Epics of India

I'm not sure when you'll read this, but here's how it began: I was out for a walk in the woods when a sudden feeling of extreme dizziness overtook me - everything became a blur, with distant flashes of memories, and I had a sudden sensation of... something  in me being... pierced. It wasn't something physical and I wasn't bleeding. It was just as if I was...less. After that, I always had a weight on my soul that left me always vaguely tired, even after resting all day. The solution of course: coffee. The three-times-a-day caffeine rush combated the lethargy and helped me feel normal again. That week, my life began - that's when I met Ale. We hit it off right away, but I think I fell in love with her over the phone way before we actually met. I think meeting her caused some kind of reaction, though. The first few incidents were minor. Berenstein Bears, the children's stories about a lovable family of bears, changed to Berenstain Bears. A couple of days la...

Choraya's Diary, Entry 1, Tula 12: Oh, how I've waited for tomorrow - the day of my marriage! The harvest is over, the weather is cooling, and I finally get to be married to the woman of my dreams. She is beautiful as the lilies, and as radiant as the stars. How lucky am I to be joined to her for the rest of my life. I cannot wait!! Maybe twenty years from now, I can present this diary to our children, as a memento and record of the beginning of our lives together. Kushi is actually with child, though her parents and I are the only ones who know. We even have a name! Roshanee, the light of our worlds. The location - the city of Kurukshetra, which she believes is blessed by the gods, so that blessing will transfer into our marriage. I certainly hope so, too. Choraya's Diary, Entry 2, Tula 13: Good morning! Today's the day, and I'm so nervous. Over the past 8 years, Kushi and I have come to know each other pretty well, I think. But as Baba always told us, ...

"What a fool! I guess a blind man's son is fated to blind, am I right?" The mocking laughter echoed again and again in my head. Every night it was like this. How could someone so beautiful and serene be so ugly and twisted within? It was useless to dwell on such matters. I would obtain my revenge, by any means necessary - an ugly woman deserves an ugly fate, and he would make sure she fulfilled it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What an idiot! A truly honorable idiot," I gleefully thought, as Reuben reluctantly took the challenge. Not like he had a choice. This is what you get for being a royal warrior. I could see the conflicting emotions on his face. Duty-bound to never back down from a challenge? What a joke! That just means your enemies can always ambush you. "Your uprightness will get you nowhere in a game of pure chance," I cackled as my uncl...

An updated version of this story can be found on my website, Rehashed Histories. ...a fuzzy haze... ...the bright faces of two young boys looking at him in excitement and awe... ...his own smiling face, full of pride, looking back at them... The old man's bones groaned in resistance as he got up from his spot under the tree and stretched. How long had he been meditating there? The tree he had been leaning against had started to grow around him. He looked around at his hermitage. It was the same as when he had last opened his eyes, save for the now deteriorating door frame and the plethora of dust and insects now inhabiting it. "This is no place to live!" he tutted to himself. "I must repair it at once!" He peeled the axe from where it had fused to the back wall of his house, holstered his sword to his belt, and set off to gather wood for repairs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

This story (and others!) can now also be found on my website: Rehashed Histories . (moon at night, from Pexels ) Savanad gazed out of his window. The moon was a pale orb in the sky, casting a haunting glow on the forest below. Oh how he longed to be free from this place! "Why could I not have been born a man!" he thought. Sighing, he turned away from the window and read again the letter on his table. The jagged, barely legible scrawl said one simple thing: "Gather to kill Rama." He shuddered as he read it, for there was only one among them with such longhand - the rakshasa Khara. Savanad was torn. As a rakshasa himself, he was duty-bound to answer the summons. But in his heart, he had no such desire. Despite his fellow people feasting on man, Savanad instead longed to live among men, for he had seen with what variety a skilled cook could prepare any ingredient set before him. He had glimpsed the exquisite beauties of the women, and yearned to have o...

Ashamed at having his dignity stripped, the crocodile crawled back to his swamp. His mate, expecting a fine meal that night, was vastly disappointed. How she had longed for the heart of that monkey! In a fit of anger, she left him, for how could he, if he could not catch a mere monkey, provide for their soon to be child? And so she left, seeking a more capable mate. The crocodile wept bitterly. He began a dark spiral of introspection in which he evaluated himself and found himself to be lacking. Full of self-doubt and not wanting to face humiliation again, he refrained from going out to hunt any prey at all. After a few months, he was unrecognizable - a shell of his former self. His deep green scales, once a testament to his mighty hunting prowess, were now a sickly pall covering the coffin of his flesh. His ears, once covered my many layers of skin, now protruded out at oblong angles and the taut skin around his face sagged. The other animals, seeing the state of the crocodile, gr...