It was Monday morning at Central Perk
and things had been pretty quiet around here. I was sure that was about
to change since the shop regulars - Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross,
Chandler, and Joey - usually spend their lunch break here. And just as
I suspected, Joey showed up.
"Hey buddy! How's it going?" I
asked.
"Hey. Pretty good! I went out with
a great girl last night!" Joey exclaimed.
"Oh really? Was this the girl you
told me about the other day, Katie?" I asked.
"Oh, well, this was Sarah. I'm
seeing Katie later tonight."
"Sarah, as in Gunther's girlfriend,
Sarah? I asked, rather surprised.
"Um, yeah, but Gunther's been gone
for like a month and she's REALLY hot!"
"Joey, how many times do I have to
tell you? It's not fair to these women, or Gunther. You need to stick
with one woman at a time," I scolded.
"I know, I know. You tell me all
the time, but it's too hard to pick just one," Joey explained.
"I think it's time I tell you about
the Demon Ravana. He, too, went after every woman he wanted, even after
he was married."
"Come on, Rajiv. Once I'm married,
I
won't be like this!" Joey pleaded.
"At this rate, you're never going
to get married, so listen to my story!"
"Ravana was the King of the Demon
land of Lanka. Because of his devotion to the God Brahma, Ravana was
incapable of being hurt by the gods and demons. Unfortunately though,
he was destined to die from a woman. He also had the ability to assume
any form he wished. All Rakshasas are evil creatures, but as their
king, Ravana was the most evil. Ravana had ten heads and twenty arms."
"Whoa, so that's how he kept up
with all those women!" Joey joked.
"Very funny, Joey. Anyway, during
Ravana's lifetime he acquired many wives. At one point he forced
himself on the apsara, Rambha, who was promised to another man. The man
was so angry that he cursed Ravana so that his ten heads would fall off
if he ever forced himself on another woman. Evidently, he was quite the
charmer since he managed to get so many wives, even after the curse."
"Ah, so he was quite the ladies
man, like me!" Joey exclaimed.
"Exactly! Now let me get to the
best part of the story."
"When Ravana's sister met our hero
Rama's wife, Sita, in the Dandaka forest, she told Ravana that Sita
should be his next wife. She also told her brother all about how
beautiful Sita was and how much Ravana deserved her. He decided then
and there that he had to have her. He sent their brother Maricha to
distract Rama and his brother Lakshmana. As soon as they both left, he
swooped in and took Sita away by the ground she stood on. This was
because the curse prevented him from physically taking her by force.
Ravana found ways, like this one, to get around his curse."
"Well, I would never physically
steal someone," Joey said, defending himself.
"That's basically what you are
doing, Joey, and it doesn't turn out too well for Ravana."
"Uh oh, what happened? Joey asked,
genuinely interested.
"Well, as soon as Rama found out
what happened to his wonderful wife, he set out to destroy Ravana and
get Sita back. He traveled south to the land of Lanka, assembling an
army of monkeys and bears along the way. The battle was long and
difficult and it looked as though Rama and his army might lose.
Although they were able to destroy most of the Rakshasas army, Rama and
his brother were killed along with most of their army. The monkey
chief, Hanuman, survived the battle and went to Medicine Hill to
retrieve the herbs to bring everyone back to life."
"Wow, that's so cool! Then what
happened?"
"Then, it was Ravana's turn to
fight. After they fought on their chariots, they finally stood face to
face and fought on foot. Each time Rama cut one of Ravana's heads off,
it grew back. Rama feared he couldn't win. Then Rama aimed his arrow
one more time and shot at Ravana. The arrow broke through his bow and
armor, pierced his heart and came out of his back. Rama had defeated
Ravana and won his Sita back."
"Whoa, he really killed Ravana to
get his wife back? I guess I should be more careful, huh?" Joey asked.
"Yes, you should, and as much as
I'd like to say someone wouldn't kill you for their wife, it's hard to
say these days. Find one, single woman who makes you happy and stay
with her."
"I'm surprised I actually liked
that story, Rajiv. You're so smart, man. I'm glad I came in today."
"You're welcome, Joey. Aren't you
due back on set in like ten minutes?" I asked.
"Oops! I'll see you later, Rajiv!"
Author's Note: I based this story
around the character of Joey. In the show, he's always dating a lot of
women without worrying about the consequences, sort of like Ravana. I
thought this would be a good way to tell Ravana's story to teach Joey a
lesson about settling down with one woman. I made up the other two
characters that he was dating because there wasn't a specific episode
where the friends try to teach Joey to settle down. I chose to give a
little background on Ravana's life, but made most of the story about
how he was killed, basically, for coveting another man's wife. Instead
of giving a lot of the background on the story before the dialogue like
the last story, I included most of the information in the dialogue
between Joey and Rajiv, since Joey was the only character involved. My
other two stories will probably follow this pattern as well. I didn't
tell this story with as much detail as Buck did. I only included the
most important plot lines to the story. Buck's version of the battle
between Rama and Ravana goes on for almost a hundred pages. Joey's
character is very immature, so I used that personality to show his
childlike interest and understanding of the stories.
Joey trying to dress young Source: Soda
Head
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.
