Week 15: About the Readings

I liked the different readings for the class, particularly once you gave the option for the "UnReadings," which allowed for a slight break from the normal readings of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.  I liked the way that the readings were set up and split up for each week.  I didn't really find any new diary taking strategies, as I generally stuck with summarizing the readings for the week to allow me to remember certain details.  The balance between the reading and the writing was well done, though it was sometimes difficult to find things to comment on for the storybooks.  I think that a reading assignment extra credit would be a great idea.  It would give students the opportunity to read some of the stories they might otherwise not get the chance to.  Looking back, I would recommend that students take advantage of the early option and work ahead on assignments.  I think that the ideas for next semester look good.  I would have liked to learn some more about the different gods and goddesses of India that were not really mentioned in our readings.

Week 14: Famous Last Words

Hi everyone! So, this week has been pretty crazy.  I am preparing to graduate on the 13th of December, which is coming up far to quickly for my liking.  I will, thankfully, not have to enter the real world too soon, as I was accepted into the University of Oklahoma's Human Relations program.  I am looking forward to coming back to OU, especially as I will finally be getting an apartment, rather than staying in the dorms again.  This week was difficult because I have a lot of papers due either this week or the day after Thanksgiving break.  One of the papers is due Wednesday by midnight.  Thankfully, I am almost done with this paper and just have to write about 2 more pages and add citations to it.  One of my other classes has a 20 page paper that I am only 5 pages into.  Unfortunately, this means that I will be spending Thanksgiving break working on final papers.  I am, however, scheduling time to go enjoy Black Friday with my brother.  It is crazy that right after Thanksgiving break is Dead Week, followed by finals.  I hope that my professors actually believe in Dead Week and will help review this year.  Many of my professors are of the mindset that they should teach right up until the exam, which is generally cumulative, and that it is our job to review on our own.  I don't mind studying on my own time, but it is definitely nice to have a guideline so I know what to follow.  This will be my last Famous Words post, as I am almost to the grade that I want.  I just have to do a Reading Diary or some other assignment and I will be done for the semester.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as I will be glad to have the time I would have worked on this free, yet this was my favorite class for the semester.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

(Best way to study; Photo source Wikimedia)

Storytelling for Week 14: The Cruel Crane Outwitted

The Cruel Crane Outwitted

Once upon a time there was a very cruel, very rich man. He did what he could to benefit himself, not caring about how his actions might affect those around him. For a very long time he acted in this manner, not really paying attention to the other villagers, viewing them as below him. This all changed one day, however, when he discovered just how much he could gain by taking advantage of them. The day that this all began to change, for both Richard and for the poor villagers, was the day that the drought truly began to take effect. It had not rained in a week and the crops were beginning to do poorly, burning in the sunlight without any water. The villagers came to ask to use Richard's well, as the main well for the village had begun to evaporate. Richard, not caring what happened to the others, refused them at first. After turning them away, he realized that he could force them to work for him in return for having access to water. They would have to do as he said, unable to argue, so long as the drought continued. After another week of no rain, the people returned to beg him for mercy. He agreed, granted that certain conditions of his were met prior to them gaining access. He forced them to agree to work as servants within his house, as well as making them take care of his property and its orchards. Reluctantly the people agreed, knowing that they were at his "mercy" until the rains returned. After working under Richard for over a month, some of the people began to complain, saying it was unfair for them to be working so hard while Richard reaped all of the rewards. The next day, these people were not to be found. It turns out that they were dealt with by the hired thugs. A few days later a young man came from the village over, desiring to know what had happened to his brother, who had coincidentally been one of the protestors. Upon discovering the incident, Robin decided to deal with Richard. He tricked him into a game of cards, slowly upping the stakes as time passed. Eventually the house and all of its property was placed as a bet by Richard, going against the freedom of Robin and any children that he may one day have. Robin won, followed by him having the now destitute Richard thrown into the streets to be dealt with by those he had oppressed and taken advantage of.

Author's Note

I decided to tell this story as a man taking advantage of those around him, virtually enslaving them. This differed from the original story where a crane was taking advantage of the fishes' desperation to have water by offering to transport them, killing and eating them instead.

Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

(Crane; Image source Wikimedia)

Essay for Week 14: Lessons

This week, the majority of the stories that I read for the Indian Fairy Tales unit contained a lesson of some sort for the reader.  These ranged from lessons that should be common sense, to lessons focusing on morality and the proper way that someone should behave in certain situations. One of the lessons that I remember clearly is that you should not let your greed overwhelm you. In the story The Gold-Giving Serpent, the brahman and the serpent started out forming a solid relationship. They created a mutually beneficial friendship, with the brahman giving the serpent milk and the serpent repaying him with gold. This was destroyed when the brahman placed his greedy son in charge for a few days while he was away. The son saw that the serpent gave gold, assuming that the gold came from the ant-hill the serpent guarded, and decided that he should kill the snake to get to all of the gold. The boy tried to kill the serpent, who retaliated by biting and killing the boy. When the brahman returned he discovered that his son was dead, yet rather than taking the time to mourn his loss, he pushed his grief away and returned to the serpent out of greed. The serpent told him to leave and not return, as their friendship was destroyed by greed. The story teaches that greed can destroy, even deep bonds can fail under its power.  Another story that I thought carried an interesting lesson was The Talkative Tortoise. I thought it was interesting to see how the future Buddha used the fate of a tortoise to teach the king that it is a good thing to be able to hold your tongue. He showed him, and also used a riddle, to tell the king that sometimes it is better to be silent and listen to those around you, rather than speak all the time and overpower and suggestions that may be made.

(Image of the Buddha; Photo Source Wikipedia)

Week 14: Reading Diary A and B

Indian Fairy Tales

The Lion and the Crane
A lion was eating and ended up getting a bone stuck in its throat. It got the bone taken out by a crane, who then decides to ask for recompense. The lion says the crane is lucky to be alive after being within his mouth. The crane says he is ungrateful, flying away.

The Broken Pot
A brahman has a pot full of rice. He starts making plans on how to make money, and how he will spend the money and wind up with a wife and son. He acts as if in anger to his imaginary wife, breaking the pot. The lesson of not counting your chickens before they hatch.

The Magic Fiddle

A girl lives with her brothers and their wives, who dislike her because she cooks for her brothers. They plot to have her taken out of the way, making a deal with a Bonga to drown her and make her his. The girl drowns trying to collect water, coming back as a Bonga. She enters a branch of bamboo, eventually being cut down and made into a fiddle. She exits the fiddle and is caught by the chief of a village, who makes her his wife. When her family comes to the house they see her, but they don't recognize her. She reprimands them for allowing their wives to treat her as they did, then allows them to leave without punishment.

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal
A tiger gets trapped in a cage, where he then cries out for help. A wandering brahman passes by and is moved with pity. He agrees to free the tiger after he receives a promise from the tiger that he will not be harmed. The tiger tries to eat him once free, saying the man must abide by the decision of the first three things he sees. A tree, an ox, and a road all talk about how they provide for man, yet man uses them without repayment. He goes to die when he meets a jackal, who pretends to be stupid. The jackal goes with the man so as to discover what happened, and tricks the tiger into re-entering the cage, where they then leave him.

Harisarman
A foolish man goes with his family to find work in a wealthy man's house. They succeed, but the man is generally ignored. One day the wealthy man celebrates his daughter getting married, yet Harisarman is not invited to the party. In retaliation he hides the groomsman's horse, telling his wife to pretend he is a wise man who can use magic to determine things. He tells the men where he hid the horse, making them think it was done by bandits. The king of the region hears about this and makes him come to the palace to solve a series of thefts that have occurred. Through sheer dumb luck he succeeds at getting the thief to confess to him, then through even greater luck he solves the king's puzzle, winning a life of luxury for him and his family.

The Talkative Tortoise
The future Buddha lived in the palace of a king who would not stop talking, acting as his advisor. He used the example of a tortoise, falling to its death from its inability to remain silent, to teach the king that sometimes silence is better and that he should listen to others.

The Gold-Giving Serpent
A brahman discovers a serpent guarding an ant hill and decides that he must be a deity of some sort, leaving a bowl of milk for him. In the morning he discovers a gold coin in the bowl. This continues for a time until the brahman must go into town and places the duty with his son, who tries to kill the serpent and is bitten in return. The boy dies, yet the brahman eventually returns in order to get gold. The serpent says the bond they had was broken when he killed the boy and the brahman chose to bring him milk in return for gold, rather than mourn his son.

