Reading Diary A: Week 5

• I found it interesting the different future lives of Kaikeyi were horrible in description and finally after a few, Bharata forgives her in order to save her soul from these fates, a sons love for his mother holds true for him
• Rama trusts Bharata at once when he sees him, and does not suspect him of any ill will or purpose
• Bharata's journey to find Rama is filled with different stories and characters but my favorite is the hermit Bharadwaja because he is so nice to each queen and makes them feel at home, there are many forest people who are so accommodating to outsiders they feel they can trust
• It is interesting that so many people follow Bharata into the forest, this time with smiles as they rested though which is much needed I think after so much sorrow from losing their king and Rama
• The journey described as Rama and Sita are in the forest is kind of honeymoon-esque even thought they have been married for a while it is nice that they are able to enjoy each others love in exile without the safety and luxury of a palace
• Seems like there are a lot of creatures in the forest that like to mess with Sitar, like the crow and the monkey
• Anasuya seems like a good friend to Sita at this time, sharing her wisdom -that sita will need in the future when she is exiled- and making Sita feel beautiful
• The stories in the Dandaka forest are very confusing and this part of the book is long it seems leading up to Sita's capture. This part will take some more focused reading with notes and character outlines to understand it better in terms of storyline. My favorite story though is the one about the demons who killed 9,000 people by making their victims eat a monster which was one of them and destroyed their victims body when they were coaxed out by the other brother on the outside..very creepy and awful
• The story with the tiny people is interesting, I wonder if there is a deeper meaning that I am missing, seems like every story has a purpose to this story but it was easier to understand and see in the first version of the Ramayana
• Garuda shows up both when watching Bharata pass by with his followers and now we get to know his story, he is a character worth researching. Especially since there is an airline in India named after him
• Finally the story with Surpanakha. I found this part to be less drawn out than the first version we read but I like how she does not change form, and is ugly to begin with. I thought it was interesting how her brother had a priest restore her parts cut by Lakshmana..shows a more caring side to Ravana, also less emphasis to Sita's beauty but he is intrigued nonetheless