Week 6, Reading Diary A: PDE Mahabharata

Unlike Shurpanaka and Rama, both Bhima and Hidimbi had a happy story. Hidimbi changed her nature to be with Bhima because of her love towards him. They had a son named Ghatotkacha. Kundi and her sons had a very miserable life. The sons begged for food in the morning and Kundi prepared it during night. A Brahmin family gave them shelter. When Kundi realized that their family is in danger by Baka, she called upon Bhima and helped slay Baka. These episodes of Mahabharata is quiet violent. There is a lot of killing and evilness. Only pleasant part I read so far is the love story between Bhima and Hidimbi. 

Bhima Killing Baka

Thoughts about comments

First, I have to thank everyone who left me a comment. These comments help me go back and fix my mistakes. For example, sometimes even after I proof read my blog posts, I still miss spell one or two words and one can still find grammatical errors. Your comment has helped me go back to my blog posts and fix it. In addition, sometimes I receive comments stating what I need to add to blog posts, to make it even better, this help me improve the quality of my blog posts. Of course, the  comments about what the readers like about my blog posts help me keep doing that. Please continue to leave me comments.

Please leave me a comment :)

Week 5. Story telling: Beauty Does Not Represent Personality

Sanjay just got done with his midterm exams and turned in all his final papers. Unlike most of the students, he does not procrastinate, however, life had been so crazy for him lately and made him fall behind on school works. From OU campus, he drove twenty minutes to Lake Thunderbird to take a walk. He had to close out school from his mind for a while. He sat down under a tree, enjoying the warmth of the sun and feeling the soft wind against his face. He suddenly noticed a girl walking by- the most beautiful girl he has ever seen in his life. He was stunned by her beauty. She was wearing an OU class of 2017 shirt, jeans and a pair of toms. She quickly glanced at his direction and caught him staring at her. “Oh my god, her eyes are to die for” Sanjay whispered to himself. He could not take his eyes off of her. He fell in love with her beauty and wanted to ask her out right then. He gathered all his courage and went up to her planning on at least getting her number. “You are so beautiful, I want to marry you” without Sanjay even realizing those words slipped out of his tongue. She chuckled and kept walking. “What have I done, oh my god what have I done” he thought to himself. He ran after her and tried to speak to her again.

Sanjay- “Ummm that was awkward, I am sorry about that. My name is Sanjay”

She turned back, looked at Sanjay and smiled, and kept walking.

Sanjay- “ Soooo, what is your name? I am guessing you got to OU.

Mridula- “I am Mridula, yup, I go to OU”.

He felt like his tongue got tied, he started sweating, He tried to regain his courage, but her beautiful smile was making him beyond nervous. After talking for thirty minutes, he got her number and they texted for a week and he asked her out. Surprisingly, she said yes to him.

Weeks passed by, within a month, Sanjay could not stand Mridula. Her rude nature and selfishness was pushing him over the edge. “ Ahh, she is so beautiful but I cannot stand her personality. Why did I ask her out, I don’t think I can be in this relationship anymore” He thought to himself. He tried to find a solution for this problem. However, Mridula’s unkindful act and rudeness to others made him so sad. He did not want to break up with her because he thought that he will never find someone as beautiful as her.

Two months passes by, after Mridula came in to his life, his problems has only gotten worse. She never supported him in his decisions and always nagged and found fault in his actions. Finally, he realized that beauty is not what matters; it is one’s personality that matters. He started regretting asking her out based on her beautiful face rather than her personality. He finally broke things off with Mridula and swore to never make the same mistake he made. 

Beauty does not represent personality

Bibliography - King Shantanu and Ganga from PDE: Mahabharata

Author’s note

One thing I have noticed in most of the readings is that they give a lot importance in appearance of a woman and man equally. They portray evil woman as ugly like they portrayed Manthara as hunchbacked and ugly in Ramayana. In this story, I wanted to point out to the readers that there is something beyond a beautiful face to both men and women. Someone’s personality is what matters more than their appearance. I based this story off of PDE: Mahabharatha, chapter King Shantanu and Ganga. King Shantanu wanted to marry Ganga based off of her looks. I made Sanjay to look like a similar character to Shantanu. Sanjay and Shantanu both fell in love with a woman based on their beauty and had to suffer later, due to it. I am not trying to imply that people who are ugly has a good personality or people who are beautiful has a bad personality. I want the readers to look more into a person than their outwards looks before they judge.