Pride Goeth Before A Fall
A group of ten merchants were going through a forest on their way home when they were accosted by bandits. As they were unarmed, they gave their belongings to the thieves, who then took everything but their underwear. They were then commanded to dance. One of the merchants was very clever and used the dance and singing to get the other merchants to attack the thieves, who had laid down their weapons. They overwhelmed them, capturing them and regaining their belongings.

Prince and Fakir
A king went out and laid on a crossroads, where many passed over him until he met a fakir. He told him he did this in hopes of begetting a son. The fakir made a deal with him, giving him to magic cakes in return for the promise of one of the king's sons. The deal was made and the king had two sons. The fakir returned and took the oldest, who defeated him later. The son then went on to marry a princess of a neighboring country, as she fell in love with him when she saw him bathing.

How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner
The Sun, Moon, and Wind were all invited to dinner at the house of their aunt and uncle, Lightning and Thunder. They were treated to a sumptuous feast, yet their mother Star remained home alone. Sun and Wind were selfish and did not think to save anything for their mother, believing that she should take care of herself. Moon, however, brought back bits of every dish for her mother to try. As a result, Sun and Wind were cursed for their selfishness while Moon was blessed to remain beloved to the people.

Storytelling for Week 13: Fortune Favors the Bold

Once upon a time there were two men named Luke and Henry. They were best friends, having grown up together and known each other for many years. After many years of education and striving to learn the skills needed to succeed in life, these two men decided that it was time for them to go out into the world and travel. In this manner they would learn needed life skills, as well as forming connections and discovering how to take care of themselves and how to actually deal with other people. The men traveled together for over a month before they came across a stream one day. As it was a hot day, they decided to stop and rest next to the stream, in the shade of an old oak tree. They spoke of the future they hoped to have and their dreams, as well as the expectations that others held for them. Time passed quickly while they talked, leading to them setting up camp along the stream. They wanted to make sure that they were in a safe location and close to water, so this was an unexpectedly good discovery for them. Once they had set up camp, Luke and Henry spoke for a brief amount of time about random topics before going to sleep. In the morning, they discovered that someone had been to their camp while they were asleep, leaving behind a rock with a message engraved upon it. Upon closer inspection, the duo discovered that the message was actually a challenge that promised a grand reward upon completion. Luke, who was generally the more outgoing of the two, surprisingly decided he didn't want to waste his time on this. "After all," he said, "there is no guarantee that this will actually be true. It is likely that some random vagabond saw our camp and decided to play a trick on us for their own amusement." Henry, however, decided that he wanted to try to fulfill the challenge anyways. Because of this, the two came to the mutual agreement of splitting ways for a time. Luke continued on to the nearest town, while Henry worked to succeed and win his prize. He had to swim down the river through a whirlpool, followed by carrying a heavy lion statue to the top of the mountain. While the task was daunting, Henry was not scared. He fulfilled his end of the bargain and succeeded. Upon his arrival to the top of the mountain, he discovered a hidden city. The lion statue that he was carrying came to life and started roaring, bringing the people flooding out of the gates. Henry then discovered that the challenge was to find a successor for the king, who had just died. By choosing the bold path with no guarantee of success or even truth, Henry had proven his bravery and his ability to make difficult decisions with unknown consequences.

Authors Note
This is from the story Two Travelers.  I did not change very much, but I chose to emphasize the bond between the friends and how they acted rather than on the challenges faced. I thought this story was interesting because it taught the message that fortune favors the bold.

(Image of the goddess Fortuna; Image source Wikipedia)

Week 13: Reading Diary A

Introduction
- Stories being told to save the wise man Bidpai from the tyrannical king. Other versions are that he is the advising vizier to the king.

The Rustic and the Nightingale
- A rustic man grew a beautiful garden. He has a rose tree that is his pride and joy. One day he sees a nightingale destroying some of the roses on it. He lays a trap and catches the bird. The bird begs for forgiveness and says it will die in captivity, moving the man's heart and having him let it go. In return, the bird tells the man that there is a pot of gold buried where he stands, and as thanks, he should take it for the garden.

The King, The Falcon, and The Drinking Cup
- The king had a favored falcon that he loved, counting it as a main treasure. When he went hunting, he took it with him, somehow getting separated from his hunting party. He finds a stream and goes to drink from it when the falcon knocks his cup from his hand. This happens again and the king throws the bird to the ground, killing it. Then one of his attendants comes upon him and is sent for water. When he returns he tells the king that he would have died from the water, as it has been poisoned by the corpse of a dragon. The falcon had saved his life.

The Two Travelers
- Two friends are traveling together when they come across a stream with a rock in it that bears a message. It says that if they should undertake a number of ordeals, bravely facing danger, they will be richly rewarded. One of the men, Salem, decides it is a hoax and he will have no part. The other man, Ganem, decides to undertake the challenge. He succeeds and is made king as a reward for his bravery.

Week 12: Famous Last Words

This week has been pretty crazy.  I am starting to have all of my homework assignments piling up, as even though I knew they were coming up I still managed to forget exactly when the assignment would be due.  There are a lot of papers that will be due in the next few weeks.  One of my assignments is for my Bible as Literature course.  I have to find a movie or book that is based off of a story or book from the Bible and then compare it to the original tale and write a paper on how accurate it is or how far from the original message it is.  This seems like it may be fun, but I still need to decide what the original topic is going to be.  I also need to find out how many pages this paper is going to have to be.  In my other classes I have a capstone paper and a paper on poverty.  The paper for my capstone is about twenty percent done.  I need to have around twenty pages written by about Thanksgiving.  I am hoping to have enough of it done, or better yet have the entire paper finished, before Thanksgiving so I can relax when I am at home.  My paper for the class on poverty is about half way done.  I need to do more research on finding sources that are current, as well as providing more background information for my topic.  With how crazy my week has been, I have managed to start buying Christmas presents which means that I will be able to relax when it gets really hectic during the holidays. It also means that I have been able to take advantage of some of the sales that are going on.  This year I hope to be able to relax and not have to run out for some last minute gifts because I forgot someone.  I hope everyone has a great week!

(Pumpkin Pie: Image source Wikipedia)

Essay for Week 12: High School and College Writing Experience

I have taken a lot of English and writing courses over my years in high school and college.  In fact, for my first two years of college  I was majoring in English Literature! I ended up switching to International Area Studies because I did not know what I wanted to do with my life at that point.  To be honest, I am still not really sure what my plans are for after graduation.  Nothing is set in stone yet.  Anyways, at the time I loved to read and write.  I still do, but I switched my major to a minor so that I would have some more time to focus on things other than writing papers.  I love what I am doing now, but I occasionally miss the classes that I used to take.  My senior year English teacher in high school was the main reason that I wanted to major in Literature.  She is a wonderful woman who encouraged her students to do the best that they could.  At the same time, she was not really strict and she understood that things came up that her students had no control over.  Mrs. Sanchez was a great teacher; she did what she could to encourage her students love of reading.  One way that she did this was to have group discussions and allow us to decide how the book did and didn't meet our expectations.  In college, my experiences have been both good and bad.  I have had a professor that marked down on papers if you did not agree with her stance on an issue, or if you had managed to somehow get on her bad side during the school year.  I have also had great experiences, however, where my professor made the lectures fun and gave great advice on how to best improve a paper.  I don't use my writing skills outside of class very much at the moment, but I believe they will come in handy when having to write letters and such for work.  If I was teaching a writing class, one of the first assignments that I would give would be to write about something you are passionate about, such as a favorite band, sport, animal, etcetera.  I would do this so that I could see the level your writing was at.  It would give me an idea of how capable you are at writing at the beginning, as you should be able to write a lot about something that you love.  One assignment that I have generally always hated has been timed writing.  They are almost always a part of entrance tests, which I think is the main reason that I dislike them.  For that reason alone I would not give those to my students.

