Neringa Ramayan part deux

Unabridged. Verbatim. The highly awaited chapter 2, in the story of your intrepid God-person. The One. The Only. 


RAM. 

"...
anyway, its about time i tell you Ramayana chapter 2.. 
i am a bit bored working today, this will be good time pass...


ok, so let me recap first
Ayodhya city, prosperous kingdom, king has no sons, prays, gets 4 sons, one is our hero ram, ram is trained, just married and a crowd favorite.


So, Part 2: Politics 
if you remember, king dasarath had 3 wives. one of these, Kaikeyi was a really awesome person. Once, in battle, king dasarath's charioteer died of arrow wounds. in a curious turn of events, the young queen turned up and took up the reins and guided dasarath to eventual victory. So great was her contribution that the king said, from here on, i declare you my favourite queen, and i bestow upon you 2 boons, whatever you wish. in addition to being a badass fighter lady the queen was also prudent and intelligent. She said thank you , but i will take a rain check and ask you of those boons later, when and if i need them...


So, thats the back story, and the situation in Ayodhya was generally quite happy happy , with ram and sita accepted to be the successors to the the Raghuwansh ["the clan of Raghu " thats their family name] throne. the mood was overall quite happy with a young and beloved prince about to enter manhood and all that...


now this kaikeyi had an evil servant, a hunchback named manthara. She started poisoning the mind of kaikeyi with tales of some bullshit, but slowly slowly she turned her to the idea that her son, Bharat, should be king and not ram. So adept manthara was at this this that Kaikeyi started thinking that this was her own idea, and it is but natural that her son should be king. After all, she was Queen No 1 and all that. 


Bharat and his half brother Shatrughna were holidaying with their uncles when ram came back with sita and this talk of ram becoming king started. Wasting no time, kaikeyi sought the king's audience and reminded him that he owed her 2 wishes. She asked him to banish ram to the jungles in exile for 14 years and in his place make bharat king. 


the king was flabbergasted, to say the least. How had his fav queen turned evil vamp almost overnight? but more than this was his horror at having to send his own son into exile ignominiously. but a trait of the raghunwansh king was they would always uphold 'dharma' and his word was his word. he had to keep it. 'dharma' is a set of rules you follow, depending upon your station in life. A king is a public figure, a leader of men. keeping his word is one of the most important rules he has to follow. 


so, reluctantly, he calls his son and tells him the thing. Now ram is an even greater person, following his dharma as a prince, listen to your father. so, with a smile on his, saying whatever my father says is correct, agrees to the terms...


Ram went home and started packing. Sita, being the dutiful wife, without saying anything, started packing with him. Nothing he said could persuade her otherwise. Same happened to lakshman, he too left everything and decided to go with ram [poor urmila, lakshaman's wife :( was left alone]


So they set out. so great was the king's sorrow, he died as soon as his sons and daughter in law were out of the city limits. Around this time, bharat came back from his holiday. Expecting the city to be happy and preparing for ram's coronation, he was shocked to see a city mourning. Dual shocks of losing their fav son and awesome king on the same day had rendered the city quite senseless with shock. 


As soon as he entered his chambers, he was greeted with the news by his mother, that she had eliminated his competition and his father was also dead and he would be king. This dude was scandalized! i mean, imagine coming home to this situation!


Poor guy, trying to save his bro from the exile, immediately set out to bring him back. Initially, the citizens were against him, but seeing his distress, they joined him. a large crowd started out in the direction of ram sita and lakshman.


Meanwhile, Lakshaman noticed from afar, a large crowd following them , with bharat at the head. He was enraged, thinking that bharat, not satisfied with just exile , was coming to kill his brothers. ram restrained him long enough for bharat to explain his mission, to try and persuade ram to come back.


Now ram couldnt go, since this was his father's dying order. How could he not follow that? so bharat said, ok. I will run the kingdom in your stead, but i wont sit on the throne. Give me your footwear. He took ram's sandals, put them on his head, and with due honors, installed them on the throne, ruling in his brother's stead for 14 years. [side note: this was noble gesture on bharat's part, but poor ram had to live 14 years in the jungle, without shoes! hehehe kidding...]




thus ends the preamble to the actual adventures of ram , which start in the jungle, which i will continue in the next chapter..


phew! this story takes more time to write than i thought! :) :) :) . but its fun to do it for a friend :D 
..."