Week 9 Story: Bhima the Ungrateful
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Bhima, Wikicommons
Bhima the Ungrateful
Bhima was very well known for being a Pandu, but he was equally known for his hunger. Bhima always had a club in hand, weapon or sandwich. Bhima's favorite was sandwich consisted on flat bread, naan, and two mackerel. Hastinapur being a city of importance saw a lot of trade in its day. There would be fisherman that would navigate the river adjacent to it with their bounty of fish. Fish was even caught in Hastinapur, but never in the large numbers that the fishmongers had.
Naturally Bhima was attracted to the fishmongers as they were the couriers of his favorite food, mackerel. Bhima would be the first one to greet the fishmongers as they entered the city of Hastinapur. Bhima would chat about what they had caught and how many. The fishmongers would often entertain Bhima and even offer him free fish for the chat. Bhima would always light up when he was rewarded with a fish, because that meant he would soon be eating.
This cycle of Bhima chatting and receiving fish from the fishmongers continued for weeks on end. Bhima learned the names of the fishmongers and about their lives. The fishmongers began to tell tales of how the sea was drying up and the fish were starting to not become so abundant. Logically the reduced amount of fish meant that the fishmongers were not making the money they used to make. Bhima caught on to the reduced amount of fish that were being brought into Hastinapur, but did not make the vital connection that it meant business was bad for the fishmongers. Bhima did catch on to the fact that the fishmongers were giving him less and less fish by the day. Bhima did not mind as they were free anyways and he had enough for his sandwiches. The fish Bhima received steadily decreased until Bhima was only allowed to take one fish. Bhima was struck. He could not make his sandwich with only one fish! Bhima lashed out on the fishmongers:
"How am I supposed to make a sandwich with just one fish!?"
The fishmongers just stared in awe, until they finally mustered the strength to respond to Bhima's audacious statement,
"Bhima do you not see, we are struggling to survive and we gave you fish in good will. We can no longer give you fish and you are ungrateful. You are only thinking of yourself."
The words hit Bhima with great force. He realized that he was in the wrong. He was instantly filled with shame, and hung his head and left.
Author's Note: Bhima is a very interesting character and has a lot of interesting aspects that are talked about in the Mahabharata. For instance, Bhima really likes to eat. Using this idea of Bhima enjoying eating I added a moral to a random story.
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this story. It is a very interesting take on Bhima, and I like the accompanying picture that you chose as well. The way you told the story is quite creative and awfully entertaining, especially the your second sentence, which really complements the picture you chose.
I also like your use of dialogue and the addition of a moral to the story.
Great job!
Brad, this is a very interesting turn of events for your version of the story. I like how you incorporated a moral lesson to your story with how much Bhima enjoys his food. It almost caught me by surprise and confusion at the end when you said that Bhima "hung his head and left," almost sounding like a strange suicide. I hope I misread that and am understanding it as more of just plain leaving after feeling humiliated. I like your minimal use of dialogue towards the end of the story. It adds a bit but not too much to your story. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteBrad,
ReplyDeleteThis is a totally new side of Bhima that I have not seen before, so I loved reading this story. You gave the perfect balance of character analysis and dialogue-- both of these aspects make Bhima very relatable to reader. I also loved how you used Indian food in your story; this made it seem even more realistic. Fishing is a very common things to most people, so using this in your story made Bhima seem real and have the same real problems as your readers. You have given all of us a new way of looking at this character, and I think by adding more detail and background to his life would enhance this character-analysis even more. Thank you for your great story!
Brad,
ReplyDeleteI like how you took a character from the stories we have been reading and just made up a story with his traits. Certainly this character has a very nice characteristic to use for this too. I like too that even with such an overused character trope as over eating you didn't go for the typical retold story of gluttony. I liked how in your story, the effect of the character's gluttony can be clearly seen in the relationships he has.