Earlier this afternoon, police were notified that Sita had disappeared from the quaint little neighborhood she had recently moved into with her husband, Rama. Shreemati News has reporters on site. Follow below for the most up-to-date news:
3:03pm: After coming home from a hunting trip, Rama calls police to notify them that Sita is missing. He tells reporters that he had been reluctant to leave Sita home alone after recent threats from Ravana, lord of the demons. When asked why he did leave the home, consequently leaving Sita in danger, Rama only had to say that his brother, Lakshmana, was supposed to be watching her. Shreemati News has been unable to reach Lakshmana for comment. None of the other reporters have any lead on his whereabouts. We believe he is avoiding the press.
3:15pm: Inside the door of the home, there are fingernail scratches along the walls like there was a struggle. Police call in detectives to investigate because there is now the possibility of kidnapping. Detectives find a necklace on the ground. Rama became excited upon seeing the jewelry, exclaiming that it was a recent gift to Sita. The detectives consider the possibility that she may have dropped it after the struggle to leave a clue. Rama smiled at this statement. “She is a very smart woman,” he said proudly.
3:30pm: Inside the living room, detectives find two cups of tea on the coffee table. This throws everyone for a loop. Did Sita visit with her kidnapper first? Did she know who it was? Reporters are discussing amongst themselves trying to see if anyone has the answers to this confusing situation.
3:32pm: Rama hears about the tea from police officers. He seems confused for a few minutes.
3:34pm: Rama becomes very pale. “I know who it was,” he says as he turns towards the group of police officers and detectives.
3:52pm: Neighbors are being interviewed by the press. Shreemati News reporters talk to a neighbor who was standing in her front yard across the street.
4:07pm: We talked to Talia, a woman who has lived across the street for the past few months. “They even moved in after me. I wasn’t sure that Sita was feeling properly welcomed. Not being here very long myself, I thought maybe we could bond in that aspect.” Talia explains her idea to bring cookies over to Sita. We asked if she noticed anything unusual that afternoon around Sita's home. "Not really. I think she might have had a visitor earlier. I thought I saw an older gentleman walking towards their house. One of my kids dropped something in the kitchen, though, and took my attention away from the window."
4:15pm: The police announce that there is going to be a press conference with the details of Sita’s alleged kidnapping in ten minutes.
4:26pm: They are moving a little slow, but it looks like the police chief is moving to the center of reporters gathered on Rama and Sita’s lawn.
4:32pm: The press conference officially begins.
4:35pm: “We want to first say that we are going to do everything in our power to get Sita home safely. We have determined that Sita was taken from her home in a struggle due to multiple signs of a struggle in the home. There is a possibility that Sita knew her assailant. We will keep everything we have seen today in mind as we question those on our list of suspects. If you happen to know of the whereabouts of Ravana or Lakshmana, please call the police at 879-123-6543. Thank you for your time."
Top Suspect in Alleged Kidnapping of Sita
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the original story, Ravana tricks Sita by coming into her house disguised. He then changes form and kidnaps her. Rama had been sent away to chase after a golden deer that Sita saw in the woods. He was uncomfortable leaving her alone, but Sita insisted and also, Rama’s brother, Lakshmana was staying behind to protect her. Ultimately, she persuaded Lakshmana to go help Rama. This ended up with her being alone and unprotected, just like Ravana wanted. He disguised himself as an old man and Sita let him into her house. He then transformed into himself and snatched her. When I wrote my story, I wanted to keep in style with my newspaper theme. I also wanted to keep it a bit more on the modern side. Since I am already changing up the setting by putting Rama and Sita in a nice, supposedly innocent suburb, I took out any references to things that were extremely supernatural, such as Jatayu attempting to stop Ravana. Jatayu's story is an excellent example of the heroes that exist in the Ramayana. It deserved more attention than I could give it in this story so I did leave it out. I decided to imagine this paper having their reporters on scene sending in live updates, just like the news sources are beginning to do now in order to deliver the breaking news stories. I originally wrote Sita’s side of this story on my blog for this class. However, for this assignment, I wanted to give it a new feel by writing from an outsider’s point of view. I hope it brought a new light to the story. The original can be found by reading R. K. Narayan’s The Ramayana (1978).