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.