A Letter From a Strong Woman

Dear Rama,

You have banished me to the deep, dark depths of the forest. The shadows cover the entirety of the wooded area. Lakshmana was not nice about leaving me here either. He left bruises on my arm and made me scrape my knees. My knees are swollen with infection. There are snakes crawling around everywhere. They slither across my legs and seem to be glaring into my soul. There are centipedes lurking around in the shadows of the forest. I believe them to be extremely poisonous. The trees are rotten. Termites have eaten away all of the useable wood. There are thorn bushes and sticker patches in every possible location throughout the forest. The trees sway and make ominous sounds. The crows crow constantly. There is never a ray of sunshine that reaches the ground. Clouds cover the whole forest and it rains day and night. I hope you are happy with your decision to place me here in this dark, dark place knowing that my biggest fear is being left alone. Do you think that this is actually going to solve all the problems? News flash, buddy boy, it is not going to.

I received a letter this morning from Valmiki. He promised to come and rescue me within the next week. It looks like your evil plan to banish me won't last long. Valmiki has promised to take me to his hermitage. He sent me a picture; I will put it in with this letter so you can see it too, jerk. Seeing that I am pregnant, it will be nice to have someone to help take care of me. I am also looking forward to getting to know him more. I hear he is an intelligent and caring man. I have an odd feeling that I may be having twins, just FYI. I woke up this morning and just had a feeling about it. What will I do if I have twins? I guess I will take care of them like a good, strong, powerful woman should.

As I lie next to a rock in the only clear dirt patch around, I have decided to tell something that is important. This may alter your life in more ways than one. I would make sure that you are sitting down and maybe have a cool glass of water close by. You are the father of the child (or children since I am pretty sure that is going to be twins) that I am soon to bear. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I'm sure that this is crushing to you. I apologize. If I had told you sooner I might not have been banished to this wretched forest . So I guess it is my own fault that I am all alone in this unpleasant place. Just kidding, still your fault.

I hope your life continues to go on without any guilt. Maybe our paths will cross again someday. Maybe we can forget about this and parent Luv and Kush ( the names I have already chosen for them) together. Maybe like a real family? Wait, never mind, you are an awful person in every single way.

Warmest of warm regards,

Sita

Author's Note: This letter is a twist on the beginning of the comic called "The Sons of Rama: Luv and Kush - The Invincible Twins." In the beginning of this comic, Rama has his brother Lakshmana take Sita away, knowing that she is terrified of being alone. Then Valmiki comes and rescues her and takes her to his hermitage. I chose to begin the letter with a description of the forest that Sita is in, just to give the reader a visual and a feeling of what she is dealing with. I also decided to bring in some other elements from later in the comic. I had Sita tell Rama that she is the mother of Luv and Kush. I did this to add to the tone of the letter. I gave Sita a martyr type of tone within the letter. I feel like this helps show her disappointment in Rama. This type of tone also adds a sort of comical effect to the letter. I added some foreshadowing as well by having Sita state that she feels like she may be having twins. Also, I made it seem like the picture of Valmiki's hermitage was actually enclosed in the letter. I felt like it gave the story more of a true letter feel since it is not a real letter. Hope you liked it!

Source: The Sons of Rama: Luv and Kush - The Invincible Twins Amar Chitra Katha