Like I already told you, there was
a point in time when Monica was a little bit worried Chandler could be
cheating on her. He had just been transferred to the Tulsa location of
his company. While working in Tulsa, Chandler must work closely with a
woman who threw herself at him. When he called Monica later that night,
he was still at work with the other woman, finishing up a report that
must be turned in the next day. Monica could hear the woman's voice in
the background and became concerned because she remembered Chandler
telling her that his co-worker was the runner-up Miss Oklahoma the year
before and, therefore, she must be gorgeous. The woman had told
Chandler that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend.
Monica wanted to trust Chandler but found it difficult since he was
well over a thousand miles away. Deep down she really did trust him;
it's the promiscuous beauty queen she's worried about. She
explained the situation to the other friends - Ross, Rachel, Joey and
Pheobe - at the coffee shop. I, of course, was listening in. :) At that
moment, Monica realized I was listening
"Okay Rajiv, What should I do?"
asked Monica.
"Well, this reminds me of the VERY
interesting story of the woman Surpanakha, the evil sister of the Demon
King Ravana. Ravana had given his sister the whole Dandaka forest to
live in and roam freely. Unfortunately for the hero Rama, that same
forest is where he chose to spend part of his exile. That's an entirely
different story that I can tell you another time."
"Oh, I can't wait for that!" Joey
said sarcastically.
"Ah, I know you like these
stories! Anyway, during Rama's exile he comes in contact with
Surpanaka. She introduced herself as Kamavalli. She told Rama that she
was indeed the sister of the horrible Demon Ravana, but that she had
severed all ties to him."
"You see, the demon woman had
instantly fallen in love with Rama and was willing to do anything to
make him hers. The one big problem was that Rama already had a
beautiful wife that he loved, Sita. There's also a big difference here
in that Surpanakha is an utterly hideous Demon with yellowy skin, a pot
belly, and claws, but I want you to ignore that."
They all laugh.
"The woman tried her best to
convince Rama to take her as his wife. All the while, Rama was able to
oppose each point she made."
"First, Rama said that he was of
warrior class and her of Brahmin, second that he was human and she was
a Demon; and finally that there were no elders to sanction their
marriage. All of this, plus the fact that he loved only his wife, made
it impossible for him to take her as his wife."
"At the sight of Sita, Surpanakha
even tried to pretend that she was Rama's lover, assuming Sita to be a
random woman in the forest and not his wifr, and pleaded with Rama
to make her leave. She told Rama that Sita was probably a Demon woman
set out to
deceive him, almost revealing her true purpose for being there. She
then yelled at Sita to leave causing Sita to run to Rama's arms and
Surpanakha became enraged. Rama ordered Surpanakha to leave before his
brother realized she was there."
"Surpanaka heeds this advice and
goes home to her cave."
"What kind of advice is that,
Rajiv? Do you mean that I should just know that she'll eventually leave
him alone?!" Monica cried.
"No, there is more to the story,
but you must not take it literally."
"Ok, what does she do next?"
Monica asked.
"Well, she is haunted with dreams
of Rama all through her sleep and decided she has to go back for him.
So, the next day she waited for Rama to leave and planned on getting
rid of
Sita and letting Rama come home to find her in Sita's place."
"This plan is foiled when Rama's
brother, Lakshama, caught Surpanakha just as she started to watch Sita
and tackled her, held her down and kicked her in the stomach. He then
realized she was a woman and decided to spare her life, but would have
to punish her in some way. He pulled out his sword and cut off her
nose, ears, and breasts."
"Wait a minute Rajiv! You're not
telling me to go and cut her face off are you??" Monica asked, quite
shocked.
"Of course not. I told you not to
take it literally. It's just to show that people who act in that
manner always get what's coming to them and when your husband takes a
vow to be faithful, he will be."
Author's Note: I didn't change
anything in particular about this story from the Ramayana. I combined
both versions of the Ramayana to come up with a version that reflects
how I understand what happened. Most of my interpretation came from
Narayan's version as his was more detailed. I used the the Friends
framtale and centered it around the character of Monica. I have seen
EVERY episode of the series and am very familiar with the plot. This is
actually a story and problem that comes up. In the actual show,
however, Monica didn't have to explain the situation to her friends
because they were all on speakerphone at home when the call in question
was made. I changed that part in order for Rajiv to be able to learn
about the problem. Monica is just one of the six characters I could
have chosen to base the story on. My other stories will follow a
problem that three of the other characters encounter and Rajiv will be
relating the problem to a different Demon character from the Ramayana
or the Mahabharata. I felt like the Demons in the Indian Epics with
their skewed consciences create very interesting story lines that
relate to personal problems today. I feel that no matter how much time
passes that part of people doesn't change very much.
Monica and Chandler on Halloween Source: Free Webs
Buck, William. Ramayana. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Narayan, R. K.. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the
Indian Epic (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Classics, 2006.
Friends - The Complete Series Collection. Dir. Bright KauffmanCrane.
Perf. Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry,
Lisa Kudrow, Matthew LeBlanc. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2004.