed so I was less than human. I was less than the dogs that got scraps from their table. Their excuse was that I must have done a great evil in my previous life to be born with such a deformity. I hated them all, especially self-righteous Rama. Queen Kaikeyi was the only one to ever treat me as a human being and not some sort of offending monster. She saw me when she first came to the palace and took pity on me. The royal court considered me to be an eyesore and therefore I only worked at night when most of the palace was asleep. Kaikeyi would get homesick at night and since I was the only soul awake, she would seek my company. I became her confidant and she took me as her personal handmaiden. I became her favorite because of it. The favorite of the king's favorite. And that, my friend, had power.
I spent most of my days in Queen Kaikeyi's mansion. It was the only place I felt comfortable enough to relax and be myself. I love looking out over her terrace and gazing at the city. This particular day, I hobbled my way up to her terrace and looked over the city. I noticed there were lights being hung and flower garland chains generously laid about. It wasn't a holiday or anything, not that I would be invited. Still, the queen had not said a word about any celebration and she was the king's favorite. She had the right to go to any celebration, whatever it might be.
It took me a good while to make it down to the city and even longer to find someone to tell me what was going on. There was to be a celebration for Rama. He was to be King Dasaratha's successor. Now that was troubling news. Not only did I feel nothing but disdain for Rama but the king was going back on his word. Typical. Remember how I told you the king was old enough to be Kaikeyi's father? Kaikeyi's old handmaiden came to the palace about a month after Kaikeyi first arrived. She was there to help move in the rest Kaikeyi's belongings into the mansion. After she warmed up to me and realized that I had Kaikeyi's best interest in mind, she let me in on a bit of game-changing gossip. The handmaiden told me that in order for Kaikeyi father's to agree to a marriage between Kaikeyi and the king, the king told her father that he would make their son his successor. That means that Kaikeyi's son, Bharata, should be king, not Rama. No, this would not do. I would not let the king swindle my queen out of her son's birthright but most important of all, I could finally punish Rama for all that he did to me. She would use her two wishes the king gave her to put Bharata on the throne and send Rama in to exile. I just had to find the right way to tell her.
Author's Note:
My story is about how Kooni convinces Kaikeyi to use her two requests the king granted her (because she saved his life in a battle) to put Bharata on the throne. King Dasaratha had promised the father of Kaikeyi that he would put their son on the throne if he agreed to give her as his wife. When the king realizes that he is getting old, he decides to put Rama on the throne despite his promise. The king then sends Bharata to see his grandfather. He tells his chief minister to basically invite everyone except for Kaikeyi's dad saying that there was no need to inform the relatives. Queen Kaikeyi is not aware of the deal the king made with her dad so when Kooni tells her the news about Rama being king, she is very happy. She sees Rama as her own son. Kooni poisons her mind, saying that Rama's mother would be all powerful and make her a handmaiden once Rama is king. Kaikeyi panics and asks Kooni what she should do. Kooni then reveals the deal the king made and tells her to use the two requests the king gave to send Rama into exile and put Bharata on the throne. I decided it would be fun to write the story from Kooni's point of view and give a little background on her since there's not much about her in the epic. Just that Kooni came with Kaikeyi from her father's household. Kooni was with Kaikeyi since infancy. For my story, I decided to have Kooni already be in the palace and have a different servant give Kooni the information that caused Rama's exile. Also, to have Rama be mean to her as a motivation for her to want Rama to be exiled.
"Plans for Rama's Coronation" Narayan, R. K.. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic web source