Indian Epics

This story is about King Shantanu's first wife, Ganges. Although King Shantanu did not know his wife was a goddess of the Ganges River when he first met her, he soon finds out. One day, Vasus interrupted a brahmin's, Vashishtha, meditation. Vashishtha got angry and cursed Vasus. The curse was for Vasus to be mortal. Therefore, Vasus came to Ganga to help them. She said that she could would be their mother and kill them immediately so they could go back to being a celestial. I guess being a mortal for one lifetime is so bad they would like to die a quick death. King Shantanu is walking near the Ganges River when he sees a beautiful woman. That woman was Ganga in her mortal form. It was love at first sight for King Shantanu. This man was forward. He asked for her to marry him immediately. Ganga agreed to marry him, but on the condition that he would not be mean to her. If he was, she would leave immediately. And so, the couple got married. They even had children. But as Ganga...

The Pandavas Depart  and The Afterlife  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Vyasa, a priest, came upon the Pandavas. He told them it was time for their departure. Yudhisthira divided the kingdom. The Pandavas and Draudapi got rid of their materialistic items to prepare for their departure. Then the Pandavas, Draudapi, and a hound departed. Draudapi was the first to fall. She fell because her heart was still with Arjuna. The next one to fall was Sahadeva. Then Nakula fell. Finally, Bhima fell and Yudhisthira and the hound were the only ones left standing. Bhima fell because of his cursing, gluttony, and pride. Yudhisthira was the one who explain why each of them fell. It was weird to me that Yudhisthira was calm through all this. It is like he did not care until he came to Mount Meru where he met Indra. It was then when he pleaded with Indra to allow everyone to go to heaven with him. When Yudhisthira said everyone, he meant everyone even the hound. Yudhisthira would not aban...

Arjuna and Indra  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Indra is Arjuna's father. Urvashi  was smitten with Arjuna, but Arjuna did not feel the same way. Therefore  Urvashi put a curse on saying " thou wilt   for a season live unregarded among women as a dancer and musician". However, Indra told Arjuna not to worry for it will work in his favor. Karna and Indra  by  Sister Nivedita Arjuna and Karna were destined to slay the other. Karna had celestial armor and earrings to protect him. These were tokens of invincibility. Indra appeared to Karna in the form of a brahmin so that he could remove these tokens of invincibility. However, Karna knew it was Indra. Karna struck a deal with Indra. Karna would give Indra his tokens of invincibility if Indra gives him an invincible dart. I like this story and may retell the story.  (Picture of Indra and Karna  Wiki ) Jayadratha and Draup adi  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Some men really like kidnapping...

I liked the video  How Languages Evolve  by Alex Gendler. It is crazy that there could be somewhere between 3000-8000 different languages. So far, I know English, Korean, Latin, and Spanish. I learned Latin in high school and it really helped with learning Spanish because it was my first experience with conjugating. Although Latin is not a spoken language, many languages derive from it. I learned Spanish in college and I am planning on minoring in it. I used to get annoyed when people would ask if I could understand another Asian language because of languages are so different. The Korean alphabet doesn't share the same alphabet as the Chinese or Japanese. It is even difficult to understand North Koreans even though we speak the same language, because they have a different dialect. However, after learning Spanish I understood a little bit why people thought Asian people spoke the same language. People in Mexico and Spain share basically the same language although there are diff...

In  Wife of the Five Pandavas  by Donald A. Mackenzie, Shiva granted Draupadi five husbands because in her previous life she was a pious woman named Nalayani who prayed to him for a husband. She prayed five times to Shiva about a husband so he gave her five husbands. Her five husbands were the five Pandava princes. This is so weird to me. It kind of reminds me of the show 'Sister Wives', but I guess it would be called 'Brother Husbands' for this story. As the story continues on, they made a pact that only one of them should be with  Draupadi at a time. However Arjuna broke this pact and he was sent to exile for twelve years. He goes on and finds different women. I feel like there are a lot of gaps in this story so I would retell this story by filling in these gaps. A recurring theme in the this part of the stories is the unique births. In the  Birth of Draupadi  by  Donald A. Mackenzie,   Drupada wanted children so he performed a sacrificial rit...