Week 5, Reading Diary A: PDE Mahabharatha

I do not know what to think about the birth story of Vyasa's mother. She was born to a fish and a human! Vyasa is known as Island- Born. King Shantanu saw a beautiful women (Ganga in human form) and right then asked her to marry him because she was so beautiful! Shantanu again fell on love with another maiden based up on her smell and looks, her name was Satyavaty, Vyasa's mother. Son of Ganga is known as Bhrishma. Bhrishma then abducts three princess for his half brother Vichitravirya. Amba killed herself to take up a new body to destroy Bhrishma. Through Vyasa, Vichitavirya's wives bore two children- Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Pandu gained the throne and married Kundi and Madri.Karna is Kundi's son. Drona refused to train Ekalavya, he went on becoming a great warrior. Drona was defnitley not fit to be a teacher. He refused to teach and after someone became skillful and became good, he bought him down by asking for his thumb. He ask the Pandavas and Kavuravas to take revenge on Drupada for him.

Pandavas

Tech Tip: Pinterest Board/Embedded

I have been using pinterest board for a while. I use it to look up recepies and craft works. Recently I created a pinterst board for this class. Link provided is the link for this board.

https://www.pinterest.com/anu98/epics-of-india-portfolio/

Tech Tip: Pinterest

Follow Anu Roy's board Epics of India Portfolio on Pinterest.

Week 4: Reading Feedback

My favorite part of reading was actually reading the comic books – Amar Chitra Kadha. I found these books from Bizzell library in reserves. I read at least 12-15 of these books. They remind me of my childhood. I used to read books like these when I was growing up. These readings can be done in about 5-6 mins and is fun to read. However, I take more time to look at the pictures than reading these books. I like and hate that it comes with a reading guide. Because sometimes the reading guide give me a sense of how much reading I will have to finish for each readings, and it also feels like a restriction. Some weeks I have time to read more than the reading guides and other weeks, I won’t have enough time to catch up with reading guides.

Getting that reading done for Epics of India class

Week 4: Growth Mindset

So far, waking up early in the morning been a total fail. My life took on a totally different turn. So many unexpected and unwelcomed struggles and issues popped up and I completely lost control of my life. When I read about growth mindset, what I learned was that progress will not occur in one day, it takes time. I am going to get my life back in check, but I realize it will be slow process. First, I am going to catch up with my school work, because I am behind on almost all of my classes. Then, I am going to try to finish my assignments and other school work early. This will give me room to deal with issues that I have to face to now. I will also have to find room to fit in my MCAT studies. I am going to try to wake up at six am. I don’t know how effective that will be. I might not be able to wake up every day at six; however I am going to try.

Getting Life Back Together

Vikram and Bethal: Brainstorm Styles

For the storybook, I am planning on using the Vikram and Bethal stories. I loved these stories from wgen I was young. First I got exposed to these stories when it came in Bhalarama- a Malayalam comic book. Bethal tells Vikram a lot of stories which expose Vikram’s intelligent. My goal is to find as many stories of Bethal and Vikram. Since there are so many stories which Bethal told Vikram, I will have to be careful about which story I want to use.

Bibliography  

1. Vikram and Bethal Stories  - from Bharadesham website 

2. Stories of Vikram and Bethal - YouTube videos on Vikram and Bethal 

   

Story Telling Styles 

1. Bethal's Point of View - I would like to tell the story in Bethal’s point of view. It will include Bethal’s wisdom and intelligent. I would like to start with how bethal thinking to himself how lonely it is to stay in forest by himself. I also want to include background information about Bethal.

2. Vikram's point of View- I would like to tell the story in Vikram’s point of view. It will include the frustration of Vikram when Bethal return to the tree. I would also like to include the thought process which goes through his head when Bethal tells the story. I want to add the battle in his head to speak the up and answer bethal’s question or not.

3. Modern Story- I would like to narrate the story in a modern setting. Vikram as a debt collector who got employed recently, Bethal as the person who borrowed money and the Rishi as the evil owner of the finance company.

4. Tell The Story As It Is - This way is pretty much tell the story as it is by adding some twists. I do not know what I will adding or taking off in the story. However I would like to include the things like what happened to Vikram and Bethal after the encounter with the Rishi.

