It was getting late and Papa Monkey had just finished
tucking his son into bed. As Papa Monkey got up to leave the room, his son
stopped him. “Papa, where do the clouds come from?” “Is that seriously what
this kid thinks about as he’s falling asleep?” Papa Monkey thought to himself
as he walked back to his son’s bed and prepared to tell the tale of Mainaka.
“Many years ago, all of the mountains had huge wings that
they used to fly anywhere that they pleased.” “Wait! Are you telling me that
mountains used to be able to move?!” his son interrupted. “That’s correct, but
the mountains were clumsy and careless creatures. Whenever they got tired, the
mountains would simply put their wings away and fall to the Earth, crushing
everything below. The mountains destroyed many kingdoms and took the lives of
countless animals. The animals begged the mountains to be more careful, but the
mountains wouldn’t listen. The animals tried setting up traps to keep the
mountains from taking to the sky, but they couldn’t make anything strong enough
to bind the mountains to the ground. They tried building ceilings over their
kingdoms, but none were strong enough to hold the weight of a mountain. When
the animals felt that they had exhausted all of their options, they sought the
help of Indra, the lord of heaven and god of rain and thunderstorms. When Indra
heard of the destruction that the mountains were causing, he was furious. With his
mighty thunderbolt, vajra, Indra descended to earth and removed the wings of
every mountain, except for one. Mainaka, the son of the Mountain King, was
carried to safety by the wind. When they had escaped Indra’s sight, Mainaka hid
at the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile,
the wings of all the other mountains drifted upward and remain suspended in the
sky as the clouds that we see today.”
(Indra with vajra: khabar)
“That’s so cool!” the son exclaimed. “But what ended up
happening to Mainaka?” “After helping Hanuman with his jump to Lanka, Mainaka
returned to the bottom of the ocean. To this day, he is the only mountain with
wings, but he knows better than to fly above land and harm the animals.” Papa
Monkey responded, then kissed his son on the forehead as he drifted to sleep.
Author's Note: I chose this story because I thought it was an interesting addition to the Ramayana. I also enjoy using the bedtime story writing style. I didn't really change much from the original story, but added a few minor details here and there.
Bibliography: Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way
Austin, I really like not only the story you decided to tell, but the way in which you went about telling it. I found it humorous that you had the little commentary in the beginning where the father was kind of annoyed by why is son was wanting to know such a long story. As the story went on, I thought it was a really breakdown of the story in a comprehendible way for a child. Overall, I really enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteHi Austin! I really enjoy the bedtime storytelling style that you used in your story! I also felt like the story of Mainaka was very unique and actually almost used that for my storytelling this week. I thought the idea of mountains moving was really interesting. It definitely would cause major problems if mountains had wings! This story was perfect to tell as a bedtime story, because children often really do think this way and ask questions like that! Great job, I really enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteAustin, the way you told your story this week was very creative. It is obvious you put a lot of thought into it. It made it more relatable and fun to read. I liked how the child kept asking questions, that is exactly how children seem to be.
ReplyDeleteI had not thought about putting a story in the form of a bedtime story. Very creative.
The way it was told made it very easy for the audience to understand.
Good job!
Austin great job with this story! You did a great job retelling this story with your minor detailed changes. I agree, I also like the bedtime style of writing its fun to work with and you can almost write anything and elaborate in your own version. You did the same here but I liked how you chose to only do a few minor changes. The story of Mainaka was fun to read! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you incorporated this story into a bedtime story, great thinking. If I had a child, I would tell them all sorts of crazy stuff if it helped them go to bed. I like how the child in your story was inquisitive and wanted to know more and more. Even though you didn't change much, I think the minor tweaks you made to the story were great.
ReplyDeleteI just got done reading a similar storytelling post where there was a child asking about the clouds and the adult gave an explanation coming from the story from the Ramayana. You included a lot more detail in your story and I enjoyed seeing numerous characters being brought into the story. I also liked how involved the child was in the story and got excited while listening. Great work on this post!
ReplyDeleteHey Austin!! I think you did a great job of retelling this story, and the addition of the father and son characters really added to the instructional feel of the tale. I just love etiological myths, and this one about the origin of clouds I thought was very poignant and interesting in the epic, so I' m glad you decided to retell it. Great job!!
ReplyDeleteHi again Austin. I really enjoyed reading your story and I think you did an excellent job of retelling it in your own words. I liked how you changed the style of the story into a bedtime story, it really made the story more interesting and reader friendly. Even though the plot was not changed, the added details really made the story worth a read.
ReplyDelete