Bibliography: Narayan's Ramayana. Story: "Encounters in Exile" (Again, the link is for web research of the story, I am reading form a paper book)
Notes: The first thing that I noticed about this passage was one of the "beautiful sentences" that was talked about in the reading notes strategies. When Soorpanaka is pleading with Rama after she has been mutilated by Lakshmana, she says "So, do not hesitate. No one will dare say that I have no nose or ears or breasts. I still have eyes, which can feast upon your broad chest and shoulders, and my arms are intact to embrace you. I love you madly."
This passage feels almost like a really messed-up Shakespearian sonnet (though, to be fair, Shakespeare was not un-familiar with mutilating his characters). What caught me off-guard was that it was this really strange moment of beauty in a story which was otherwise pretty brutal.
I thought this might be an interesting basis for a story. If you were to continue the story of Soorpanaka past her time with Rama, you could write a love story. Is her lover also mutilated? Is he not, but loves her with her appearance? One of the things that I have been noticing is that many of the women in the Ramayana are described as "flawless" or "perfect." It could be interesting to have this aspect of what makes a woman "desirable" removed so that the story can expand upon other character traits that make people love one another. Expanding on the idea of the sonnet, this story could include sonnets or be written entirely on sonnet form.
In researching Soorpanaka's story, I found a resource (the one listed above) that said that Soorpanaka and Sita met and became friends years after the events in the "Encounters in Exile" story. There might also be an interesting story to tell there, considering that they were pretty much pitted against each other in this story.
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