Vikram and Bethal

Week 4, Reading Diary A; Amar Chitra Kadha

I read two books named Rama and Ancestors of Rama this week for my Reading Diary A.
First book I read was names Rama. This book gave a short description of Ramayana. Dasharatha had four boys, the eldest was Rama, then Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. Rama was special and was loved by everyone. He possessed many qualities and abilities. Once he and Lakshmana fought many rakshasa under the order of Vishwamitra. Rama married Sita and short after, when Rama was decided to crown the king, Rama's step mother intervened and made Rama go to exile. With Rama, Lakshmana and Sita also went in to the forest. Rama ended up killing Ravana, the ten headed Rakshsa king to save Sita. In the process of getting Sita back, Hanuman had set Lanka on fire.
Next story I read was Ancestors of Rama. As the heading of the story, it gave an explanation of Rama's ancestors. Rama's great grandfather was Dilipa, then Ragu, then Aja and Rama's father Dasharatha. How Dilipa and his wife Sudkshina concived Raju was an interesting story. Two holy cows named Surabhi and Nandini were involved in this story.

Amar Chitra Kadha

Holy Cows- Surabhi and Nandini

Week 3, Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

It was interesting that these stories actually match up with the geography of India. For example, I have always wondered how did a line of rocks formed between Sri Lanka and South India. I have heard a lot about Rameswaram while watching Tamil movies. Ravana has the power of illution. In addition, he was able to become invisible. Ravana played "dirty" while trying to win the war. He caused many wounds on Lakshman and Rama by being invisible. Previously I have heard about Kumbakarna. He sleeps and when he wakes up he eats. During summer when I sleep in and wake up just to eat, my mom used to ask if I am an avatar of Kumbakarna! He is definitely an interesting character. I did not know he was a rakshasa. Hanuman rooted up mountain Himalaya- one of the biggest mountains in the world.  Rama is destined to beat Ravana in the war. Thus, gods sends Rama aids to win this war and keep watching over him. The serpent arrows were interesting, once you fire an arrow it changes into serpents. Rama defeated Ravana with his Brahma weapon. It is interesting that a god will make weapon for protection. Rama was forced to exile Sita. Their love has been tested once again. After Sita is taken by the earth, Lakhman by the gods, Rama also leaves the earth to become Vishnu again. 

"Rama's Bridge" between Sri Lanka and India

Click here to access the original story

Week 3, Reading Diary A: Public Domain Ramyana

Ramayana is truly disturbing and depressing. Siblings wanting each other's blood and Men/ Women ( or Rakshasa and Gods ) desiring someone else's wife/ husband. It also included so many bloodthirsty wars. It was sad to see that Vali is not able to forgive his brother Sugriva and Sugriva battled against Vali which caused Vali's death. Hanuman though that sun was a fruit and tried to catch it was funny. His leap to Lanka caught my attention. His fights with the Rakshasi was interesting. His determination and courage was admirable. In addition, he was doing it for a friend and not himself shows how selfless he is. Hanuman's birth story was interesting. Sita’s stayed true to Rama even when Ravana tortured her. He tempted her with power and wealth; however, love for her husband was more important to her than any wealth or power to her.

Ravanan torturing Sita

Click here to access the original story

Week 2, Tech tip: Embedded Youtube

Honey I am good- Andy Grammer
In this week's tech tip, I learned how to add a video in to my blog page. I attached one of my favorite song to this blog. It is pretty easy to add you tube videos to blogs. Only thing one have to do is click on the video emoji on the top of the screen and search for the youtube video and select it. It is that simple 

Week 2: Curation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvu5xq50PCk - Vikram and Beetal stories
This is a you tube video for Vikram and Beetal stories. They are in Hindi, however it is still pretty easy to follow by watching it. It does auto play- which means the next episode will play right after this one.

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/growth-mindset/ - This is a link to Pinterest growth mind set page. I find this page useful because I find my growth mind set pictures from here.

Ramayana Children's movie - This is a movie about Ramyana. It is less than an hour and is pretty interesting. 

Week 2: Growth Mindset

I find myself running out of time. In the morning, I am in a rush to make it to Llyod Nobel bus stop on time, get to class on time, finish my reading to on time, and turn my homework in time. Time seems like my enemy. This battle of Time vs. Anu been going on for a long time. Time tends to win most of the time. I think it’s time for Anu to win against time. Sleeping in is love of my life. However it is the weakness that always makes me loose to Time. I am planning on taking on the challenge to wake up at 6 o clock and finish up my classwork by eight o clock every day from today onward. 

New Beginnings; Sun Rise

Week 2: Reading Feedback

I just chose Ramayana because that is what I could get for free and online. I read the Public Domain Ramayana. It was easier for me to read it online because then I can just open up the link and read it anywhere or anytime. I wanted to know more about Sita and Rama and Readings for this week had a lot of information about Sita and Rama. Their love story was striking. When some chapters are in versus it was hard for me to read and understand. I did not do all the reading in one sitting. I always came back to it or read it while I was cooking or doing something else, SO it took me about four to five hours to get the reading done. I liked the readings because they are like short stories. The readings accompanied with pictures were really effective.  I wish there was more options than Ramayana in this style. 

