Monday, September 25, 2017

Reading Notes; R. K. Narayan's Mahabharata, Part C

Twelve Years of Exile / One Year Incognito
I thought this was a pretty random and well thought out plan of Sakuni's. When he first said 12 years of exile for all the Pandava brothers as well as their wife Draupadi, I was surprised. And then he mentioned going one whole year incognito; it was sort of like a very long obstacle course he wanted to put them through. If I were to re-write this part of the story, I could make it like the Hunger Games, where all the brothers had to fight to see who could survive the 12 years of the forest the longest, or who could stay incognito, or undercover, the longest. It could also be based off of the TV show Quantico, and we could see how many of the brothers could survive being undercover for a year (FBI training academy - like). I could also incorporate one of my earlier ideas about festivals and holidays in the Hindu culture and have the day the Pandavas come back from their 13 years away from their home become a huge festival. Just like how in the Ramayana, after the 12 years that Rama spent in exile, he came back and everyone had lit candles and fireworks for his return, which later turned into the festival of Diwali, I could make something like this appear in my re-tell of the Mahabharata.

Yama
I really liked this part of the story, because I thought the voice in the lake was just some monster or guardian of the lake, but it turns out to be Yudhishthira's father! The first thing that came to my mind was the ever-famous "Luke, I am your father" quote from Star Wars. I love that series, so maybe if I have time and if I can think of a long enough story to stem from this one idea, I could write about it.

The Struggle Before the Fight
I thought it was weird and intriguing that King Dhritarashtra cannot resist Duryodhana's will, no matter how much he knows deep down that what his eldest son is doing is terrible, and no matter how much he loves the Pandavas. If I were to continue with the Harry Potter stories, I could possibly have Duryodhana keep his father, Dhritarashtra under the imperius curse, which is one that makes the other do whatever the person holding the curse wants. It seems like that is already happening, but if I re-tell this part, might as well have a reason for why the King follows everything his eldest son does, despite everyone else's suggestions.

Bibliography: Narayan's Mahabharata, Part C.


Source: The scene where Yama tests the Pandava brothers and reveals that he is Yudhishthira's father.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The One With Krishna as Rapunzel

***Check out the revised version of this story on my portfolio here !***  Long ago, on a rainy night, a demon named Putana slipped into t...