Week 5 Storytelling: Hanuman

Hanuman swung through the trees, on the hunt for something delicious to eat. His father was the mighty Vayu, the wind god, of the world. His mother was named Anjana, but she had abandoned Hanuman shortly after his birth, when he was still a baby monkey. In the absence of his mother, Hanuman had no one to teach him the things he was supposed to eat and the things he was to avoid eating since his father was so busy throughout the day making wind for people in need. Hanuman didn’t really know the difference between dangerous and safe as a young monkey. All he knew was that sometimes there was tasty fruit hanging from the branches of the trees, ready to be picked off and eaten.

This day, it was taking especially long for Hanuman to find food. The longer he swung through the trees, the more tired and careless he became. This proved to be harmful because Hanuman accidentally swung from one tree and grabbed the branch of another tree that was very thin and weak. The branch snapped in half instantly and down went Hanuman…

As Hanuman woke up in a daze, his head and body aching from the impact he made on the ground, he noticed an orange circle through the canopy of leaves above him. It looked oddly like a mango to him. Hanuman grew more excited by the second, thinking he had finally found food! What he thought was a mango was actually the sun out in the distance, ready to set. Hanuman reached out for the “mango,” licking his chops, eager to eat, when Vayu stopped him from burning himself in the nick of time!

“Don’t touch that!” Vayu roared, causing Hanuman to falter and tumble to the ground.

Hanuman looked up at his father with a confused expression on his face because he still thought the sun was a mango.

“That’s not a mango, you clown. That is the sun and you will burn yourself if you touch it,” said Vayu.

Vayu, worried about Hanuman after this incident, quit his job as the God of the wind and decided to pay more attention to Hanuman. After all, raising baby Hanuman was Vayu’s job since Anjana had abandoned them. This, though, caused a problem within the world. Without wind, there would be no air, and with no air there would be no oxygen, and without oxygen, there would be no life! What a dilemma this had caused! So Vayu went to Brahma, the creator of the universe and asked for advice. Brahma, in turn, granted Hanuman the gift of eternal life. Surya, the god of the sun, gave Hanuman an unlimited supply of mangoes so he would never go hungry again. This way, Hanuman doesn’t have to risk hurting himself while looking for food. This allows Vayu to resume his job because he doesn’t have to worry about baby Hanuman hurting himself. All is right again in the world once again and everyone lives happily ever after.

Author's Note: I just took the story of Hanuman and expanded on it a little bit. I thought it would be a good idea to describe the story of how Hanuman thought the sun was a mango in more detail. I imagined him being a clueless, innocent little monkey who didn’t even know the basics of finding food. Vayu, being the wind god, doesn't have much time to look after Hanuman so he doesn't get very much guidance. He always gets into some kind of trouble and has to learn from his countless mistakes.

The picture I used for this story assignment was pretty much perfect because it depicts basically my whole story into that one picture. It's Hanuman reaching for a mango (which is actually the sun in the distant sky). I don't think I could have found a better picture for this story.

I chose to write this story because I thought it would be a funny story to write. I knew by adding in some choice vocabulary and depicting Hanuman as an innocent baby monkey, I could get a lighthearted, comical story. At the same time, I wanted to show how Hanuman uses his mistakes as learning experiences and how his father still teaches him even though he's pretty busy. I liked how it turned out overall.

Bibliography: Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Hanuman mistakes the sun for a mango; Wikipedia