Week 11 Storytelling: Gopa's Thoughts

                                                                            Journal

 

 

 

5/2/450

Dear diary,

Today the king’s priest came into my home and, upon seeing me, began to jump up and down and rejoice. I thought that he was quite an odd man; however, he informed me that I was going to be prince Siddhartha’s wife. I mean, who ever said that I wanted to be married? I don’t even know the guy. I’m more interested in enjoying my twenties as a free spirit.

-G

5/5/450

Dear diary,

People in the city are making such a big deal about prince Siddhartha! Just today I was informed that all young girls were to travel to the palace on Saturday in order to receive gifts from the guy. Me? Yeah, I’m going to show up late and act like I totally don’t care.

-G

5/7/450

Dear diary,

So, I did just as I said I’d do; I was the last one to show up at the palace. Siddhartha tried giving me a ring. All I could think was that, “He must like it if he wants to put a ring on it.” I didn’t want to take it – after all, I’m not in to pretention. A ring that nice would surely draw all sorts of attention to me.

-G

5/8/450

Dear diary,

The stinking king of Kapilavastu showed up at our doorstep today asking my dad to permit Siddhartha to marry me. Why am I not able to have any say in this? Luckily, my dad said the prince had been nothing but a sloth thus far in his life and he didn’t know if he could permit my marriage to such a man.

-G

5/15/450

Dear diary,

Great – just because my dad called out the prince for his lethargic nature, there is going to be a city-wide competition to prove that Siddhartha isn’t lazy after all. I think it’s actually somewhat amusing that these boys are all going to compete for my hand in marriage. This afternoon is going to be interesting.

-G

5/16/450

Dear diary,

Well, the first challenger to Siddhartha was an artsy-type. He wanted to compete with the prince in a ‘write-off,’ but Visvamitra stepped in and declared Siddhartha the victor before anyone had even done as much as pick up a pen. Next up was a mathematical match-up. Siddhartha won that one, too. I was actually pretty glad at that because the other competitor was a pocket-protected prim.

-G

5/20/450

Dear diary,

It has been arranged. I’m marrying Siddhartha. I hope that I like this guy. I haven’t even had the chance to sit down and converse.

 I’ll surely be back in the next few days to write about what I think about the prince once I formally meet him.

-G

 

Author’s note: I wrote this story in first person to describe how Gopa may have felt during the process of Siddhartha winning her hand in marriage. The unit itself didn’t include much about Gopa other than her dream. I found that a bit odd, so I wanted to expand upon her character here. This section of the unit focused on what Siddhartha and his father had to do in order for Siddhartha to marry Gopa. I should also mention that Siddhartha is the name of the man who would go on to become ‘Buddha.’ I didn’t change anything as far as plot, but I did include much more of Gopa’s thoughts. Link to the story: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/lob/lob09.htm

Bibliography: The Life of Buddha, by Ferdinand Herold. 1922.