Week 11 Reading Diary B: Sental Stories

The Jackal made a terrible decision when drinking with the hen. I thought that it pointless to explain what the broth they were making. It didn’t seem like it mattered much in the story. I guess that since the Jackal liked the broth so much he wanted to eat the hen. When he did the chicks decided to get their revenge on the jackal. They ended up blinded him and chopped him up into pieces.

The Tiger and the cat story was very interesting. It provided a origin story for how tigers and cats interact. Basically, in the old days tigers and cats used to live together peacefully, but one day the tigers asked the cat to fetch some fire to cook a meal they had received. The cat came back to late, and this forced the tiger to eat the meat Raw. The tiger exclaimed that he would eat the cat, dung and all. So this is why cats bury their own dung and why tigers eat raw meat.

The elephant and the Ants is probably one of the shortest stories in the section, but it Is my favorite by far! The story provides so much insight and morals. I will definitely consider writing my story based off of some of the elements in the story. 

The Elephant and the Ants Christina Gulla

The

Week 11 Reading Diary A: Santal Stories

This week I am reading the Santal Folklore stories.

The first story that I read was “Ledha and the Leopard.” This story was Ok. I was alittle difficult to follow. It didn’t seem like the leopard had much to do with the story.

In the oilman story. The Bullock wanted to repay his debt to the oilman by placing a 500 rupee wager on a fight with the Raja’s elephant. To my surprise the bullock won and receive the money. In return, the bull was able to leave wherever he liked. He decided to stay with the oilman, but he soon died one month later.

In the Monkey and the Girl story the girl just sacrfices herself for the love of the monkey! Haha that was a strange ending. I liked how to type of monkey was called Hanuman. This reminded me of the Ramayana. 

Bullock - Owned by Ferrets

Week 10 Storytelling; The Shanti Parva

The Shanti Parva

After the battle it was time for the coronation of Yudhistira. Peace and tranquility came after, but the story was yet to end. Yudhistira found Krishna upset and moody. He said that he realizes with the coming of Urtarayana, Bhishma will sacrifice himself. Bhishma was the keeper of knowledge for the world. Also kingship and human conduct; so when he passes away it will be gone with him forever. Krishna warned him there was not much time left.

While Brishma was speaking his final words to Yudhistira he showed much affection and spoke to him on the duties that were necessary for a king. It lasted for several days, and when he was finished he told everyone farewell and took his last breath. Yudhistira took his body and took the arrows off of it. Then he performed the obsequies due the eldest member of the family. He cremated his body on the bank of the river Ganga. The Goddess who was Brishma’s mother appeared again to take his soul and send it to his original home in the place of the celestials.

Following his deaf, Yudhistira ruled for thirty-six years. At the end of his 36th year his uncle, Dhritarashtra showed a desire to to adopt vanaprasha and live out in the woods with Gandhari and his brother’s wife, Kunthi. Yudhistira made sure all of their requests were made and he visited them frequently. He watched over their belongings too. One day, there was a forest fire and somehow Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti all died.

Meanwhile Krishna’s clan, the Vrishnis, destroyed themselves in a civil war, and nobody even remembered them because they left no trace of their existence. Krishna them left himself like he foresaw. While he was on the bank of the river, he was in deep thought. Lying on the sands, a hunter that was a distance away confused the soles of his feet for a bird and shot an arrow at them killing him. Depressed by all of the news the Pandavas decided to leave the world. One by one they died and Draupadi did too.

Yudhistira found himself to be all alone, and he was gifted the power to go to heaven in his eartly form. On his way there he saw many familiar faces. The last person that was there to take charge of Hastinapura was the son of Abhimanyu, who had protection of Krishna. He grew up to be the King and further continuing the Pandava lineage.

The Great Battle  by Ankush Bahuguna

Author's Note

This week I decided to retell the ending of R. K. Narayan's version of the Mahabharata. 

I chose to do the ending of this story because I like how in the end of the story when you thought that everything was over it actually wasn't. In the Epilogue, the story is contunied further on a bigger time scale and we learn of the deaths of everyone except Yudhistira. He went to heaven and there was only one person left to rule. It was neat how the Pandava line was still passed on in the end. It is a true never ending story. 

Week 10 Reading Diary B: The Ending

Since this is the last reading of the Mahabharata, I wanted to briefly cover the last bit of the story for my storytelling post. I think that I will write it over the ending.

Yudhishthira wants to make a final plea for peace. He is also not sure if it is safe for Krishna to go to Hastinapura as his emissary. Dhritarashtra learns about Krishna and wants a lavish reception. All Krishna wants is peach and justice.

Duryodhana denies Krishna’s plea for peace and refused to listen to the requests of his mother Ganhari. Krishna manifests himself in his divine form to the assembly. Shortly after Duryodyna realizes it is impossible to take him prisoner.  Krishna speaks to Karna and tries to convince him to abandon Duryodhana. But he refuses. Karna the promises Kunti that only one of her sons that he will attack in the future battle is Arjuna.