(Turkey stress ball; Image source Wikipedia)

Storytelling for Week 12: Quarrel of the Quails

Quarrel of the Quails

There was once a camp of girls that was built by a gorgeous lake.  One day construction began on the opposite side.  The next summer there was a new boys' camp built there.  It was a very nice construction, but the girls did not want to have to deal with more people.  In their minds, the lake and everything near it was meant to be part of the girls' area.  It wasn't supposed to be invaded by boys!  About a week after the boys' camp opened, the leaders of the two camps met and decided to have a game day so the groups of children could get to know one another.  To foster competitive spirit, they grouped them so it would be the boys versus the girls.  They put the oldest of the camp residents in charge, leaving it up to them to come up with a valid game plan to win the day.  The first game that the children decided to play was capture the flag.  In their version the kids decided that the two groups were able to take prisoners, though they would have to post guards in order to ensure that the prisoners did not escape and make their way further into the enemy territory.  The leader of the girls was smart, telling the girls working for her that they should work in squads of three so that they could help one another escape if they came across any of the boys.  The boys, on the other hand, began to get frustrated when their prisoners kept escaping.  Things changed, however, once some of the girls got in a fight after one of them tripped and blamed the other.  The one who accidentally tripped the other apologized, but it was too late.  Now that there was contention within the group, the plans for unity and beating the boy's camp fell apart.  The other girls all took sides, leading to them refusing to help their friends escape from the "prison".  This fall out led to the boys winning the camp tournament, as well as forcing the girls to apologize for their behavior prior to the defeat.  In the end, this turned out to be a good thing, as the boys and girls came to be friendly rivals and made friends with one another.  The competition became a yearly occurrence, strengthening the ties between the camps and leading to lifelong friendships.  While the struggles within the group led to it falling apart, it eventually led to them growing closer together.

Author's Note

This story is a retelling of the Quarrel of the Quails, which focuses on how working together can be beneficial, while fighting within the group can lead to everything falling apart.

Story source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912).

(Image of a quail, photo source: Wikimedia)

Week 12: Reading Diary B

 Jataka Tales: Babbitt

Jataka Tales: The Monkey and the Crocodile
-  Mother Crocodile wants her son to catch her a monkey, so that she can eat the heart.  The son manages to trick a greedy monkey onto his back, but is foolish and tells him that he plans to kill the monkey and give his heart to his mother.  The monkey got the crocodile to take it back to its tree by saying it didn't have its heart with it.  The crocodile found the monkey again, now living in a different tree.  The monkey tricked the crocodile again, earning the crocodile's respect and promise to leave him alone.

The Quarrel of the Quails
-  The quails had a good leader who helped them discover how to save themselves from the hunter.  The hunter would bring a net, mimicking the call of the leader.  Many quail were captured.  The leader found out how this happened and figured out how to save his followers.  When the net was thrown on them, they all flew to a thorn bush, saving themselves and catching the net on the thorns.  This continued successfully until they got in an argument that divided the group.  They could not agree to all fly, leading to the hunter capturing them and selling them.

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit
-  A rabbit was asleep under a tree until he woke to the thought that the world might fall apart.  His thought was, to him, proven correct when a coconut fell next to him. He started to run and other creatures came to see why.  When he told them the earth was falling apart, they began to run with him.  This continued until the Lion stopped them, questioning why they were all running.  He stopped their running and proved that the rabbit made a mistake.  This saved the animals from continuing to try to flee from this fate.

Week 11: Famous Last Words

This week has been pretty crazy.  I am working to complete my graduate school applications, thankfully that are still being accepted for the Spring semester.  I am also working towards graduation, which means that I am stressing out about keeping grades up and making sure my GPA doesn't drop.  I will be really glad when December rolls around.  That means that all I will have to worry about are finals, as well as making sure everything goes well with convocation.  I am planning on coming back to OU for graduate school.  Hopefully I will find out in the next month if I have been accepted into the Human Relations program.  It sounds like it will be a really interesting program to focus on, particularly when looking for a job in a few years.  I am really hoping to get in, both to continue my education and to further put off figuring out what I want to do with my life for the next few years, at least regarding employment.  Right now I am working at Payless, which is fun even though it can be tiring at times.  One of my coworkers walked out a few days ago so we are hiring again.  Even with the stress at times though, I really like my coworkers, which makes working there better. The fact that I get an employee discount on shoes is a major benefit as well.  I am working on my final papers for a few of my classes, which have had us working on these papers as our midterms.  It is nice to be able to work towards these papers early, though it is not comforting to know that the teachers expect a lot more from all of the students as a result of the extra time given to it.  This week is finally over! I hope everyone has a great Halloween!!

(Pumpkins for sale: Image source Wikipedia)

Week 11: Essay on Diagramming Sentences

 (Cartoon by Scott Hillburn)

This cartoon is hilarious, both because that is how Yoda talks and because grammatical structure was one of the main things teachers stressed in elementary school.  The funny thing is that after elementary school, it wasn't really talked about at all.  Once middle school hit, it was expected that you would be able to create proper sentences.  The parts of the sentence were no longer discussed.  When I saw this cartoon I started to remember the different English classes that I would have to sit through and hope that I was able to correctly diagram the sentence.  It is ironic that I hated having to do that in elementary school, yet I have ended up getting a minor in English Literature.  Even though I do not enjoy having to diagram sentences, I love reading and writing, so my love for that overcame my dislike for correctly structuring a sentence.  Even though I do love writing, I am still not able to easily diagram a sentence.  I can set the sentence up correctly, yet I will not really be able to tell you the role that each word in the sentence is playing.  That is mainly due to the fact that it was not really talked about at all in high school.  I am hoping that I will continue to be able to love English for the years to come.  This cartoon was able to display the fear that I faced along with a lot of my classmates.  Thankfully I was able to overcome this as time passed, as I hope others are able to do.  Without those classes, I do not know if I would have developed my love for English, even though I hated them at the time.  Either way, I enjoyed the way that the comic captured the fear of being called upon by the professor, as well as using Yoda, who is one of my favorite characters from Star Wars, to showcase that.

Storytelling for Week 11: Who Shall She Marry?

There was once a beautiful girl, known throughout the land for her stunning looks and her amazing voice.  Her family was very proud of her, protecting her from those who sought to marry her and use her for her beauty alone.  They wanted someone that would take care of her.  She also wanted someone who was willing to prove that they would do what was necessary to provide for her and protect her from danger.  In order to do this, she told her family that she would marry someone who embodied the characteristics of bravery, wisdom, or cunning.  One day, each family member met someone who fulfilled her demand.  Without consulting one another, or even talking to the girl about it, they agreed that in one week the man they met could come to the palace and meet the princes in order to marry her.  The princess was stunned when she found out.  She never expected for something like that to happen, especially as she did not think she would find even one man to truly fit the characteristics that she required in order to meet them.  To discover that her family had found someone who embodied each characteristic separately meant that it was an extreme shock to her.  On the day that she was meant to meet the three men, she was kidnapped by an evil man who sought to keep her for his own.  Though she struggled, she could not get away.  In order to rescue her, the three suitors had to work together and build a chariot to follow her in.  The wise man knew how to find the evil man, instructing the others as to where he was.  The clever man built the chariot to follow the princess in.  The brave man, however, went above and beyond, risking his life to defeat the evildoer and save the princess.  When they group returned home, they argued their cases to the king.  He ended up giving the choice to his daughter, as it would be her who was getting married.  She said that while the clever man and the wise man aided in her rescue, it was the brave man who truly was at risk, placing himself in danger of death so that he could help her to escape and regain her freedom.  Without his contribution, she would have been forced to marry her captor, as the other two men were afraid of what might happen to them.  The brave man and the princess were wed and they lived happily ever after.

(Damsel in Distress; Image source Wikipedia)

Brave, Wise, Clever is the tale being retold in this story.

Week 11 Reading Diary: 22 Goblins

The Twenty-Two Goblins

The Three Lovers
     - The Three Lovers who brought the Dead Girl to Life. Whose wife should she be?
     - Of the three youth, the one who brought her back to life acted as a father should, the one who took care of her bones and had them cleansed in the holy river acted as a son was meant to, while the third slept in the cemetery with her ashes, enduring hardship and earning her hand in marriage.

Brave, Wise, Clever
     - The brave man earns the hand of the girl in marriage, as he risked his life to rescue her from the giant. The wise man and the clever man aided him, but they did not risk anything to save her.

The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother
     - When a girl accidentally places the wrong heads on the bodies of her husband and brother, after they have cut their heads off, she must determine who is who.  It is determined that the body with the head of her husband will be her husband, as it is by the head that people recognize others.

