Week 1: Overview

I grew up in Kerala, India. I used to hear some of the epic stories when I was growing up in India. I had many friends who were Hindus and they used to share some of their beliefs with me. However, I am not completely familiar with these epic stories. I believe this class will help me familiarize myself with Indian epic stories. I was always fascinated by the amount of gold jewelries these epic characters wore in pictures I saw about Indian epic stories. I have always wondered that if they are gods, why do they need to wear gold. I do realize that it is definitely a weird thought.

Google images: Ganapathi - one of the gods in Indian Epics

 I haven’t previously taken any courses on India in college or high school. I can fluently speak, read and write Malayalam, a south Indian language. I can understand Tamil very well, which is also a south Indian language. I am a big fan of Bollywood. I love Bollywood songs, movies and dance. I used to choreograph and teach kids Bollywood dance.  I lived in India till I was in 9^th grade, and then moved to United States.