I was very surprised at the story of King Shantanu and Ganga  by  Donald A. Mackenzie . King Shantanu fell in love with Ganga. Ganga is actually the goddess of the Ganges River. King Shantanu did not know this because when they met Ganga was in her human form. She agreed to be his as long as King Shantanu did not speak harshly towards her. Whenever Ganga and King Shantanu had children she would drown them in the Ganges River. She did this seven times. By the eight time, King Shantanu had enough and went off on Ganga. She left him and revealed that she was the goddess of the Ganges River. I appreciated the fact that Ganga was a strong woman who knew when to leave, unlike Sita in Ramayana. Ganga agreed to stay with King Shantanu did not speak harshly towards her. However, I feel like Ganga abused this statement. When she drown their children in the Ganges River, Ganga should have told King Shantanu she did this so they could return to their celest...

I did not know that google had a timer. Using a timer will be a great way to keep me on track. One of my friends uses a reward system. She times herself studying for like 30 minutes and then rewards herself by showering or taking a break. She manages to get good grades, so I may have to use her reward system and use the google timer to keep on track. (Picture of a Timer  Pxhere )

I watched  Mahabharata meets Game of Thrones . I actually just started watching Game of Thrones last month and it is a great show. I am excited to read  Mahabharata this week. I think that I will start seeing the characters in  Mahabharata as the characters of Game of Thrones. Since I just started Game of Thrones, this sneak peak of  Mahabharata gave away some things in Game of Thrones, but that is okay. I am the type of person who will read the entire synopsis of a movie if I really want to watch it that day, but I can't.   This image of the stages of procrastination is me. Speaking of Game of Thrones, I have been procrastinating on my homework because of it. I really should not be blaming anyone other than myself though. I have been getting better at not procrastinating. I am not behind, but I am not as ahead like I would like to be.  (Picture of the Stages of Procrastination  Stages of Procrastination )

Note: This story is now part of my  Portfolio  website. This website will have the more current version. One afternoon while Rama was out hunting a deer that Sita desired, Ravana came and kidnapped Sita. Ravana took her back to his place. Sita cried and cried calling for Rama. Ravana declared his love for Sita. He was enamored by Sita's beauty. However, Sita insisted on her love for Rama. She profusely rejected Ravana. Weeks passed, Ravana could tell Sita was starting to get worried. Hanuman, the monkey king, came to see Sita to see how she was doing and to rescue her. She refused to be rescued by anyone other than Rama. Therefore, Hanuman left to tell Rama that Sita was alright, but only wanted to be rescued by him. Little did they know that Ravana was listening to their conversation. Being the devil that he is, Ravana disguised himself as Rama one night. He pretended to rescue Sita looking like Rama.That night, Sita and Ravana celebrated under the moonlight. However, w...

In Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley the second part of the story focuses on Sita and Rama's return back to the kingdom. Sita is pregnant which should be a glorious thing, but there is rumor going around questioning Sita's purity again.Rama fearing he will not be respected for having Sita by his side, kicks her out to the jungle. Sita gives birth in the jungle. Years pass and Rama encounters two boys that are singing songs about him. Rama finds out that they are Sita's children. He welcomes the two boys into the kingdom to help him rule, but he makes Sita prove her purity again. If the Earth takes her back then she passes the test. The Earth swallows her up. Sita is gone. The end scene shows Rama crying. There was a scene in this movie where Sita is pregnant. It shows her pregnant with mini Ravana's babies and then with mini Rama's babies. This scene gave me an idea. If I were to retell the story I would make Rama's nightmare come true. Sita would be pregnan...

In  Sita Sings the Blues  by Nina Paley Ravana, the demon king, caught my attention. There are three authors in story. At times during the movie, they would discuss different versions of the story or expand on a character. It caught my attention when one of the authors mentioned that before Ravana kidnapped Sita he did not have a bad rep. Apparently some people thought he was a good king. He was also an educated man who knew all of his weapons and prayed to the right gods. Ravana was so devoted to Shiva that went his veen broke, some say that Ravana used his intestines to keep playing the song. Ravana kidnaps Sita because his sister, Surpanakha, asks her to. His sister explains that she is so beautiful that her eyes, skin, breasts, and hands were like lotuses. Ravana becomes convinced and schemes of a way to kidnap Sita. After Ravana kidnaps Sita he tries to convince Sita to love him instead of Rama. However, Sita remains loyal to Rama. When Rama finally rescues Sita, he...

This  Google Site   is the link to my Portfolio website. (Picture of Michael Jackson Pinterest ) Comment Wall

In The Danger of a Single Story , Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recalls encounters in her life of the danger of a single story. Adichie recalls seeing only one side of the story when she met her houseboy’s family. Then later, her college roommate only saw one side of the story by pitying Adichie before even getting to know her. Adichie went to college in America and her roommate was surprised she spoke English well and listened to Mariah Carey. The overall message of this speech is to know both sides of the story. Making judgements before knowing the full story creates prejudice and sometimes discrimination. This speech may relate to my research for me to be open minded to the new information that I discover. Power relates to a “a single story” because that is what a story is dependent on. Whoever says the story has the power to change and pass it along to the people who listen to the story. In Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships , Jennifer Barnes t...

