“Kumbhakarna!”
“Yes, dear?”
“Dinner is ready!”
Wonderful!
My beautiful wife, Maria, is always cooking up delicious mountains of food for
me, which is good because I am a very large fellow. It takes a lot of food to keep
this belly from rumbling! I hope she made dessert, too. Last week, she made a
rich gulab jamun and I ate myself sick, but it was well worth it. I
just cannot control myself around desserts.
"Maria, what have you prepared for me today?"
"Oh my single-minded man,
can I at least receive a kiss before you assault the food I've worked so hard
on all day?"
"Sorry, honey. My stomach made me forget myself."
I wrapped
my arms around Maria, kissing her softly. I pulled back gently and caught sight
of the table. Oh my. Maria outdid herself. The table was piled high with scrumptious-looking
delicacies. She caught me staring past her at the food and began lightly
scolding me. Luckily, she is used to my love of food and knows I love her just
as much—maybe even more!
“Alright, dear, you can eat
now. I’ve prepared a whole butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, naan paranthas
stuffed with vegetables, samosas, a big pot of rasam—“
“Nom,
nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom”
“Ugh, that man! He isn’t even
listening… I guess I won’t tell him about the ladoos.”
My ears
perked up, even in my food-induced craze I could listen for the sound of desserts!
I’ll just have to sweet talk her into giving the precious ladoos to me, as soon
as I finish off this dish…
“Dear, can’t I please have
some of the ladoos? I know how hard you worked on it; I want to show my
appreciation! By eating and enjoying it, of course!” I said while rubbing my
belly happily.
“I’m afraid not, Kumbi. I’ve
already thrown it all out.”
“What!? How could you?”
I dropped
to the floor in despair and—strangely enough—opened my eyes in my family’s
house, back on the island.
Oh my. That was some dream. I really
must get off this island and find me a wife, one who can cook as well as the
wives of my dreams. I must’ve dozed off again… What year is it? I suppose I’ll
have to venture outside and check. Ugh. I HATE waking up… Sometimes I wish I
could sleep forever, but then I’d miss out on all the food! I could try ringing
the servants’ bell. *RING, RING, RING*… Hmm, that is strange. The servants know
better than to ignore me when I first wake up. I am always rather grumpy, but
who could blame me following a dream like that, only to wake up wifeless and
hungry? No matter, I will punish the servants later. Right now, I need to track
down some food. Hey, what’s that noise? I hear a faint rumbling outside. Was
that a battle cry? Oh, goodness. Did I miss something important? I do believe
there is a battle going on outside; I hope Ravana hasn’t started trouble again…
Author’s
Note: I chose to tell this story because I was interested in Kumbhakarna’s
character, but he was not elaborated on very much at all in the original version.
I completely made up his dream world and I changed the scene in which he
initially wakes up during the battle between Rama and Ravana. I liked telling
the story using a lot of dialogue as well as inner thoughts of Kumbhakarna
because I felt it showed the relationship between him and Maria very well. I
was hoping to convey that they
cared for each other, in spite of Kumbhakarna’s obsession with food. I think my
version of Kumbhakarna is much more relatable and lovable than the original,
which was an important goal of my story. I used the Ramayana for my inspiration
and VahRehVah.com for the names of the traditional Indian food mentioned in the
story. I have personally tried samosas—the Indian food, not the drink!—and they
were pretty good, though I hear they are much more impressive when they are
homemade, as Kumbhakarna’s were in the dream. The image is something I found by
simply searching “traditional Indian food”, so I am unsure what exactly is in
the picture. I love the song "My Maria," so I chose to use that inspiration for the name of the wife, which is why she does not have a traditional Indian name.
Bibliography:
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way
