Week 5 Story: More Than I Ever Thought I Could Be

Hanumann: British Libraries

     My name is Hanuman and I never thought I was special. I thought I was destined to serve in the Monkey Kingdom as no more than a peasant solider and eventually pass onto heaven. However, I have distinct memories from childhood leaping far into the air to try and catch the wind to fly away from home. These plans never worked out, and I remember not being allowed to leave my home tree for months after my parents found out what I had done. I grew up a lot in that short time, and I forgot about my ability to jump far. The Monkey Kingdom was very stable for all of my life up until recently. Recently, Sugriva, the monkey king, and his brother, Vail, had a big argument. Vail wanted to continue expanding the empire while Sugriva wanted to keep things the way they had always been. Vail and Sugriva began fighting until Vail eventually ousted Sugriva. There were years of infighting after Vail was crowned king, and right as it seemed like the Monkey Kingdom was falling apart, Sugriva came back.  He brought with him a man named Rama and Lakshmana. Sugriva quickly retook the throne and restored balance in the Monkey Kingdom. As a repayment for helping Sugriva retake the throne, Sugriva said that he would help Rama find his wife Sita. Sugriva sent men all over to find any hint of where Sita could be. Eventually, a wise Hawk told the southernmost soliders that Sita has been on an island across the ocean. After this knowledge was passed on Sugriva, Sugriva began seeing how far the monkey soldiers could jump. I was eventually tested and surprisingly won. I jumped thousands of leagues, something I never thought I could do, and wowed the others. Since I won, I am now getting ready to leap to the island across the sea and I wanted to write my goodbye in case I don't come back. I never knew my life would lead to this moment, but I am happy knowing that I will amount to something greater than me.

Authors note:

I wrote this story based off the character Hanuman from part C of Ramayana. I wanted to write about this because I found Hanumann's character super interesting. He was introduced late into the story and played an integral role for the rest of part C in the Ramayana. In the original story, Vail removed Sugriva from the throne after it seemed like Sugriva tried to bury him under a mountain. Also, Hanuman always knew about his jumping capability and was selected without any question. I wrote in more of diary style because I was only writing about one character mainly instead of multiple.

Bibliography:

Author: Various contributors
Title: Ramayana
Source: Public Domain