Week 5 Story: The Return of Sita

After several long days they were finally back together, and it was hard to believe that what they’d been through was real. Congressman Rama sat in embrace with Sita and thought about what had transpired. 

3 days ago, Rama had been cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when he heard a scream come from the living room. He took off towards the room only to find a broken window and shattered glass covering the floor. 

“Sita? Sita!”, he called out, but no answer was heard. 

When the police arrived to their home, an investigation began, and it was determined that Sita had been kidnapped. By who they weren’t sure, but it seemed like Rama had been targeted due to his powerful position. 

A few days passed without.a word. The police continued their investigation efforts, and Rama drove around town trying to find anyone who may be able to help, but nothing turned up. Then suddenly on the third day, Rama left his home to find a note taped to the front door. The note appeared to be in some sort of code which Rama couldn’t decipher, but luckily he new someone who could. 

Rama had been a history major in college and had an old friend who had spent a great deal of time studying ancient languages and symbols. He hoped that this friend would be able to assist him, so he left and drove to his house. 

Upon inspecting the code, Rama’s friend recognized it as Sanskrit, an ancient form of language developed in India around 1500 B.C. He deciphered it and relayed the message to Rama. 

“I should’ve won. But I lost, and now you’ll lose too.”

Rama immediately knew the perpetrator to be Ravana, his opposition in the last congressional election. He immediately called the police and informed them of this, and although they were slightly skeptical they agreed to investigate it. 

They arrived at Ravana’s house, and it appeared no one was home. The driveway was empty, so the police assumed Ravana had left. They entered the house and called out to Sita, and were answered by a muffled scream that sounded like it was coming from upstairs. They rushed towards the noise and found Sita bound to a column upstairs. She appeared unharmed, and the police were ecstatic to have found her. After taking her from the house, the police drove their cars far down the street and a few of them hid inside the front door of Ravana’s house. When he finally returned home, they ambushed him and arrested him. 

The police took Sita back to her house, and she was thrilled to finally be back with Rama. Rama was thinking about everything that had transpired and finally asked Sita how she had managed over the past few days, and if Ravana had hurt her. 

“I am completely unharmed”, she said. “He tried to talk to me from time to time but never laid a hand on me. I’m unsure of what his intentions were.”

Rama thought about this and the thought occurred to him that this event might hurt his reputation. “Sita, I think we need to talk about this”, he said. 

“Talk about what?”

“About what this means for my public image.”

“Is that really what’s important right now?” Sita was slightly annoyed at the turn this had taken, given what she had just been through. 

Rama continued, “I think the public will look at me different now that you’ve been held hostage in another man’s house.”

“Why on earth would the public look at you different? Their only reaction will be sympathetic towards us for having to deal with this traumatic event.”

“It’s just too big a risk for me to take. I can’t have the people thinking negatively of me. I think you should live elsewhere. The woods behind the house would do.”

Sita had transitioned from annoyed to downright mad, and she stormed out the door, amazed at the lack of affection and empathy her husband had just showed towards her. 

Image of Where Sita was Held Hostage (Lanka in the Ramayana)

Image Source

Author’s Note: For my story this week, I chose to once again focus on the public domain version of the Ramayana, though this time I focused on the ending. Rama is on the throne and banished Sita to the woods, despite the fact that she remained as loyal to him as she possibly could have given what she went through. I’ve enjoyed putting things in a modern perspective in previous weeks, so I thought I would do the same for this story. To make it easier to follow, I’ve chosen to keep the character names the same, so only the plot and setting has changed. I like to put these in a modern setting because I feel that it highlights the odd and questionable moments that take place in the Ramayana, and how out of place they would be if they were to take place today.