Ramayana

Week 2: Indian Epics Brain Storm

1.     Rama and Sita’s love story

Rama and Sita have a very complicated love story. They fell in love with each other in first sight. Their love for each other is remarkable. Even though, they didn’t know each other for a long time and they just got married, Sita decided to accompany Rama to the forest. She decided to let go off all her wealth and comfort to be with her husband. Rama went to war with a powerful Rakshasa to get Sita back when she was kidnapped. He could have avoided the conflict by deciding to let go of Sita. However, he decided to find Sita and protect her. Later on in their marriage they had to go through many obstacles. Their love towards each other helped them overcome these obstacles. I want to know more about their story.

Research so far- I have read reading diary A and B for week 2 and it had so much information about Rama and Sita. I am planning on reading more Wikipedia articles to gain more information about Rama and Sita.

Rama and Sita

2.      Krishna

Growing up, I have heard many stories about Krishna. Only information I knew about him was that he had so many wives, he was very naughty when growing up, he steels ghee and he was a Hindu god. Whenever I see pictures of Krishna, every picture portrayed him as blue. He was a blue human being!

Research so far- I have read couple of stories online and looked up some of the Wikipedia articles. I am going to look up Krishna’s stories online and if I can’t find much information, I am going to ask my friends in India who are Hindus and very familiar with the stories about Krishna for more information.  

Baby Krishna Eating Ghee

3.      Ganesh

I do not know much about Ganesh; however his elephant trunk in a human body is very interesting. I have always been interested in elephants and every time I see pictures of Ganesh it reminds me of elephant. I think it will be interesting to do a story book or portfolio about Ganesh. He is the son of both Parvathy and Shiva.

Research so far- I have read Wikipedia articles about Ganesh, and have found books in Bizzell library.

Ganesh

4.      Vikramaditya

Vikramaditya was a king to Paramara Dynasty. He was a very intelligent king. I do not know much about him; however I have read few stories about Vikramaditya and Vethalam in a children’s comic book called “Bhalarama”. It was stories about how he would try to capture the Vethalam and Vethalam will tell stories to the king and the end of comic book stories, Vethalam always escapes and the new story begins with the king finding the Vethalam and continuing the journey with a new story. I think this topic will make a great storybook. I enjoyed reading the stories about Vikramditya and Vehalam, so I hope the readers will also enjoy it.

Research so far- I have watched couple of episodes of Vikramaditya and Vethalam on youtube, read Wikipedia articles. I found a book about him in Bizzell library reserves, by this week I am going to check out the book from reserves and planning on reading it by the end of this week. 

Vikramaditya and Vethalam

Story Telling:, Week 2: Road Trip to Ramayana

Jaya and Dileep was going on a road trip to the neighboring state for vacation with their two daughters- Meena and Chinju.  Meena is 10 years old and Chinju is 13 years old. Every two – three years, they go from Kerala to Tamil Nadu to visit Velankani Church. On the way back they usually visit Mysore too. Meena was cranky because her mother woke her up before sunrise to get ready for the trip. Her favorite part of the road trip was site seeing. First thing she did when she got in to the car was lower her windows. She loves to feel the soft wind touching her face while the car moves. On the way to Mysore, they passed the Eucalyptus trees. While everyone seems to enjoy the fragrance of Eucalyptus, the smell only made her carsickness worse. They passed the Eucalyptus trees and continued their journey through a road that cuts through forest. Meena spotted a dear while they were on their way.

Meena- “MOM, MOMMMMMM, look there is a deer. Stop the car! I want to take a closer look at the deer. Dad, stop the car! I want to take the deer with us.

Dileep-“ No Meena, we cannot stop the car now! This area is filled with wild elephants and other wild animals”.

Meena started throwing a tantrum, finally dileep stopped the car. However he spotted some wild elephants coming at their way. Dileep decided to take off.

Meena- "I want you to stop the car now! I want that deer". 

Dileep tried to explain why he cannot stop the car now and they might get in danger if they did stop the car.

Meena started crying again

Jaya- "Dear, I agree that the deer is so beautiful and why you wanted to have it. You are not the only  one who wanted a deer. Let me tell you a story". 