Storytelling for Week 10: Krishna's Support

Krishna was known to be a good leader, though he was also known for doing what was needed to get his way or to provide aid for others.  One example of such was his manipulation of events so that his sister Subhadra would wed Arjuna, rather than being used as a prize by their father.  This greatly upset their father, but it allowed for Subhadra to choose who she was going to marry.  This manipulation of events meant that Krishna became the brother in law to Arjuna, one of the pandavas.  As such, he became friends with them and did his best to help them in their times of need.  After the pandavas were discovered in the court of King Virata, he went with his older brother Balarama to the wedding of the king's daughter, Uttarâ and Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna and Subhadra.  It is after the wedding that Krishna states that Duryodhana should be given the message to give half of the kingdom to the pandavas, letting the groups live in peace and not go against one another. At the same time, they are making preparations for the expected upcoming war.  It was well known that Duryodhana had driven himself almost mad in his obsession with destroying the pandavas and everything that they held dear to them.  What had been a childhood rivalry had corrupted itself and become a consuming lust for humiliation and destruction.
At the court of Krishna, Arjuna came to represent all of the pandavas.  Duryodhana also appeared to ask for his aid. Neither expected for the other to appear before Krishna, requesting the same thing; his help in their battle against one another.  This is were things became interesting.  Krishna seemed to realize that something along these lines was going to occur, and thus proposed that one side of the battle would be given his aid, while the other fighter would have the aid of his million soldiers.  Now, this seems like the side that had his soldiers would be given a much larger advantage.  Arjuna, however, sought to have Krishna's aid. This delighted Duryodhana, who believed his victory over the pandavas was basically insured by that move.  He never thought to question why Arjuna, known as a brilliant fighter, would choose to handicap himself in such a manner.  If he had, he would have realized that Arjuna never handicapped himself; the real winning choice was to have Krishna aid in battle.  After all, who said that his soldiers would go against him? And the Pandavas were already fighting at a disadvantage of numbers.  Krishna knew what would be useful and allowed the men to choose between themselves what they wanted.

Week 10: Reading Diary A

Duryodhana and the gandharvas
- Duryodhana makes camp near the pandavas for the sole purpose of mocking them.
- A gandharva, or heavenly being, is sent to provoke him, leading to him being captured.
- The pandavas rescue him, resulting in his plan backfiring completely.

The voice in the lake
- The pandavas hear a voice telling them to answer questions before drinking. All but Yudhishthira fail to do so, dying as a result. It turns out to be a challenge by their father, the god Yama, who then revives them and gives them the gift of being unrecognizable.

In the court of King Virata
- The brothers and Draupadi go to court in disguise, finding work there. Draupadi is raped, begging for revenge. Bhima kills the man who attacked her, who turned out to be a general and the queen's brother. Draupadi has to beg to remain in court.

The Cattle Raid
- Duryodhana's ally, Susharman, wants to raid the cattle of King Virata now that the general Kichaka is dead. He ends up being captured by Bhima. Prince Uttara takes Arjuna with him into battle as his charioteer, but ends up making him fight while the prince drives.  In the end, in a fit of rage King Virata throws the die at Yudhishthira, drawing blood and revealing who he was.  He gives his daughter Uttara in marriage to Arjuna's son Abhimanyu.

Preparing for Battle
- Battle preparations are made on both sides, as they gather allies to fight with them in the war.  Arjuna chooses to have Krishna fight with the Pandavas, meaning that Krishna's soldiers will fight for Duryodhana.

Dissension at Hastinapura
- The king and queen do not support what their sons are doing, with Queen Ghandari going so far as to denounce the war and the actions of her son. Her husband the king is much more weak willed, saying he doesn't support it, but doing nothing when in the presence of their son. 

Storytelling for Week 9: A game of dice

Today, I was informed that my husbands had decided to play a game of dice, gambling away our belongings. I was shocked and horrified, particularly because my husband Yudhishthira is terrible at the game. Apparently he decided that his honor demanded he play, not allowing him to decline when his cousin challenged him to dice. The tale became even more horrifying when I discovered that it would be Shakuni, my husbands uncle, rather than their cousin Duryodhana, that was actually playing against Yudhishthira. From the gossip around the palace, it sounds as if he has never lost! I know that this should not seem like a major concern, as I should trust my husband to make wise decisions, but I know how he can let his pride overtake him. A servant came to me to let me know exactly what was being lost. That was when I found out that he had gambled everything that we owned. Once he lost that, he put his brothers up as collateral. He lost my other husbands, then placed himself up as a bet. Another servant ran down the hall to let me know I needed to prepare myself for appearing in public. My foolish husband had not stopped after losing even himself in the betting; he put me up as a prize. He didn't have the courtesy to stop, or to consider that he lost all of the other rounds of the game. I couldn't believe that he had allowed this to go so far. He knew that his cousin actively sought to destroy him and his brothers, including everything that they ever held dear. Right after the servant warned me, I began to get ready. Unfortunately for me, however, Duhshasana, Duryodhana's younger brother, storms into my room. He will not allow me to finish or decline going to see the people in court. Rather, he grabs my hair and drags me through the palace by it! If I get the chance, I swear I will take my revenge upon him! Once I am in court, as humiliated as I already am, Duryodhana orders me to strip. I refuse, praying to Krishna for aid. Thankfully he answers my prayer, making my sari infinitely long so that it doesn't come off as the men attempt to rip it from me. Though I am saved from that shameful humiliation, I am still traumatized that this has occurred. How could my husbands allow this to happen? I thought they were supposed to take care of me. Only one of my husbands even declares that they will have their revenge, Bhima claiming this against Duryodhana. Finally the king, Dhritarashtra, steps in and kind of calms things down, slightly. He gives me three wishes, which I use to free my husbands and have their belongings restored to them. I refuse the third wish, thankfully he gives me my freedom. I do not understand how Yudhishthira is willing to forgive them after all that they have done! Why doesn't he seek revenge for the shame that they have brought upon our family?

I chose to write this from Draupadi's perspective, showing how she feels as Yudhishthira is gambling everything away. I don't think she would have understood how her husbands could stand by and watch her be humiliated, or how her husband could bet her in the first place!

(Draupadi dragged from her chamber; Image source Wikimedia)

Week 9: Reading Diary A

Shantanu
- First wife is Ganga, reincarnation of the Ganga River. They have 8 children, she drowns the first 7. The eighth is taken away to be raised by her (Bhishma)
- Shantanu remarries to Satyavati. To marry her, his son has to give up all rights to the throne and declare his celibacy so that her children will gain the throne. Chitrangada and Vichitravirya are their sons. The first takes the throne and dies. Bhishma rules as regent until Vichitravirya takes the throne and marries Ambika and Ambalika. Bhishma had also taken their sister Amba to wed his brother, but she was already engaged. Her wedding was called off because of his capture of her, however, as she may have been "tainted" during her stay.

Week 8: Reading Diary Assessment

One of the things that I noticed about the Diary instructions was that there was no length requirement for the post.  This is actually really helpful, as it allows me to put down the information that I believe is beneficial and that I need to remember, without making me wonder if I will be putting enough information to fulfill the length requirement.  When I make my Diary posts, I change the strategies that I use occasionally.  Sometimes it is easier to summarize the different stories that are discussed in the readings.  Other times I like to focus on the different characters, using bullet points to keep track of important traits.  Both strategies help me when I go back to my Diary posts in order to come up with an idea for the storytelling each week.  One recommendation that I would have for students is that they should keep in mind what they might want to use for their story adaptation while they are reading.  If they put notes about it in their diary post it is much easier to remember the details, especially if I do not have the book on hand when I am doing my writing assignments. 
My reading diary posts vary in length.  They depend on the complexity of the stories, as well as how far into the semester that I am.  At the beginning of the semester I did not know anything about the stories in the Indian epics.  As time has passed and I have become more comfortable with some of the stories, I have found that I do not need to include all of the details that I once did.  Overall, I would say that they are generally the right length for me.  I tend to make them as I am reading, taking notes every time there is an end to a section or portion of the story.  I think that it would be useful for me to use more bullet points and less paraphrasing.  I do not include images in my diary posts, though it could be useful in some cases to help remember some of the less memorable stories. In general, I tend to remember the things that I am learning for this class much more than I do for my other classes.  In my other classes I am more caught up with stressing over exams or papers.  The more structured and laid back set up for this class give me the opportunity to relax and remember things because I am learning something that I enjoy, rather than something that will make me worry incessantly due to lack of instruction. 
Strategies that are useful for short term memory include reading something multiple times and discussing it.  Discussion can also be useful for long term memory, particularly if it is used in a debate. For long term memory, I also find making notes and flash cards to be beneficial.  Reading the text out loud helps me to focus on what the book is saying, rather than just skimming through it to finish more quickly.