In the end Yudhishthira goes to consult Bhishma, who is dying. After he dies he is cremated. Dhritarashtra, Gandhair and Kunti go to live in the forest and die in a fire. Krishna’s people all destroy themselves in a civil war. Krishma is killed by a hunter and Yudhishthira goes to heaven in is bodily form. Arjuna’s son, grows up to be king of Hastinapura which continues the Pandava line. 

 

Bhima about to kill Duryodhana

Week 10 Reading Diary A: 13th Year

Dhritarashtra’s sends his spies to find out what the Pandavas are doing. He also leans about the weapons Arjuna has. He then makes a royal camp near Pandavas to shame and humiliate them, but the gods send a gandharava to fight with Duryodhana. During the fight the gandharvas eventually take Duryodhana into captivity. His plan is ruined and backfired on him.

A Brahmin asks the Pandavas for help because a giant deer stole his staff and the kindling he uses to make the sacrificial fire. The Pandavas chase it but fail. They soon became tired and went to find water. Nakula finds a lake to drink water from. Suddenly he hears a voice telling him not to drink the water until he answers all of his questions. He ignores his requests and drinks the water and dies instantly. Arjuna, Sahadeva, and Brima all die as well. Yudhishthira comes and sees that all his brothers are dead and he answers all the questions. He tells him that it was test by Yama, the god of death and of Dharma. The fallen brothers are brought back to life, and they receives the gift of unrecognizability.

Remember from before that after 12 years of exile they must spend their thirteenth year in disguise at the court of King Virata.  The Brothers all disguise themselves. Yudhishthira is the king’s companion. Bhima is a cook. Makula a stable boy, Sahadeva is a cowherd, Arjuna new alias is Brihannala and lives as a eunuch in the women’s quarters. Draupadi is Sairandhir, the hairdresser. 

Kichaka and Bhima

Week 9 Storytelling: The Eighth Son

The Eighth Son

There was a ruler of an ancient kingdom of Hastinapura. His name was Santanu. One day while hunting Santanu came upon a lovely lady by the river and he instantly fell in love with her. He asked her to marry him and she said yes, but under one important condition. She asked to be able to do whatever she liked, and at no like will he have the right to question her actions. Santanu accepted this offer without objection. To him this was only a small price to pay to marry the woman of his dreams.
After a while she brought forth a baby, but s. as soon as he was born she drowned him in the river! This shocked Santanu, but he was unable to do anything about it remembering his oath he made with his new wife. When the next child was born she did the same thing, and another and another again. The strangest part of it was that after she drowned the children she came back with a smile on her face. Santanu never said anything about her behavior because he feared that he might leave him if he did. Besides, she was a great wife otherwise.

The wife had an eight child, and she began to prepare the baby to be drowned like she usually does. Finally, the husband was unable to control himself and he cried out to her to stop the madness.
To his surprise she said yes. She was already doing to spare his life, but in return she was going to leave him. Santanu asked why she would leave him. She explained to him to her real identity was. She was Ganga, the goddess of the river. She took the form of a human only to give birth to eight babies. She told the husband that she married him because he was the only person worthy enough to father the children. The children were known as the eight vasus (a class of deities, attendatans of Indra). In another life they were cursed to be corn on earth by Nandini for stealing the Sage Vasishta’s rare cow. Appealing the accusations, seven of them were allowed to go back to heaven. The eight member who arranged everything just to satisfy his wife, and actually stolen the cow must continue to live his life on earth. He will have brilliant accomplishments, but he must live a life of celibacy.


After Ganga explained the story she told Santanu that she would take the child and return him later years later instantly vanishing into the river. One day while the King was at the river she came back to return the son. His name is Devavratha, and he mastered all the Vedas. Santanu was very happy to have his son back and he returned back to his kingdom and announced that the boy would be the heir.

Ganga the River Goddess

Wikipedia

Author's Note

I deciede to write about the first story in Narayan's version of The Mahabharata. I wanted to retell this small story because it was shocking to read if you have never done so before. I find it interesting to learn that the wife "Ganga" was drowning her babies to send all of them to heaven except for one, Devavratha. This story sets up the character, and it provides a background story for him. I kept the story the same as the original. 

Week 9 Reading Diary B: The Mahabharata

I am confused some while reading this book, so I am going to keep my notes for this assignment short. I will need to re-read some pages, and focus more on the reading notes.
Yudhisthira ends up being crowned as a king at Indraprastha. Krishna, Duryodhana, and his uncle, Shakuni all attend as a guest. Next we learn about the great weapons that Skakuni owns, such as the Gandiva bow. It was a gift from the fire god Agni to Arjuna as a reward for trapping the birds and animals in the forest for him to eat. Shakuni Suggests to Duryodhana to play a game of dice to get revenge on the Pandavas.

