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A Tale of Beauty
Inspired from the Ramayana, I have tried to rebuild the character of Shurpankha, Ravana's sister. Nobody has really written much about her so there's not a lot of information to work with except for the general facts. But I hope I can paint her picture in such a way that readers can think for themselves how important of a part she played in this epic.
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The cat purred lazily in Shurpanakha's lap. The princess was running down her hand through the cat's back. This cat roamed the most secluded areas of the palace, just like Shurpanakha, and that's how they had met each other for the first time, after which a lasting friendship had formed. But this peaceful moment didn't last for long. A pigeon came out of the wide blue sky to sit on the corridor just in front of where Shurpanakha and the palace cat were sitting on the floor. The cat jumped out of her lap viciously and started to run after the pigeon. In the hurry to get to the pigeon, the cat had disbalanced her as her hand hit the glass of water lying next to her and water spilled out on the floor out of it.
For the next few minutes, Shurpanakha didn't care about what happened to the cat and the pigeon. She was very focused on looking at her own reflection in the water. She was dark skinned and had some beautiful features. She looked at her eyes, it was the best feature of her face. Her lips were normal and average, not quite full as she had seen on some ladies she envied. Her nose was a little too big and a little too sharp. She didn't like it. She always wondered about taking a piece of cloth and hiding it but that would make her look uglier than before. And her body, it was an athlete's body, no longer a woman's body. Her brothers had trained her in fighting for self defence and she herself had asked them to teach her how to hunt. She loved hunting, but these physical activities had made her muscles bulge out and now she looked different than the rest of the girls. She had lost the petite figure she once had.
Disappointed by what she saw, she left that lonely corner of the palace for her own room. On the way back she saw several lady-servants and other distinguished women of the court. She stared at all of their faces. She assured herself in her mind that she was prettier than all of them, at least.
Shurpanakha possessed powers by which she could change her appearance at her will, but she was never as comfortable in any of them as she was in her...
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The cat purred lazily in Shurpanakha's lap. The princess was running down her hand through the cat's back. This cat roamed the most secluded areas of the palace, just like Shurpanakha, and that's how they had met each other for the first time, after which a lasting friendship had formed. But this peaceful moment didn't last for long. A pigeon came out of the wide blue sky to sit on the corridor just in front of where Shurpanakha and the palace cat were sitting on the floor. The cat jumped out of her lap viciously and started to run after the pigeon. In the hurry to get to the pigeon, the cat had disbalanced her as her hand hit the glass of water lying next to her and water spilled out on the floor out of it.
For the next few minutes, Shurpanakha didn't care about what happened to the cat and the pigeon. She was very focused on looking at her own reflection in the water. She was dark skinned and had some beautiful features. She looked at her eyes, it was the best feature of her face. Her lips were normal and average, not quite full as she had seen on some ladies she envied. Her nose was a little too big and a little too sharp. She didn't like it. She always wondered about taking a piece of cloth and hiding it but that would make her look uglier than before. And her body, it was an athlete's body, no longer a woman's body. Her brothers had trained her in fighting for self defence and she herself had asked them to teach her how to hunt. She loved hunting, but these physical activities had made her muscles bulge out and now she looked different than the rest of the girls. She had lost the petite figure she once had.
Disappointed by what she saw, she left that lonely corner of the palace for her own room. On the way back she saw several lady-servants and other distinguished women of the court. She stared at all of their faces. She assured herself in her mind that she was prettier than all of them, at least.
Shurpanakha possessed powers by which she could change her appearance at her will, but she was never as comfortable in any of them as she was in her...
