Storytelling Week 2: Viradha

            Tumburu was the greatest singer of his time. He displayed a lot of talent as he was growing up and many record labels started noticing him. Tumburu’s rise to success started when he released his mixtape called “The King of Songs.” After hearing this mixtape the owner of Kubera Sound, Kubera, called Tumburu and signed him to a contract. Tumburu now was one of the artists in Kubera Sound.

            Tumburu enjoyed a ton of success with the help of his new record label. They helped him produce good music that made them both very wealthy. Tumburu won several awards for his music at the VMA and MTV award shows.

            Rakshasa Money, Kubera Sound’s rival music company, was looking for ways to undermine Kubera Sound. The opportunity to do this appeared when Tumburu’s contract for Kubera Sound expired. This was a defining moment in Tumburu’s career. He could stay with the company that helped him from the start or he could go off and find his own way in the music world. Kubera was fine with either choice as long as Tumburu did not sign with Rakshasa Money. He was certain Tumburu would not sign with his rival organization as a sign of respect.

            Rakshasa Money offered Tumburu a contract that he could not refuse. Tumburu signed with Rakshasa Money without hesitation. This offer would make him extremely rich if he kept producing at high levels. Timburu created a new artist name to signify the change in his career. This name is Viradha. Kubera was furious by Viradha’s actions. They did not end their partnership on friendly terms.

            The music world quickly received word of Viradha’s decision. They were surprised but were still loyal fans of Viradha. Rakshasa Money was a completely different organization than Kubera Sound. They did not give Viradha creative freedom and produced music with Viradha that limited his potential. A lot of his biggest fans stopped listening to his music because he became too mainstream. His music did not have a message anymore. He went from talking about his humble beginnings and emotional experiences he has dealt with in his life to only talking about money. Viradha and his fans were both displeased with how things were turning out. As a result of his slump, Rakshasa Money enacted a clause in Viradha’s contract that took away the vast amount of money he was given. Viradha did not obtain enough sales for him to be earning this much money. Viradha was extremely unhappy with his life and made some bad choices leaving him with many financial problems. He was still working with Rakshasa Money but his music was not good enough to support his lifestyle. However he was forced to stay because he had no other source of income or anyone else that would sign him.

Meanwhile, Kubera Sound was looking for someone to replace Viradha. They stumbled upon an artist named Rama. He was not well known but Kubera had an eye for talent. He signed Rama and over the next few years he was just as successful as Viradha in his prime.

            Viradha decided that he would try to regain the partnership of Kubera Sound. Kubera said that he would never reconsider partnership with Viradha. He did mention that he had a business idea that would make both parties a lot of money. He wanted to create a concert for fans that featured both Viradha and Rama. Each of these artists would go back to back in a rap battle. Kubera knew this would be successful because of the drama that was surrounding this situation. He said he would give Viradha enough of the profit for him to live comfortably for the rest of his life if he agreed to this deal. The battle between Rama and Viradha was epic. Both artists put up a good fight but Rama came out victorious in the end.

            As promised, Kubera gave Viradha his fair cut of the profit. Kubera Sound and Rama enjoyed further success due to Rama defeating the once great Viradha. Timburu thanked Kubera Sound for at least giving him a chance to live a good life. Viradha stopped working for Rakshasa Money and retired from music. He also assumed his old artist name of Timburu again.

Author’s Note:

In the Public Domain Version of the Ramayana, there is a demon named Viradha. Rama and Lakshmana challenge him to a battle after he abducts Rama’a precious wife Sita. During this battle they realized that any weapon could not defeat this demon. They had to use hand-to-hand combat and throw the deom into a hole to defeat him. After defeating the demon, he reverted back into his normal form of Tumburu. He explained that he was cursed by Kubera to live in this demon form. This story had me questioning the reason that he had to live in such a terrible form I decided to create a story explaining this but with a twist. I made the story into a competition between two record labels. I tried to create parallels to the original story as much as I could. When Timburu was with Kubera Sound he was in his normal state. When Timburu was with Rakshasa Money he was a demon. After Rama defeated him in the rap battle he was freed from his financial struggles and allowed to live a normal life. His normal life is equivalent to Heaven in the real story. I incorporated my love of music into this story. Hope you like it!

Here is the link to the original story:

Viradha

Here is an image of Viradha:

Source

Title:Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition 

Sources used: M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.

Year: 2014