"Honestly, Ravana, sometimes I wonder if you even care about your studies," dad says in an exasperated tone. He looks hard at me, but I know he only does this because he wants me to excel. "You were supposed to have studied your Vedas, but you only seem to know half of them. If you want to be the best, you have to work hard!"

Truthfully, knowing half the Vedas is a pretty impressive accomplishment, and I actually know closer to three-fourths of them. But I know my father won't be satisfied until I know them all. I live for those little moments when he smiles and tells me I did a good job. So tonight I will skip dinner and practice my Vedas instead, just like he wants me to.

Neither of my brothers nor my sister get treated this way, but that's because my father doesn't think they have the same potential. Many people have told me that my extra heads are the reason I am so smart, but my father says they just get in the way of my focus. "Too many heads, with too many thoughts," he says. After my Vedas, I practice my veena and go to sleep.

In the morning I perform my meditations before anyone else gets up. I love this time of my day, because I can be all alone with nature. I like to pretend that all the trees are my friends. We laugh and play together as we greet the sun god, Surya at the start of his journey. Sometimes my father shows up early and notices me performing my meditations. He corrects my mistakes, but he also praises me for taking the initiative to practice. He doesn't know that I come out here every day hoping that he'll see me, but he also doesn't know that on my way here I run and jump and swing on the trees like a real seven-year-old.

Father isn't at the breakfast table when I return. He is too busy studying his holy books. My brothers and my sister are there, though, and when I walk into the room they all get quiet and stifle their laughter. I feel every one of my faces get hot and turn red. I try to hide it from them, but with ten heads it is difficult to do and they immediately take notice.

"Why, Ravana, you must have been studying very hard; you are absolutely glowing!" Kumbhkarna says and the others burst into laughter again. I glance at my mother, who is silently browsing a magazine of the latest fashions.

Almost as soon as I take my seat, Meenakshi places a huge plate of food in front of me. "Here you go, Ravanas. I'm sure you all must be very hungry after missing dinner last night." This is one of my siblings' and their friends' favorite jokes - acting like all my heads are different people and making my name plural to address them as a group. "I'll bet you were up all night studying. Was Daddy proud? Did he give you a pat on the head?"

I am torn between wanting to cry and wanting to punch them. Luckily, Vibhishana steps in and calms everyone down. "Guys, Ravana is our brother and it is not correct Dharma to treat him this way."

"Oh no, Vibhishana is having another one of his 'Dharma rules all' moments," Kumbhakarna whines, and he's right. Every so often Vibhishana will become very concerned about following Dharma - a very un-demon thing to do. Once he starts, there's no use fighting it; it will only end up in a long boring lecture. It seems that the older he gets, the more common these occurrences are.

Still, we are all secretly grateful for his intervention. Me, because I don't really want to fight with my siblings, and them, because they know I can give them a good whopping, if not beat them all. I am the strongest fighter on the block, thanks to my extensive studies and my numerous arms, and everyone knows it. Regardless, all the kids still tease me, because as a group they have better odds of beating me, and because when they mock me I seem less frightening to them, and because we're demons and we're supposed to love fighting. I hate that presumption. Other people placed it on us and now we live like it's true. I would try to break from it, but I'm already hated enough as it is and I probably wouldn't survive.

With all my heart, the only thing I want is to be normal. To look the same as everyone else. To be accepted as 'one of them.' To not have the pressure from my father. But most of all I just want to feel loved.

Coverpage

Introduction

A Vision for the Future

A Vision of War

Author's Note: I did not have a whole lot of background information on the specifics of Ravana’s childhood; I mostly used the information found on the Wikipedia site about him. I also used my own images of what it might have been like and created situations to suit the ideas I wanted to show in my stories. The point of this story was to try and convey the childhood situation of Ravana and set up the background for the rest of the stories. I tried to cover all of the major characters including his father/teacher, mother, siblings, and peers, and create a basic understanding of the relationship he has with each of them. I also tried to set up a few insights into Ravana's mind and the way he feels about his situation and the way he views the world around him. I wrote in first person present, which is always a challenge for me, to make it seem more like he is reliving the memory, rather than just rethinking it. Hopefully I succeeded in conveying the start of a new image of Ravana and setting up any background information that might be needed in the later stories. I really hope that you liked it!

Image: Empty Heart by mywill123123
Websource: deviantART

Bibliography: Wikipedia. Ravana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana

A Childhood Vision