A Heartfelt Letter to Sita: Reflections from The Forest of Enchantments

Dear Sita, How do you endure so much and yet have time to smile? And when I read about you in The Forest of Enchantments, I admired you and also felt sorry for you. Your love for Ram — it was so innocent, so infinite but life left no stone unturned to challenge it.
   I closed the book, and your time in the forest haunted me. You had escaped palaces and rules and expectations— you were freer than you ever remembered being. You and Ram, against the world — living for yourselves in this newfound life of your own making. I imagined you picking flowers, cooking, and walking with him through the trees; I pictured you smiling. For a while, it seemed like you truly belonged to yourself, didn’t it?

But life, as it always does, took that tranquility away. It was pathetic the way you questioned Lakshman, who sacrificed everything to serve you and Ram. He never faltered in his loyalty, but your rage cut him deep. Even so, he never blamed you. How many hearts shattered in those moments Sita, Yours, his, and even Ram’s? It was not just Sita either—there were also Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari, Ahalya, and Urmila. And each of them had their own damn on their shoulders, just like you. It was Urmila, specifically, that lingered in my mind. That is a whole fourteen years without Lakshman, desperately clinging to hope, so isolated — how did she do it? Hey Sita, Did you ever wish it could have been different? With all of those expectations placed on the shoulders of Ram, did you never want to go off and live a simple life with him somewhere far away, where dharma waits saying not another word? You experienced that happiness for a brief moment in the woods, but was it enough to get you through everything else?

You were no mere queen, no own shield of virtue—you were a woman who loved fiercely and lived freely and survived hard. This is a story that will remind me of how deep love can run, and how the world may try to tear you away from yourself but only you can conquer in spirit.  Yours faithfully,