Storytelling for Week 7: Sita's Abandonment

After Rama and Sita had lived peacefully together for almost ten thousand years, Sita came to be pregnant.  She was overjoyed when she discovered that she and Rama would finally have a child together.  The people, however, were a much different story.  Though Sita had proven her innocence to Rama after she was rescued from Ravana, the people did not all believe that nothing had happened between her and Ravana during her time in captivity.  Being cruel, as people often are, they gossiped about how Sita was not fit to be queen.  "Rama," they said, "you deserve a fair queen beside you.  You should not ever have to question her faithfulness or her intentions.  Sita was a good wife for a time, but she is tainted from her time with Ravana.  You cannot trust her word."  Rama, though he knew she was innocent, started to listen to the complaints being brought to him and whispered through the city.  He decided that he needed a queen that the people would respect, even though he knew that Sita was a wonderful queen.  Rather than reassuring the people and informing them that Sita had more than proved herself as his wife, Rama chose the easy path.  He decided that they must be right; Sita had to go.  The poor queen had no idea of the fate that awaited her as Rama plotted.  He orders his brother Lakshmana to take the queen to the Ganges River and leave her there.  There was to be no explanation or comforting of Sita as he left.  She was to be left to the fates.  Reluctantly, Lakshmana requests that Sita goes with him on a short trip, as he told her he desired to go to the river.  Sita agreed, unknowing of what lay in store for her.  When the poor woman was left at the shore, she collapsed to the ground sobbing.  Sita could not understand how the one man she gave everything for would betray her like that.  In that moment she vowed to herself to never give him the opportunity to hurt her again.  No matter how much she longed to be with the man she loved, Sita refused to beg him to take her back.  It was clear to her at that moment that her life would never be the same. 

I decided to retell the story of Sita being exiled from Ahalya, as Rama came to doubt her fidelity. I think that she suffered a great deal because he was too proud to stand up to his people. At the same time, I think that Sita had to come to the decision to look after herself, regardless of whether or not Rama still wanted her.

 (Painting of a mosque overlooking the Ganges River; Photo source Wikimedia)

Week 7: Reading Diary B

Rama and Sita return to Ayodha for the first time in 14 years.  They are now able to return from exile and celebrate their victory over Ravana.  They make it back in time to prevent Bharata from committing suicide at the loss of his brother, as Rama came back as promised.  Rama is immediately crowned king.  After 10,000 years, Sita becomes pregnant.  People begin to mutter that Rama should never have taken her back into his home after she was captured by Ravana.  Even though she has proven her innocence, Rama listens to the gossip and decides that the only course of action available is to send her into exile alone, giving her no warning.  Instead, he chooses to have Lakshmana abandon her by the Ganges River.  At the time she is pregnant with his twin sons.  She is rescued by a hermit, Valmiki, who brings her to live with him and raise her children. 12 years after she gives birth, Rama decides to host a festival in the forest that she now resides in.  The people hear her sons singing the Ramayana.  Rama discovers that they are his children.  Sita decides to prove her innocence to him one last time. This time, however, she is not going to allow him to take her back.  She prays to the mother Earth to open and embrace her if she is innocent.  Mother Earth comes from the ground and takes Sita back with her.  Rama rules for 1000 years after her death.  Eventually, Lakshmana dies from a curse, as he opened a door and interrupted a conversation between Rama and Time to give Rama a warning.  Finally, Rama too comes to an end, jumping into the Sarayu River and dying.

Week 7: Reading Diary A

Malyavan and Shiva meet up at Trikuta Hill, where Shiva then takes Malyavan away.  He does not want him to be killed during the battle between Ravana and Rama. 
Jambavan fights against the demons that supported Ravana. When the two magicians Lightning Tongue and Thunder Teeth try to defeat him, they are killed by Hanuman and Sugriva.  Ravana is preparing for war, sending people as messengers to Rama.  At this time, his wife Mandodari tells him that she loves him.  She then encourages him to give Sita back to Rama before it is too late.  he ignores her and prepares for battle, drawing Kala's wrath. During the final battle, Rama and Ravana face each other.  As Rama cuts off Ravana's heads, they grow back quickly.  Rama and Matali are working together to defeat Ravana.  They look out for each other during the battle.  Finally, Ravana is slain by Rama.  After the battle is over, Rama gets a letter from Shuka, the messenger that Ravana had sent out.  It tells him he should take Sita back.  Rama calls Sita to him, but forces her to prove her fidelity to him.  She does this through a test of fire. The couple then heads back to end their exile and prevent Bharata from committing suicide.  They are accompanied by Hanuman, Vibhishana, Jambavan, and their followers.

Storytelling Week 6: Trijata's Loyalty

My name is Trijata.  My mistress, Sita, is greatly distressed.  I have been serving as her maid since the time that Ravana captured her and brought her back to the palace.  Though no one could tell at the time, she proved to be extremely loyal, as well as being extremely stubborn.  My lord, Ravana, originally assigned me to work for her in an attempt to win her over through kindness.  It did not work.  As time passed and his patience decreased again and again, he changed his tactics from kindness to terror.  The beautiful rooms that he originally placed her in were replaced with his personal gardens, meant to terrify her and break her.  He had her surrounded by demons threatening her with physical violence for refusing Ravana.  Through this all she refused to break, remaining faithful to her husband.  As I spent more time with her, I grew to respect her as a strong woman.  Though she does not make it obvious, she remained a strong woman and a devoted wife.  No other person would be able to follow their husband into exile in the forests for 14 years, living without the luxuries that she was raised with.
As I said, I grew closer to her, coming to care for her as if she was my sister.  Because of this, I do my best to protect her from Ravana's attempts of scaring her into submission.  The latest one, however, was difficult.  Ravana decided that Sita may choose to marry him if her husband is taken out of the picture.  To do this, he originally had his court magicians create an illusion of Rama's decapitated head.  He threw this at her feet, trying to convince her that he had defeated Rama and that no one was going to come and save her now.  She nearly fell for it, but a lucky mistake allowed her to realize that it was false.  He later tried to convince her that Rama was dead by showing her his body lying still on the battle field.  This was a very convincing argument.  Thankfully, I was able to help her.  I remembered that Ravana's chariot would not move if there was a widow on it.  This meant that the story being given to Sita was false.  Her husband was still alive.

I decided to take the story of Rama's illusioned death and tell it from the perspective of Trijata.  She is there throughout the story for Sita, even though she is only mentioned on occasion.  I felt that she may be able to give another view of the occurrences, showing how Sita reacted to Ravana's approaches and how it was received by him. 

(Image of a puppet Trijata; photo source Wikipedia)

• Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 6: Reading Diary B

Hanuman returns to Rama and tells him that he has seen Sita.  They have to go to Lanka to rescue her.  Rama and his army go in that direction, reaching the sea.  They cannot cross it, making Rama curse at it.  The Sea god tells him that one of the monkeys can make rocks float, allowing the army to build a bridge across the sea.  In Lanka, Ravana's brother Vibhishana tries to convince him to end the fighting and return Sita.  Ravana refuses, leading Vibhishana to seek refuge with Rama and aid him, though he will not fight against his people. Ravana begins sending spies into Rama's camp to find out what is going on.  Though he sends spies in twice, both times they are discovered and returned to him.  After that fails, he tries to trick Sita into thinking that her husband is dead, having his magicians make an illusion of Rama's decapitated head.

Ravana continues to try to convince Sita that her husband is dead, hoping that she will turn to him for comfort in her time of sorrow.  At the same time, he is pushing Rama's attempts for a peaceful resolution away.  He wants war.  When war finally comes he tries again to trick Sita, though her aid Trijata helps keep her hopeful and devoted to Rama.  At the end of this section, Ravana is preparing to go to war after his son has been killed.