Dice - Wikipedia

Week 9 Reading Diary A: The Mahabharata

Shantanu is the king of Hastinapura and he fell in love with a woman over by the river. She turned out to be Ganga the River goddess. Ganga agreed to many her as long as Shantanu never questioned her actions. Red flags are already going up in my head. I wonder why he would even agree to something like that. She gives birth to 8 sons and sacrifices them in the river one by one. Shantanu tries to stop her. This is when Ganga really reveals to him that she is the Goddess of the river. She explains that she is just an incarnation, and her role was to give birth to eight gods. In order to do this she needed to drown them so that they would go to heaven.


Shantanu falls in love with another woman named Satyavati. Obviously Shantanu has aj issue with other women. Bhishma renounces his claim to help his father out and then Shantanu and Sayavati got married. 

Ganga (Top)

Painting by Ravi Varma

Commenting Review

STEP THREE: Write up a blog post where you share some thoughts about the commenting in the class so far. You can write about anything you want; the following are just some prompts to give you some ideas to think about as you write your post:

• Do you feel like you are making good connections with other students in the class at the blogs?
• What kinds of interactions do you think are most helpful in creating good connections online in a class like this? 
• What kinds of comments have been most useful to you so far on your blog posts?
• If you have received Project comments, have those been useful so far? (Not everyone has gotten Project comments yet.)
• When you are leaving a short comment, what do you usually focus on?
• When you are leaving a long comment on a Project, what is your focus?
• What is the easiest part for you about writing comments? What is the hardest part?
• Do you do a lot of commenting on other students' work in your other classes? Is your major one in which peer comments are generally an important part of the classes you take?
• How do you make use of comments when you revise your writing?
• Are there comments people have given you about your writing that have really made a difference for you in your writing overall? 
• Do you have any suggestions for improving the commenting component of this class? 

Yes, I do feel like I am connecting well with other students from their blogs. The introduction post is probably the best one to really get to know someone. 

The most useful comments are the constructive criticism ones as well as the ones that help boost my confidence in writing stories. 

The Project comments are the most useful comments in my opinion. At first, they are hard to write,but If you really take the time and effort to write them then they can provide really good feedback for the other classmate. 

For the short, comments I mostly just focus on the main idea of the story and discuss how the writer related it to the required readings. For the long comments I tend to go more in depth with it and explain specifics. 

The easiest part about writing comments is the repetition. Once you can get used to it it becomes easier to write. The hardest ones are the project commenting questions. 

If I have some good comments regarding my story I will try and fix the areas in my story which the comment suggests. 

FAIL

Ace Images

Writing Review Week

Writing Review 

I really enjoyed writing my introduction and my Birth of Hanuman story. I thought that those were the easiest for me to write because I knew exactly what and how I was going to format the story.

In the second half of the semester, I plan on focusing on story structure and working on my punctuation.

Looking back at my own stories, I think that the best way to prepare yourself for writing a story is to first pick a story that you really enjoy. Next, make sure to take extensive notes on the subject. Lastly, brainstorm ways to recreate the story or re-tell it. I have not looked at other students writing for some ideas yet. Usually, I already have my idea in mind before I read other students work. The feedback that I am receiving is definitely helpful. There have been some students that really help me with plot development and punctuations. I think that the most valuable feedback for me in my writing is about sentence structure and grammar. The biggest challenges for me as a writer sometimes is coming up with a good story. I want my story to be great, and sometimes I find it hard to be so creative.

 

Winter Tree - Burzinski

I really liked this image the best from my Week 1 story. I think that the shadows and the effects on it  look nice. 

Reading Review Week

Reading Review

• What readings in the class have you enjoyed most/least?
• What reading and note-taking strategies have you found that work best for you?
• Do you use your Reading Diary in connection with the Storytelling assignment?
• When you look back at your old Reading Diaries from early in the semester, do they help you to recall the reading in a useful way?

 I have enjoyed many of the reading we have had in class this semester. I must say that looking back in from both classes they are somewhat the same, BUT completely different terms of writing and especially reading. In the Indian epics class we more focused readings on specific epics rather than week by week stories. I enjoy both methods, but even after experiencing both, one of my favorite readings was to read Narayan's Ramayana. Buck's version was good, but I just liked Narayan's version better. 

The reading diaries were very helpful while going though the sections of readings. I would read a note or two, then I would just read in the book until I finished what the notes were about. Lastly, I would re-read the notes to help myself fully understand everything. This strategy for me works to best just in case you forget some plots or characters. 

For my stories I sometimes refer back to my notes to see if I can find a story that I might like to tell. If I have a really good idea then I will just write my post from memory. Looking back at my old reading diaries, they definitely help me recall information from before like differences in the Ramayana from the two authors. 

Jatayu by- Abhilash Rajendran

This is one of my favorite pictures from my reading diary. I think that It shows perfectly how  Ravana in my mind would kill Jataya. It is pretty epic with the mid-air slice. 

Picture Quote

Here is my picture quote I made on Make a Quote Image

Check it Out!

It is from my favorite TV show The Walking Dead.