Yesterday Phoebe came in all in a
tizzy! That girl's always got something weird going on in her life,
which was why I was surprised it was only a simple issue with a man in
her building. In the past, she has come to me with problems like, "my
psychic said I'm going to die this week" or "should I have my brother's
baby?" To be fair on that last one, she was asking if she should be a
surrogate for her brother and his wife's baby, but in true Phoebe form,
she asked me that way. Anyway, this particular day she told me about
this new man who had moved into her building. She told me he wasn't
very attractive, a little chubby and kind of a slob. He always managed
to leave food residue on the door handles and there was a strange
stench coming from his apartment. A few days ago, he stopped her at the
mailboxes to chat her up. She said she was courteous to him, but
couldn't wait to get up to her apartment. Unfortunately, at the end of
the conversation he asked her to dinner the following Friday night. She
said she did the only thing she could think of, which was to say she
needed to check her calendar. She had been avoiding him all day, hoping
she would just never have to see him again. I found this situation to
be the perfect time to tell Phoebe about Viradha, the gandharva who was
forced to live as a demon.
"Pheobe, you know it's terrible
to judge a book by its cover that way," I told her.
"I know, Rajiv, but you just
haven't smelled this guy! It's almost unbearable!"
"I actually have a great story
about this from the Ramayana. Would you like to hear it?" I asked.
"Of course! I need all the advice
I can get!" she pleaded.
"Well, while Rama was in exile
with his wife and brother, they were suddenly ambushed by someone who
grabbed Sita and pulled her with his long arm deep into the trees. When
they finally caught up to her, they saw a red Rakshasa.."
"Those are the demons, right?"
she interrupted.
"Exactly. A demon. This demon was
very tall with long arms. His whole body was covered with pointing up
bristly red hair. His ears were like javelins and he had hollow green
eyes. His grin went all the way across his face and he smelled like a
dumpster. When Rama and Lakshmana found him he had Sita in one arm and
a spear in the other. The spear had the dead carcasses of three dead
lions, four deer and the bloody head of an elephant."
"Oh, no! Those poor animals! That
is exactly why I am a vegetarian!!" she cried.
"Only you would find sympathy for
the animals in this situations and not Sita," I joked. "Now this demon
was truly terrifying and not an easy battle either. Lakshmana shot so
many arrows at him that he was completely covered in them. Viradha
merely yawned and the arrows fell off. Then, Viradha decided to take
Rama and his brother away to finish them off. Fortunately, Rama was
able to free himself of Viradha's grasp by breaking Viradha's arm.
Lakshmana then broke his other arm. Together, they were able to beat
Viradha into the ground."
"Oh, that's so violent. I am not
okay with violence. I had to deal with too much of that when I lived on
the streets," she firmly stated.
"I know, but that is what they
had to do back then. It was for their own protection, Phoebe," I
explained. "Wait. You lived on the streets???"
"Well yeah, I was 16 and my mom
had just killed herself and my step-dad ended up back in prison so I
had no choice. That's a whole other story though," she said very
nonchalantly. "What happens next in yours?" she asked.
I was a bit taken aback. "Well,
once Vhirada was buried under the rocks, a beautiful Gandharva of
heaven, one of the celestial musicians, rose out of the ground, dressed
in silks and silver holding a drum. He introduced himself as Tumburu
the musician. He continued to explain how he was cursed by the treasure
lord Vaishravana for his love with an Apsarasa, one of the heavenly
ladies. He was forced to remain in a demon's body until violence freed
him. He told them how he hoped to find Rama and be killed by him in the
Rakshasa fashion of being buried in the forest, as that would lead him
back to heaven."
"Wow. That is such a powerful
story, Rajiv, so much symbolism. It's like an ugly duckling story. I
love it!"
"I'm glad you liked it, Phoebe."
"So you're saying that I'm like
Rama in this story? I could be the person he's been waiting for to free
him of his disgusting habits and make him a better person?"
"Exactly! I knew you'd be able to
get it," I cried with excitement.
"Okay! Well, I better go find him
and tell him my Friday night is open."
Author's note: I chose Phoebe as
my last character to focus on because she is such a quirky person. I
could see her totally enjoying these stories. In the show she even took
a literature class because she enjoyed it so much. The examples of
weird things that happen to her that she might need advice about really
happen to her in the show. I felt that it defined her character well
and set up the converstation with Rajiv in a great way. I chose
Viradha's story from the Ramayana because of its "ugly duckling"
similarities. Phoebe is always trying to be a better person and I felt
this was just another way she could do that. I tried to include as many
details about his story as I could (the story in the actual book is
only about a page or two). I also added as much detail to Phoebe's
character that I could in the context of the story. For example, I
could include the fact that she's a vegetarian, opposed to violence as
well as the fact that she lived on the streets. I also wanted to make
Phoebe the only one of the FRIENDS who immediately understood the
lesson in the story. Phoebe is a very wise person having been through
so much starting at a young age (she really did live on the streets).
Because of this, Phoebe's story was much more fun and interesting to
tell.
Photo of Phoebe Source: Topic Bean
Buck, William. Ramayana. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
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.