Week 5: Famous Last Words

This week has been stressful, as I have been working on catching up on readings for some of my classes, as well as preparing for major essays. At the same time I have also been enjoying myself by spending time with my friends.  I have also been working on getting to know some of my dorm mates better.  This week during classes I got back one of my first essays of the semester.  I was not looking forward to seeing how I did on it, as my teacher had been talking about how poorly some people had done, but I was relieved to find that I made a B.  Even though I was relieved, however, I was also disappointed that I had not done as well as I thought I had.  This paper certainly made me want to do better in that class. 
Right now most of my classes are focusing on issues that are going on around the world, particularly in regards to poverty and economic development.  It is interesting to see how my classes intersect, teaching similar topics, but it is also difficult. At times the class lessons blend together, making it difficult to separate one lesson from the next.  This makes it hard to concentrate on quizzes at times, as I have to focus to remember what each teacher has said and make sure I use the right one. 
Volunteering has been fun, although I really need to go more often. Playing with the cats has proven to be a major stress reliever for me, so I get to volunteer and relax at the same time.  Outside of that, I am currently looking for a part time job to fill my free time and give me something to do, as well as to help me make some extra money. I have been getting some applications, now I just have to turn them in and see about getting an interview. Hopefully everything will work out alright and I will be able to find something nearby that works with my schedule.
One movie that I saw recently was "The Edge of Tomorrow," featuring Tom Cruise.  It was surprisingly good. I would definitely recommend it. 

(Movie poster; Photo source Wikipedia)

Storytelling for Week 5: Surpanakha's Dilemma

Many years ago, there was a lonely woman who lived in the woods.  She had moved away from her family many years ago in order to find herself, hoping to find happiness in the solitude of the forest.  Unfortunately, while she grew closer to nature over time, enjoying the more simple things in life, she longed for companionship. After years of living this way, a family moved in nearby.  They seemed to be interesting people, so she decided to try to meet and befriend them.  When she went to introduce herself, she was struck by their beauty.  She began to desire to meet one of the men, Ray, almost immediately.  After spending some time with him, Sara realized that he was engaged to the lady that was there.  While Tina was beautiful, Sara did not believe that she and Ray were right for each other.  She grew closer to him and they became friends quickly.  Ray's brother Lane did not approve of the friendship, believing that Sara was trying to destroy Ray's engagement.  This turned out to be true, but he did not want her to come over and visit them even before this came to light.  Sara tried to befriend him, but he rebuffed her at every chance.  One day before she came to visit, Ray and Tina had a very bad fight, calling the entire wedding into question.  She thought he was cheating on her, while he believed she was only marrying him for his family money.  Lane tried to mediate but eventually had to leave to get away from it all.  Sara ended up listening to Ray vent about how little Tina seemed to actually care about being married, only wanting to talk about how fancy the wedding should be and how they had to have a lot of guests.  He then began to speak about how he was glad she was there for him.  Sara decided that it was as good a time as any to admit her feelings, so she did.  Ray rejected her, stating that he was already in a relationship, even if he was having issues at the moment.  What neither of the two knew, however, was that Lane had returned while they were talking and overheard the confession and subsequent rejection.  He was outraged that Sara, who he felt had intruded in their lives, even dared to speak about feelings to his brother.  In his anger he left the house and went for a walk, ending up by Sara's house.  He saw her car and decided to key his feelings about her into it.  When Sara returned home that night, already dejected from the rejection, she noticed that her car looked different.  She ignored it for the moment and went to bed.  When she woke up the next morning and saw what was on its side, it was the last straw.  She called her big brother's friend Chris who lived nearby, crying about it.  He was outraged and had her come stay with him while they waited for her brother to come and get her.  When Raoul shows up, Sara tells him all about Ray and Tina, making him fall in lust with Tina due to the description given.

I decided to make the story appear more like a modern day drama, focusing on how Sara, or Surpanakha, really wanted a relationship and felt that Sita was bad for Rama.  It shows how Surpanakha may have viewed Sita as more than competition.  I also decided to change how Lakshmana reacts from him attacking and mutilating her to damaging her vehicle.  I tried to show a modern twist while keeping key plot points consistent, such as Rama rejecting her and Lakshmana hating her.  At the same time, I wanted to adapt the story so that Rama and Surpanankha had developed a friendship before she asked to marry him, rather than meeting him and deciding he would be a suitable husband.

(Image of log house; Photo source Wikimedia)

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 5: Reading Diary A

Kausalya, Rama's mother, has just discovered that her husband is dead.  The shock from losing his son caused King Dasaratha to give up on life.  He blamed what happened on the fact that he killed a boy when he was out hunting during his youth. When the king is found dead, messengers are sent out to Bharata, the son of Kaikeyi.  He returns from his grandfather's palace to find his family in ruins.
Bharata goes out to try to convince Rama to return and take the throne.  He is refused, as Rama intends to follow through on his promise to remain in exile for 14 years, along with Sita and Lakshmana. Bharata returns to rule in Rama's stead, taking his sandals with him as a reminder.
Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana continue to travel through the exile, meeting people including Asti.  He tells them stories and his wife gives gifts of jewelry and clothing to Sita.
They continue traveling and end up meeting Agastya during their last year of exile. He was a warrior who defeated the demon brothers Vatapi and Ilwala. He also lowered the height of the Vindhya hills.
The tiny Valakhilyas seek Rama's aid in wiping out the demons, including Ravana. Sita tries to stop him from giving aid.  Rama responds by telling her what the Valakhilyas have done. As he is telling her the story, she is kidnapped by the demon Viradha. The demon turns out to have been a deity that had been cursed.
Surpanakha shows up and decides that Rama needs to leave Sita for her. She believes that Sita is seducing Rama. She tries to have him marry her, but Rama refuses. She attacks Sita and is mutilated. Surpanakha then flees to Ravana and makes him seek revenge for her, as well as making him fall in love with the idea that she has built of Sita.

Week 4: Famous Last Words

This weekend was a lot of fun.  I got to spend time with my friends on campus, as well as go with a group of friends to the state fair in Oklahoma City.  While there were some difficulties, particularly regarding the fact that the ATMs all seemed to be broken, it ended up being a lot of fun.  The roller coasters in particular were amazing.  The only real downside was probably the fact that there were long lines for everything.  After going to the fair, my friends and I decided to go to the movie theater.  We saw the new film "As Above, So Below."  While the previews for the movie looked really good, the film itself wasn't impressive.  I would not recommend spending the money on it.  It was kind of disappointing that it turned out like that, as the plot had so many opportunities to take advantage of and failed to.  Overall, however, the weekend turned out well.
Outside of class, I am trying to apply for grad school.  It is difficult to do right now, as all of the deadlines show up at one time.  Getting recommendation letters is also hard, particularly because the grad school wants three of them.  I am both looking forward to, and scared of, applying to grad school and getting accepted.  I am looking forward to the possibility of staying in school and being able to see friends for a bit longer.  At the same time, I am not sure if everything will turn out well, or if I will be able to stay without scholarships.  Other than that, I am in a reading group for "The Lies of Locke Lamora."  I haven't been able to make it to all of the meetings for the group, but the book is amazing so far.  I would definitely recommend it. 

