I’ve
always dreamed of what my future wife would be like. She’d be beautiful of course. After all, I am the king of Hastinapura – I deserve
the very best. However, I want there to
be more to our relationship than superficial things. I want there to be love. Not some arranged sort of love some kings
have, but a love that would have occurred regardless of my position as king. For this reason, I want to fall in love not
as a king but as an ordinary man.
Therefore, whenever my future wife and I meet, I know she will love me
for me and not for my power. However,
this is easier said than done. You see,
everyone in the kingdom knows who I am, especially all the women. I can’t simply disguise myself because they
would all see through the disguises. For
this reason, I must go on the outskirts of town where the hard-working and
unexpecting women reside. I decide to
leave in the morning. The next morning,
I have the guards drop me off on the riverbank.
As I walk, letting me feet run through the water, I notice a woman all
by herself. As I look closer, I do not
recognize her face and do not know if she is even a part of the kingdom. All the better. I give myself a mental pep talk as I approach
her and then I start a conversation with her.
We talk about the weather, the beauty of the land, and our favorite
things to do. Our eyes connect and I
feel all warm and happy inside. She
wraps up the conversation and turns to leave.
On a whim, I ask her to be my wife since I do not want to let such a
special woman escape from my vicinity.
Interestingly enough, she agrees.
I can hardly believe my luck.
Part of me wonders if something is wrong with her, but I smile and push
those thoughts aside. I become very
excited and then, she asks me to promise one thing- that I would never tell her
to do anything differently or have her change what she does. Thinking back to tales I’ve heard of
power-hungry husbands, I feel like that may be why she requests this and oblige
of course. As we return to the castle,
we talk some more and I grow to love her more and more.
Author’s
Note: I wanted to add more information
than the book did about this. I think
the woman was deceptive but the king was also very naïve. He wanted a wife too badly to see through
some of the red flags.
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
A river - may resemble the one the king met his wife at.
(source: Wikipedia)
Hey Taylor, I just finished reading your storytelling post for this week and I really liked it. Adding your own dialogues and what the king was thinking makes your version of the story much more personable and easier to relate to in comparison to the original. All your extra details give a much better insight to the original story. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Taylor! I really like that you chose to develop this part of the story! I definitely agree about the king being incredibly naive to ask a woman he just met to marry him. I like that you showed some of his motivation in proposing to her and why he accepted her request! I really liked your perspective on this story! Great job!
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I really enjoyed your description of what you imagined the king would have been going through in his head as he met and proposed to his wife. I thought it was comical how your interpretation of him was so ignorant and boastful- I think thats how we were supposed to envision him. Your additions of his emotions toward her defintely helped bring the story together and emphasized how he was so carried away by her beauty and his ignorance, he did not realize how strange her requests were… too bad for him. That did not work out well in his favor. Great job overall. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteTaylor, this story was great! I enjoyed the scenic view in your picture because it brought out the concept and idea really well that you are portraying through your story. I think you did a great job writing this scene in your own version. Your dialogues and emotions were on point and solid. Your descriptions were great as well. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI really like this story Taylor because it shows a side of the king that we don't get to experience in the book as far as emotion goes. You did a great job getting into his head and regurgitating his possible thoughts that explain his actions in obtaining a wife so easily. I also think you were creative in adding the red flags of the woman by the river to give some idea to the reader what kind of woman she would turn out to be. Their meet was more romantic in your version and I love romance :) good job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a fantastic job telling this story. Still can't believe king didn't see the trap. I'm really glad you decided to elaborate on the meeting of the king and his deceptive wife though. I was always a little curious as to how that relationship kicked off. The imagery you used throughout the story was well done, I found myself easily drawn into the story. Once again, great job and keep up the awesome storytelling!
ReplyDelete