In  Ramayana  by Public Domain Editions, I have noticed beautiful sentences throughout the story.  A sentence that caught my eye was, "the earth and the sea were immediately convulsed, and darkness covered the heavens; lightning flashed and thunder bellowed aloud; the mountains began to break in pieces ". In this sentence the use of personification brings the scene to life.  Also the details helps with the visualization of the scene. For example,  "then the King of Ocean vanished amidst the waves and the heavens brightened again". I can clearly see that image in my head. In the future I will try and incorporate the use of personification and details to bring my story to life. There is also a common motif in this story. It is deceit. In Rama Attacks Ravana uses his powers to trick Sita. Ravana told Sita that Rama was dead. A rakshasi even brought a bow and a head that looked like Rama's. However, Sita figured out that it was one of Ravana's tricks when Rava...

In  Ramayana  by Public Domain Editions, I am focusing my notes on the story of Sampati and Jatayu. Jatayu and Sampati are brothers who are birds. In the previous chapters of Ramayana, Jatayu made an appearance. When Jatayu sees Ravana kidnap Sita, Jatayu attempts to rescue her. However after Jatayu's noble battle with Ravana, Jatayu laid wounded in defeat. Jatayu soon passed away after Rama found him. He let Rama know what direction Ravana took Sita.  The two bird brothers lived in the Himalayas. They would compete with each other by racing. However, one day Jatayu flew too high and the sun caused him to pass out. Sampati used his wings to protect his brother from the scorching sun. However, Sampati's wings burned and he was unable to fly. Sampati landed in Mount Vindhya where a Saint Nishakara looked at him with pity and passed by. However,  Saint Nishakara  came out to talk to Sampati. Sampati asked for death, but  Saint Nishakara  said that him b...

From  How Sleep Deprivation Decays the Mind and Body  by Seth Maxon I found that sleep deprivation can cause hypertension, diabetes, or bipolar disorder. I knew that sleep deprivation can cause crankiness and sometimes hallucinations. Although, I have never had that symptom. Sometimes sleep can cause death. Sleep affects the mind and the body. My sleep schedule is okay in the beginning of the year. However, as the semester progresses my sleep schedule gets worse. The late nights studying and the early class times end up kicking me in the butt. It gets so bad that I have difficulty staying awake in class. Like the article said, sleep deprivation can weaken your immune system. Last year my body was so weak from not getting enough rest that I had strep for three or fourth months. I took all the medicine I needed to take, but my doctor said I could not get better until I rest which was impossible when you are a biology pre-medicine major. I only got better when it was winter...

This tech tip was especially useful because it pertained to my other classes on canvas. I like how you are able to arrange your grades with different options. These options include, assignment group, due date, module, and title. For this class I think viewing the class by title is the best way for me to keep track of my grades. ( Picture of Puppy Gazing into the Computer  Flickr )

Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow?  interested me because I saw kids in the title. I want to work with children and have my own someday so I thought reading this article would be beneficial. Reading this article quickly reminded me of the many times I cried and threw a fit because I believed I could not accomplish something when I was younger. I also remember being praised with a generic praise when I accomplished a task. However, I wonder how my mindset would have changed if I was praised with a process praise and understood the power of "yet". It is not too late for me to grow, and I also want to shape the mindset of my next generation to grow. This article also talks about resilience. My parents came to America to get an education. My mom came when she was in college and my dad came when he was in high school. They came with barely any resources. My mom would tell me stories of her borrowing books and wishing she could write in them. She could ...

Ganesha is a god that is well known for his elephant head. His parents are Parvati and Shiva. Shiva is the god of war and Parvati is goddess of love and fertility. There are many different stories regarding the creation of Ganesha. One of the stories was that Ganesha got his elephant head when Shiva cut his head off. You might wonder why his own father would cut his head off. Well according to this creation story,  Ancient History , Parvati created Ganesha from the earth. This boy was to protect this mother while his father was gone. Due to his absence, Shiva did not know that he had another son so when he saw a boy in front of his wife’s bathroom who would not let him in, he sent demons to fight Ganesha. When that failed, Shiva went and cut the head off the boy himself. Parvati freaked out and had Shiva find Ganesha a head. The closest animal around was an elephant which is why Ganesha is always depicted with an elephant head. Another story of how Ganesha got his elephant...