(State fair; image source Wikipedia)

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Storytelling for Week 4: Ahalya's Plight

     Ahalya was created as the most beautiful woman in the world.  Her beauty was so great that she attracted the attention of the god Indra.  Unfortunately for him, he was unable to talk to her or meet her before she was married off to the hermit Guatama.  This led Indra to obsess over the woman who caught his attention.  He could not forget about her, no matter what he tried to do to forget.  At the same time, Ahalya was devoted to her husband.  She knew that Indra had an interest in her, though she did not know the extent of his devotion.  Guatama also knew of Indra's attention.  He ignored it completely, believing his wife would remain faithful to him.  One day Indra appeared at Ahalya's home, disguised as her husband.  Guatama was away bathing, so he would not catch the duo.  Ahalya was able to tell that something was wrong.  Knowing that Indra was after her, she suspected that he was attempting to trick her.  Rather than turning him away, however, she went along with it.  When Guatama reappeared, he caught Indra leaving.  He cursed him, making him flee to ask Agni, god of fire, for help.  He twisted the story to seem as if he was doing something good for the gods.  By forcing Guatama to feel anger and curse him, he forced him to abandon his merit as a hermit.  Guatama's curse caused Indra to lose his manhood, though it was restored to him by Agni. Ahalya was punished more than Indra was, as Guatama took her beauty from her, granting it to the world.  This caused her to disappear, becoming invisible, though Guatama's anger was slightly soothed when she told him that Indra had taken his image and they were hermits living alone in the forest.  This made him realize that he had overreacted in his punishment of her, making him give an end to the punishment when Rama came to the forest clearing where Ahalya lost her beauty.
     I decided to retell this story to showcase the differences between this story and how it was told in the other version of the Ramayana.  Ahalya is still punished for her infidelity, though in a different manner.  Indra also is punished in a different manner.  Rather than being turned to stone, Ahalya is stripped of her beauty and becomes invisible.  Indra seeks refuge with Agni rather than hiding away until the gods go to Guatama and ask him to remove his curse.  One of the major differences in this story, however, is that Ahalya is actually aware of what is going on.  She knows that Indra is not her husband, whereas she was completely unaware in the other version.  I thought it was interesting how the different authors portray the same story. 
Buck, William (1976).  Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

(Ahalya; Image source: Wikipedia)

Week 4: Reading Diary B

King Dasharatha decides to make Rama his successor as king, rather than choosing one of his other sons, Bharata.  When Bharata's mother, Kaikeyi, finds out, she is initially happy for Rama.  That is, until her maid fills her head with the idea that Rama and his mother will make her their slave.  The maid Manthara gets Kaikeyi to use her two promises from Dasharatha.  She makes him promise that her son will be made king, as well as making him promise to exile Rama for 14 years to the forest.  Kaikeyi informs Rama that his father wants him to leave, prompting him to agree right away.
When Rama finds out what his fate is, he and Sita begin to give their things away. The charioteer Sumantra tries to convince Dasharatha not to send Rama away, but he fails as Dasharatha is incoherent with grief from the promise Kaikeyi demanded from him.  The citizens of the kingdom are all determined that they will follow Rama into exile.  When Rama prepares to leave, he requests that the people and his father do not blame Kaikeyi for her actions.  This does not really work, however, as the citizens all love Rama and were overjoyed he was going to be named their king.  Rather than allowing Rama to slip away, the elders of the capital force Rama to stay the night by having the river rise above its banks.
Once Rama and Sita manage to leave the capital and begin their exile, they enter the forest and meet the sage Guha.  He talks to them about his actions that led him to be in the forest.  As a man he would curse the priests of the god Shiva and kick the statue of the god.  Once he died, Shiva brought him back as he considered Guha to be the most devoted of all his followers.  Guha goes on to talk about Kaikeyi and Dasharatha.  Apparently she tried to get her husband to teach her how to talk to animals, although he was forbidden from doing this on pain of death.  Luckily he realized that her power over him through the two promises would not work in that situation.
The charioteer, Sumantra, was the person who brought Rama and Sita to the forest, along with Rama's brother Lakshmana.  He returns to the city and goes to talk to the king.  He is deeply grieving over the actions that have occurred.  He tells about how as a young man he accidentally killed a boy while hunting.  He found that the young boy was the sole provider for his blind parents, who asked to die with their son.  Because of his actions there, he believes he is being punished by having his son sent from him.  The next morning, Rama's mother Kausalya finds Dasharatha dead.

Week 4: Reading Diary A

Introduction to the story done by the invisible demon warrior, Indrajit.  He speaks of the composers of the Ramayana, Vishnu and the sacred poet Valmiki.  It goes on to invoke different gods and goddesses prior to beginning the story.
The story begins as a story being told between friends. Saunaka requests that his friend Sauti tells the tale of the Ramayana.
Sita, Rama's wife, has been banished from the palace due to malicious rumors spread about her. At the time she is banished, she is pregnant with twins.  The poet Valmiki is called upon by the sage Narada to find her and aid her.  He goes on to teach the Ramayana to her sons after he is taught the story by Brahma.  The boys go on to perform it in front of their father.
The story of the Ramayana begins by talking about Rama's father, King Dasharatha.  It goes on to begin discussing Ravana and how he came to power. Vishnu becomes a human, Rama, in order to defeat Ravana. The king performs sacrifices in order to have sons.  When they are 16 years old, the sage Vishwamithra appears at the palace and asks for Rama's aid in defeating some demons that have been tormenting the sages. The story then begins to discuss the fate of the rakshasas and how they grew in power. It then talks about Ravana's origins. 
Ravana grew in power and began to start conquering those around him, starting with the yakshas and those living on Mount Kailasa with his father and grandfather.  Because of his actions he was cursed by Indra and by Shiva's bull.  He tried to conquer the Haiheya people but was defeated after his cowardly attack on their king, done while he was bathing, failed.  After this, Ravana went on to conquer even Death, or Yama, as well as the Sun and the Moon.  He went to war against Indra, defeating him when his son captured him.
Vishwamithra was telling this story to the king, asking for and gaining Lakshmana and Rama as his students.  He leads them against demons, where they defeat Subaku but fail to kill Maricha.  The mother of the demons isn't mentioned.  The story then goes on to tell how Sita and Rama were married.

Week 3: Reading Diary B

Hanuman walks across the ocean to Lanka. He then shrinks himself to normal size. He believes he found Sita, but discovers it is Ravana's wife Mandodari. He continues on to Asoka Vana, a gorgeous area that Ravana likes to retreat to. Here he finds Sita surrounded by rakshasa women. They try to frighten her into accepting Ravana as a lover. When she refuses both them and Ravana, Ravana storms off in a rage. Sita plans to kill herself until Hanuman reveals himself to her. When he sees her and leaves to tell Rama, he destroys Asoka Vana.
Hanuman lets Indrajit, Ravana's son, capture him. He does this so he will be brought to court and try to get Ravana to change his ways. Ravana is furious and wants to kill Hanuman, though his brother convinces him not to. Instead, Ravana sets his tail on fire. Hanuman escapes and sets the capital on fire before returning to Rama.
Ravana's council - Ravana's council tells him his actions have caused this. The giant, Mahodara, asks permission to hunt Rama and Hanuman and return with their heads. Ravana's brother Kumbakarna says things have gone too far to go back, recommending war. Indrajit seeks to bring the heads of Rama and Lakshmana to his father.  Ravana's other brother, Vibishana, goes against the others by saying it is Ravana's fault everything has happened. His words are ignored and he is mocked. Vibishana goes to seek asylum with Rama. Rama treats Vibhishana as the ruler of Lanka in exile, and Vibhishana gives Rama advice about how to attack Lanka.
Rama orders the sea god to allow him and his army passage to Lanka.  If he was refused, he threatened to evaporate the sea. The god agrees and helps Rama.
Ravana is now preparing for war. He seeks to trick Sita into believing her husband has been killed by showing her an illusion of Rama's head.  She does not believe him and continues to hope for Rama to rescue her.  Rama sends Angada to be a messenger to Ravana.  He destroys the palace tower when Ravana tries to have him captured.  Rama then brings his army against Ravana. Indrajit poisons Rama and Lakshmana, allowing Ravana to once again try to convince Sita her husband is dead.  The brothers recover, however, and Rama is aided by Hanuman to hurt Ravana and destroy his crown.
Kumbakarna, one of Ravana's younger brothers, comes to his aid and agrees to help fight against Rama, though he faults Ravana for acting out of lust.  Though he kills many of the monkeys, he is ultimately destroyed. Indrajit creates an illusion of Sita dying, causing many of the monkeys to despair. He is later killed by Lakshmana. When that happens, Ravana is finally realizing all that he is losing. He chooses to blame Sita, now desiring her death. Rama and Ravana plan to go to battle against one another. The giant Mahodara goes to attack Rama and is destroyed.
When Rama and Ravana go to battle against each other, Ravana sees bad omens that he chooses to ignore. Rama finally defeats Ravana, killing him and ending the battle.
Sita is brought to Rama after the battle, where she throws herself into a fire to prove her virtue. Rama would not allow her back into his home without this proof. Rama is informed by Brahma of his divine nature and granted a wish. He sees his father again and has him forgive Kaikeyi.
After 14 years of exile, Rama returns home and is crowned king.