Meena looked up to her mother wiping her tears off

Jaya- “Once up on a time there was a prince named Rama, who fell in loved with a beautiful princess named Sita. After their  marriage, Rama’s step mother tricked Rama's father in to banishing Rama to the forest for fourteen years. The loving wife Sita and loyal brother Lakshma accompanied Rama in to forest. One day Sita saw a beautiful deer wandering by their home in the forest. She has never laid her eyes on something as beautiful as this creature. She mentioned to Rama how beautiful the deer and that she must have it. To fulfill his beautiful wife's wish, Rama set out to catch the deer even though he knew something was not right about the deer.  Little did they knew that the deer was Maricha- a rakshasa. Maricha disguised as this golden deer as per the instruction of Ravana, the rakshasa king who wanted to kidnap Sita. Rama told Sita to stay where she is and to Lakshmana, he asked to never leave Sita's side till he returned. Lakshmana warned both of them against going after the deer. However, Rama was oblivious about his surrounding because he wanted to grant Sita's wish so bad. Ravana took the opportunity to abduct Sita while Rama went after the deer. After searching for Sita several times and after many wars Rama was finally able to get Sita back from Ravana."
Jaya continued saying " Look dear, you cannot be oblivious to your surroundings. It will invite danger like Sita and Rama."
Meena realized her mistake and said sorry to both Jaya and Dileep. 

Rama and Sita

Link to the original story

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/search/label/PDE%20Ramayana
Bibliography
Gibbs, Laura. "Ramayana Public Domain Edition". Web blog post. Indian Epics: Images and PDE          Epics. 18 April 2014.Web.02 September 2015.

G

Author's note

My parents and I used to go on road trips when I was little; this story is inspired by that. I used to hate the Eucalyptus smell while everyone stopped next to the road to inhale in the fragrance. I loved the story of Rama and Sita and I was wondering how I can put it in to storytelling and a road trip idea came in to my mind while I was driving back to my apartment from library one day. I wanted people to think about what’s going on around them before they jump in to doing something. I am hoping that this story will help to get that point across the readers. For example, I was browsing at mall and stopped at Michael Kors and saw a beautiful watch and I wanted to just get it right then, even though I went over my budget that month. I ended up getting it and had to return it realizing I couldn’t afford it then. I felt like it was so stupid that I felt like I must have it when I could go without it and I became so oblivious about how I will pay my bills and other necessary items if I went and bought this watch. 

Reading Diary B, Public Domain Edition: Ramayana

I liked how in "Bharata Returns" How much Bharata loved his brother Rama. Bharata cared about his brother more than power he would have received. He was also able to realize the mistake his mother made and instead of supporting her mistake, he stood with the truth and justice. In addition, Rama was not greedy for the power either. When Bharata offered the kingdom to the Rama, he stayed back in the forest to keep his word. The epic battles that happens between the Rakshasa and the brothers are very entertaining. My favorite part in Reading Diary B is “Shurpanaka”. Shurpanaka is a rakshashi who fell in love with Rama. Shurpanaka happens to be the sister of Ravana (Ravana is the rakshasha who was very fond of Sita). Shurpanaka tried to make Rama leave Sita. However, the love between Rama and Sita was very strong. In addition, faithful Rama rejected the Shurpanaka’s proposal. I thought it was strange that a Rakshasha woman fell in love with a human. The segment “Shurpanaka” and “Battle with Khara” not only shows the faithfulness of Rama towards Sita. It also shows the bravery of both Lakshmana and Rama. Shurpanaka was filled with jealousy and wanted Sita’s blood. This segment also shows the brother sister relationship between Shurpanaka and Khara. Even though they were Rakshasha, their sibling bond was still strong. Khara went to fight Rama for his sister. These stories were filled with the value of relationships such as siblings, spouses, friends and parents. 

Encounter with Shurpanaka

Link for the original story- 

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ramayana-online-public-domain-edition.html

Week 1: Reading Diary A

Meeting of Sita and Rama was so dreamy. It was love at first site. I do not really believe in love at first site, however in Rama and Sita's case it happened. One part that stood out about me is that Rama is dark skinned. In Indian culture dark skin is frowned up on and everyone want a suitor who is fair. In this story, people picked out Rama and mentioned that Rama will make a good suitor. I didnt realize that Rama was god Shiva's avatar and Sita was goddess Lakshmi's avatar I thought it was funny how Manthara- the evil servant was flat breasted, had legs like cranes , hunchback , big bellied. In conclusion she was evil and she was ugly. It is sad how stories like this usually portrays the hero or heroine as beautiful and the villain is the ugly one.