Storytelling for Week 6: Hanuman the Cat

I cannot let Rama down. This thought passed through my mind countless times as I looked at Lanka. He is counting on me to find Sita, so that he can get her back safely. I just jumped across the sea, and now I must enter Lanka to find Sita and have her tell me what to do. But how will I get in without being noticed?

Think, just think, Hanuman! Oh, I’ve got it! I will change into a cat, and no one will notice me walking down the streets of Lanka. They will just think I am somebody’s pet, or a stray cat looking for some water and food. This is perfect! I will just walk in find Sita and talk to her, and then Rama can come and save her.

I took a few deep breaths to prepare myself to alter forms again. Every time I do this it is hard for me to adjust to my new shape. My whole body changes, it’s hard on my joints. In out, in out, breathe deeply, I tell myself. In my head I pictured what I wanted to look like, a small black tomcat, and I felt my body slowly start to change.

My whole body was covered in a tingling sensation, that’s always the first sign that I am turning into something else, that it’s working. I noticed my skin tighten. It felt like I was being baked in an oven, the heat pulling my skin together. Making myself smaller is always harder for me than becoming larger. I do not know why that is, but it has always been that way for me. My bones began to shift inside my body as they shrunk down and reformed into the new ones I needed as a cat. Last, but probably the most painful, was when all of the short black hairs broke through the surface of my skin, it felt like thousands of needles were being pushed into my body at the same time.

I was finally a cat! This was my first time turning into a cat. It was a weird feeling being on all four legs, I was used to walking on two as a monkey. I took a few hesitant steps to get my bearings straight. My whole body felt as if it was run over by a chariot, but this didn’t worry me too much since I had just undergone such a drastic transformation so that stiffness made sense. I put my front paws out and stretched my back; I felt a tiny pop and was ready to go.

(Black Cat Stretching. Source: Wikipedia)

As I looked out of my newly transformed eyes I was startled. It was like I was seeing the world in a new light. Everything seemed to change colors from before. Things that were usually red turned blue, oranges looked green, it was such an unusual experience for me. I was so worried something happened to my vision, but I had to keep going. I walked forward and was astounded at how large the trees looked beside me. I was such a tiny creature now, which was just what I wanted. I looked across the moat at Lanka, a city that before was huge, but now looked to be the size of a country. I did not like being this low to the ground; I bunched up my body and pushed off of my back legs onto the tree beside me. I wanted to be up high to see things from a better point of view. I quickly climbed the tree.

I looked through the limbs of the tree at Lanka and knew I had wasted enough time getting used to my new body. It was time to get to Sita. Once again I bent my legs, contracting the muscles in them to jump far across the moat into Lanka. I pushed off the tree and flew through the air to land in Lanka.

Author’s Note:

This is based off of the story that happens after Hanuman lands right outside the entrance of Lanka. The story is about Hanuman trying to get into Lanka to find Sita, but the only way that he can do that is if he changes from a monkey into a cat. He believes that turning into a cat will make him inconspicuous to people walking on the street. His only goal was to get to Sita and then figure out what to do.

When I decided to take this small section from the Ramayana I thought it would be a good time to focus mostly on the actual physical transformation that Hanuman makes. In the book Hanuman knows he will turn into a cat, but in my story I made it so he had to think about what would be the best thing for him to do and why. I then focused the story on the transformation made, and how things looked different to Hanuman after he changed. I thought it would make it interesting to write a story from Hanuman’s perspective and show how the change affects him.

Bibliography:

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