Week 3: Reading Diary A

Sita is abducted by Ravana. She was tricked by him into believing he was harmless and inviting him in.  He flies off with her and the eagle Jatayu tries to stop him.  He is murdered, dying right after he tells Rama what happened.
Rama and Lakshmana begin to try to find Sita. They travel to Kiskinda, the land of the monkeys, where they meet the exiled ruler, Sugreeva, and his helper Hanuman.
Sugreeva had a brother, Vali, who was blessed with great strength. He was the king until a demon came to the land. Vali pursued the demon into a cave to defeat him, but he did not return. Sugreeva was advised to cover the entrance to the cave in the off chance that the demon won. Vali won and found the entrance closed. He returned to Kiskinda where he beat Sugreeva and threatened him with death if he returned, taking his wife as his own.
Dundubi - A powerful demon that was defeated by Vali, who threw his corpse where the Sage Matanga was praying. This led to the sage cursing Vali.
Sugreeva and Hanuman said they saw Sita being carried off, then promised to help recover her.
Tara, Vali's wife, tries to warn him that Rama is helping Sugreeva. He ignores her, making her afraid to speak further.  Rama shoots Vali as he is fighting Sugreeva. While Vali lies dying, he seeks to shame Rama, who turns the argument on him. Sugreeva becomes king and makes Vali's son, Angada, his second-in-command.
Rama tells Sugreeva that when the rainy season ends, Sugreeva should come to his aid with an army. When the time comes, Sugreeva does not come. Lakshmana returns to Kiskinda to find him drunk.  Sugreeva vows to never drink wine again. He collects his army to go to the aid of Rama. Hanuman and Angada are sent south. Rama gives them a ring for Sita to recognize them. They are trapped in an underground city where they meet a fallen goddess, freeing her and escaping. They then travel further south to the ocean. They meet Jatayu's brother, Sampathi, who was crippled because he flew too close to the sun. His wings are healed by hearing Rama's name. He tells Hanuman they must cross the ocean to find Sita. Hanuman makes himself giant and steps across it.

Week 2: Famous Last Words

I believe that my best writing this week was with my storytelling.  I discovered that it is a lot easier to actually write if you are able to connect with the character you are focusing on.  This week I was writing about Thataka.  I was able to concentrate on her because I felt like she was mistreated and punished unfairly.  While I do not have any personal connection with her, the fact that her character actually made me feel for her allowed me to write about her.
In the future, I am hoping to use a wider variety of techniques in my stories.  One of the techniques that I liked was how Ryan used a running inner monologue to display what was going on in his story.  It made the reader see what Rama was experiencing as he did.
Outside of this class, I have been focusing on human rights issues in the majority of my other classes.  While it can be interesting to learn about at times, it is also depressing a majority of the time.  I wish the classes would present ways to help the less fortunate without making it sound like America and other first world nations should feel guilty for taking things for granted.  One of the things that I have noticed is the connection between humanitarian action and the way Rama focuses on helping those around him.
Outside of schoolwork, I have joined the reading group for "The Lies of Locke Lamora."  I haven't really gotten very far in the book yet, but I am looking forward to reading more of it.  I am also excited that Labor Day means we have a shorter class week.  I am already looking forward to the weekend so I can go shopping with some of my friends.  I am also hoping to see "Expendables 3" at some time in the near future.  Other than that, I am just hoping to do well in the coming week!

(Cover of "The Lies of Locke Lamora; Photo source Wikipedia)

Storytelling for Week 2: Thataka's story

   Thataka was a demoness of great power.  She controlled fire and turned the once fertile lands into a waste land.  This was not always the case, however, as she was once a demigod. She was a gorgeous, willful woman at one point, before the loss of her husband drove her mad. 
   Growing up, Thataka knew that she was beautiful.  When she came of age, she married Sunda.  He was a chieftain that she had previously met.  Upon meeting, they had fallen deeply in love, deciding that they would one day get married.  Much to their joy, this desire came true.  Their union was then further blessed as they had two sons.  Thataka's two sons, Mareecha and Subahu, inherited great strength from their mother.  As her father was the demigod of valor, strength, and purity, they inherited a great deal of power.  Unfortunately, they could not control it.
   Though she knew that her sons stood to inherit power from her, Thataka was not expecting the amount that they received.  As such, she was not prepared to teach them how to control it.  While their powers grew stronger, the boys began to grow arrogant and prideful of their skills.  Sunda did not help this, as he thought that they were just acting as boys normally would.  In fact, Sunda believed that they were playing much of the time.  Because of this, he would often go out and join them in their activities.  These ranged from hunting down all creatures in the area, to ripping trees out of the ground in feats of strength.
   After a period of time, the saint Agasthya began to take notice of the destruction being enacted by Sunda and his sons.  He cursed the person who caused such harm, causing Sunda to immediately die.  When Thataka came to rightfully seek vengeance on the person who killed the love of her life, he cursed her and her sons to transform from demigods into demons.  Doing this stripped them of their beauty, making their appearances fearful to behold.  After this occurred, Thataka was abandoned to her own devices and her sons went to seek other demons.  As time passed she grew more and more bitter towards humans.  She destroyed the land she dwelt in and killed all who dared to attempt crossing through her territory.  It continued in this manner until she was slain by Rama.

(Image of Thataka facing Rama and companions; Image source Wikipedia) 

   For this story, I chose to retell the story of Thataka by giving more of her background.  I thought that she was punished harshly for the actions of her family, and I wanted to make her seem more justified in her response.  I felt it was unfair for her to be transformed into what was basically her opposite solely because she grew angry and wanted revenge on the person who killed her husband.  

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Week 2: Reading Diary B

Rama was exiled by his step mother.    She changed from being happy and supportive of Rama's appointment as king to being completely against it.  She used the fact that the king gave her two boons to exile Rama from the kingdom to the forest, as well as to place her son in power. 
When Bharatha returned, he found that his father died from the shock of losing Rama.  He and the rest of the kingdom turned against the queen.  Her actions made them hate her and think of her as a devil.  Bharatha attempted to give the power to Rama, but he was refused and made the regent until Rama's 14 year exile ended.
Ravana's sister Kamavalli tries to convince Rama to marry her.  She believes that Sita has seduced him, not knowing she was his wife.  Though Kamavalli appears to be a beautiful woman, she is really the demon, Soorpanaka, that is trying to seduce him, transforming herself through magic.  She falls deeply in love with Rama, yet she is rejected.  She then tries to take him by force, attempting to kidnap Sita.  When this fails and Lakshmana protects Sita, Soorpanaka flees to her brothers to get them to defend her.  Her first brother, Kara, is defeated quickly.  She then goes to Ravana and makes him fall in love with Sita.  After plotting, Ravana kidnaps Sita with the intention of marrying her.

Week 2: Reading Diary A

Rama's Initiation

• First introduced to Viswamithra, the sage who becomes the mentor to Rama and his brother Lakshmana.  
• Dasaratha, father of Rama and Lakshmana, initially attempts to have Viswamithra take him on the voyage instead.  He is turned down and consents to his sons aiding the sage.
• The trio begins their journey to Sidhasrama, a holy area that Viswamithra wants to perform a yagna at. He teaches the boys different things as they travel.
• Thataka's story - This story seems to be used to show the destructive qualities of anger, particularly how it can take over and destroy everything.  It is also one way to explain the creation of the desert.
• Mahabali's story - When Rama was Vishnu, Mahabali took control while Vishnu was meditating.  After other gods came and begged Vishnu to retake control, he tricks Mahabali into granting him control of the land he steps on.  When he asks he is a small human.  After Mahabali grants this request, he retakes his form and takes the heavens and the earth back.
• Ganga's story - This seems to be a story regarding perseverance and hard work.  It also promotes loyalty to family.  This also talks about the origins of the Ganga river and the powers that the water carries.
• Ahalya's story - This was a sad story where the woman, Ahalya, was punished because she was deceived into sleeping with someone who took the form of her husband.  When her husband discovered this he transformed her to stone.  Rama's stepping on her released her from this curse and returned her to her husband.
• The next chapter deals with Rama and Sita glimpsing one another and falling in love at first sight.  Though she only saw him briefly, thoughts of Rama consume Sita, allowing her no rest.  When Rama manages a feat no one else has been able to do, stringing the bow of the god Shiva, he wins her hand.  The kingdoms then begin to celebrate and prepare for the wedding.