In a previous life, Draupadi had begged Shankara to give her
a husband. Because she asked him five times for a husband, Shankara granted her
boons and told her when she was born again she would have five husbands. The
gods declared that she would become the wife to all five of the Pandava
brethren. I think this is an interesting concept of the god granting her the
five husbands because she asked for one five times. I would like to write a
story that takes a similar approach but asks the gods for something different.
In this story I hope to incorporate more dialogue than in my
past stories. I think good dialogue between characters adds a special spark to
the story and makes it more enjoyable to read. I plan to have dialogue between Draupadi and Shankara in her dream as well as internal dialogue for Draupadi.
Plot Outline:
- After hearing a bedtime story that involved an elephant, a young Draupadi prayed to the gods to give her a pet elephant.
- After praying for an elephant for a week, Draupadi was told by Shankara in her dream that night that her boon would be granted and she would receive an elephant for each time she had asked for one.
- Draupadi woke up excited and nervous the next morning to find 7 full grown elephants in her back yard.
- She is excited at first but quickly learns that are a lot of work.
Characters:
Draupadi is the main character of this story. She is a young
girl 5-8 years old with a big imagination. After reading her story, she is
determined that she must own an elephant to be like the character in her book.
She is strong willed and refuses to take no as an answer. She is optimistic about
receiving more than just one elephant but comes to realize it isn’t as glamorous
and she thought.
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| Elephants Source |
Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata, Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.
Your view / perspective on the story is very interesting and will be cool to read. What really grabbed my attention was "god granting her the five husbands because she asked for one five times". How will you describe this in your story? Well done on the story planning!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great planning post! I hope to read this story soon. I like that you are using your take on an episode of the Ramayana to incorporate an important lesson: be careful what you wish for. I also appreciate the change of husbands from the original story to elephants in your own. How funny that the work of being wife to five is comparable to the work of tending to seven elephants. Maybe this was not the intention, but it did make me giggle. Your planning technique is great, and I cannot wait to see it executed in your writing.
ReplyDeleteThis idea is quite interesting. I also find it somewhat entertaining thinking about Draupadi's reaction toward the elephants as well as how she going to take care of them. I am curious on how you are going to write the internal dialogue for Draupadi as it is something that will reveal about her personality a lot! Overall, I am really looking forward to this story and wondering how are you going to fit everything in. Good work!
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