Week 6 Storytelling: Mountain Wings

(Mountains in Clouds. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Two adventurous little bears were out hiking one day when the clouds turned dark and thunder began to roll. As the wind swept in and rain started to pour, they took cover in a small cave on the side of the mountain.

“Columbo, did you see how dark the clouds got?” one bear asked his friend. “In a matter of minutes, it looked like nighttime!”

“You’re right! I didn’t even know it was supposed to rain today.” The poor bears sulked for a minute. “Do you think it’ll clear up soon, Atticus? Those blasted clouds are ruining our mountain adventure!”

Just then, a kind old bear with a tall walking stick entered the cave. “Oh! Pardon me, boys. Didn’t realize this little abode was occupied.”

He began to leave, but Atticus jumped up. “That’s alright! You should stay here while it’s still storming. Here, you can sit on this rock.” He indicated the flat spot on which he had been sitting.

“Well, thank you very much, young sir,” the old bear said, taking a seat. “Did I hear ‘those blasted clouds’ have wrecked your time on this grand ol’ mountain?”

Columbo, ever a shy little bear, nodded sheepishly.

“You know, those clouds and this mountain used to be one and the same. Way back when—many, many, many years ago—the clouds used to be mountains’ wings.”

“What!?” Atticus exclaimed, and Columbo laughed, “That’s crazy! No way!”

“It’s true. It’s absolutely true,” the old bear replied. “I can tell you about where the clouds came from—how the mountains lost their wings, if you care to know.”

“Sure!” The curious little bears nodded with excitement, eager to hear about such a phenomenon.

“Alright,” the old bear grinned. “Well, as I said, many years ago, the clouds were part of the mountains. They were the wings that allowed them to fly. That’s right, the very grounded, very stationary mountains you know now used to be able to soar through the skies, flying wherever the air and wherever their whims would take them. They were happy, carefree bundles of boulders, to be sure.

“This became quite a problem for the rest of the world, however, when their good-natured, carefree sensibilities turned into selfish, careless devastations. You see, many of this world’s mountains began to fly all over the place until they were too tired to even pay attention where they were landing. They would plop down anywhere and sleep for years. The trouble was, they frequently squashed whatever was below them: densely populated forests, small civilizations, magnificent kingdoms… Widespread destruction.

“The people complained to the god Indra. ‘Save us from these colossal bullies,’ they begged him. So, Indra chased down all of the mountains and all of the hills—all but one—and he flung thunderbolts at them, severing their wings permanently, leaving the wings—or clouds, as we call them now—to float freely in the skies. As you two very well know, Indra’s thunderbolts remain tied to the clouds even today.”

“Wow! That’s amazing!” Columbo exclaimed, looking to see that Atticus felt the same. The other little bear, however, looked confused, deep in thought.

“What about the one mountain Indra didn’t catch?” he asked.

“Oh. Mainaka. That clever ol’ rock took shelter in the ocean,” the big bear remarked. “He remains there now, deep below the waves, his wings churning the water and the sands near the sea bed.”

Hearing this, Atticus turned to Columbo. “I think our next adventure will have to be scuba diving!”



Author’s Note:
I wanted to retell the clouds’ origin story from the part of this week’s reading where Mainaka the mountain helps out Hanuman. I thought it was a cool idea, that clouds used to be mountain wings before Indra cut them off due to the mountains’ carelessness. I chose a stormy hiking adventure to set the scene because I thought that would be a good way to initiate some kind of conversation about clouds and mountains.


Bibliography:  Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 6 Reading Diary B: Everyone was Dead and then Everyone was Not Dead

What a comeback! I admit I was shocked when Indrajit killed Sugriva and Angada and all of the monkeys and bears. When I read that he killed Rama and Lakshmana, I had to go back and reread the last couple of pages because I thought I read it wrong. How could Rama be dead!?! I already know this story --- it has a happy ending! If this happened in Narayan’s version, either I have forgotten it or I overlooked it the first time, because I was surprised, for sure. At that point I figured there had to be some sort of magic revival coming because Rama is the hero! Leave it to good ol’ Hanuman to restore a whole army in almost no time flat.

I liked Kumbhakarna more in this version than in the last. In Narayan’s, he just seemed like a brutish, bloodthirsty warmonger. In Buck’s, I got more of a sense that he really thought Ravana was in the wrong, but that he fought for him out of brotherly loyalty. For that, I felt more sympathetic to his character. He didn’t really pose much of a threat to Rama’s army, though I expected he would.

Indrajit, however, dealt a swift and massive blow. Within a paragraph, he wiped out all of my favorite characters! And by the next, he had killed Rama and Lakshmana, and Hanuman was out for the count too. But only temporarily. Lucky Rama had that awesome monkey warrior fighting on his side. Hanuman’s the real MVP.

(Indrajit's Attack)

Week 6 Reading Diary A: Hanuman in Lanka

I decided to continue with Buck’s Ramayana this week because I’ve really been enjoying it thus far. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Sampathi and Jatayu’s mishap with the sun for the Storytelling assignment. So I thought it was fun to read Buck’s description of it this week, and I was kind of happy to see that I hadn’t written anything too contradictory to his version.

One story that I think I might retell for this week is that of Mainaka the mountain. It was a neat idea that all of the world’s mountains used to have wings, but they were careless with them, so Indra cut them off. I really liked that he explained that the severed wings turned into clouds. What a weird and cool origin story for clouds! Like, “Where did clouds come from?” “Oh, they’re mountain wings.” I think that’s funny. I might write about that.

I enjoyed reading about Hanuman’s initial trip to Lanka in Buck’s version because he included a lot of really cool detail that gave me a better idea of what Lanka and its inhabitants are like. I also liked that Hanuman just wandered around as a cat for a good portion of it. He’s such a likeable character in any form.

I also found it interesting to see more of what Sita’s imprisonment was like. We didn’t hear a lot about it in Narayan’s book, and that was something I was sort of left wondering about. I read a few Storytelling blog posts that reimagined it that were really good and piqued my curiosity. So I liked that Buck painted a picture of it for the reader through the eyes of Hanuman.

(Hanuman Encounters Sita)