Indian Epics

For this week, I chose to do the story lab  TEDEd Videos: Style . The Power of Creative Constraints by Brandon Rodriguez caught my eye. When I think of the word "constraints" I think about limitations and barriers. However, this video saw creative constraints as a way to guide decision making. It allows for iterative and innovative thinking. What "Orwellian" Really Means by Noah Tavlin was interesting to me because I have not heard of the word "Orwellian" so I did not know what it "really" meant either so I learned something new. Orwellian is used to mean authoritarian. Orwell was a writer who wrote a book called "1984" which talked about a fictional totalitarian government. When "Orwellian" began to mean authoritarian the meaning of the word was not conveying it, but undermining it. It is in a sense an abuse to the language. I thought that it was an interesting thought. (Picture of 1984 for Orwell's Novel   Pixabay )...

For this reading note, I am writing about  Granny's Blackie  by Ellen C. Babbitt. This story was a rich man who gave an elephant to a woman. This woman became known to be Granny and her elephant was known as Ganny's Blackie. Blackie would just eat, sleep, and play with the children. One day he wanted his Granny to go out to the woods with him, but she said she was busy with work. Therefore, Blackie decided to go out and find work to bring home some money for Granny. He found a job of moving wagons across the water. He was paid in silver for his work. When he came home, everyone was worried because he had not told anyone where he had gone. However, Granny was delighted when she found that Blackie went out and earned money for her. This was a really happy, feel-good story. If I were to retell this story I would make Blackie human because I saw many human characteristics in him. He was just a child which is why he just wanted to play, eat, and sleep. However, once he saw the resp...

For this reading note, I am writing about  The Merchant of Seri  by Ellen C. Babbitt. This story was about a poor family consisting of a little girl and her grandmother. Their family was once rich, but they lost it all. From the past riches, the grandmother still had a golden bowl. However, she did not know the value. There were two merchants who would go into town to sell their goods. One of the merchants was greedy. When the grandmother and the little girl approached the greedy merchant, they offered the golden bowl to him for exchange for anything, the merchant caught on that they did not know the value of the bowl. The merchant threw the bowl to the ground and said it was worthless. He did this because he was planning on getting the golden bowl for dirt cheap. Then, he left. Another merchant came, but this one was kind. When the grandma attempted to trade her golden bowl again, this merchant was more receptive. He told them the value of this bowl and offered everything he ...

Long ago, King Shantanu met Ganga, the river goddess. From this matrimony he was able to procure one living son, Deverat. Deverat's other siblings had been drowned by his mother. Because King Shantanu spoke out against Ganga for her infanticide, Ganga took Deverat and left. Then, many years later King Shantanu was able to be reunited with his long lost son, Deverat. After many years of being alone, King Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati, a fisherman's daughter. However, she refused to marry him. "You already have a baby momma and her son will be the next king so why should I marry you?" said Satyavati "I.." King Shantu was speechless. What could he say? Even though he was a king, being a single father scared many women off. King Shantanu turned back to his kingdom deeply saddened. Deverat noticed his father's sadness and approached him. "What's wrong dad?" "Nothing, son. I am fine." However, Deverat knew this was not n...

For this reading note I want to focus on the births of Pandu's and Dhirarashtra's sons. Pandu has two wives Kunti and Mardi. They all decided to dwell in the forest. However, because Pandu shot a hermit who was in the form of a deer, the hermit cast a curse on Pandu before he died. The hermit cursed Pandu that he would die when he would lay with a woman. It was fitting because Pandu shot the hermit when he was laying with another hermit who was also in the form of a deer. Kunti and Mardi had not had any children yet. Therefore, Pandu had no heirs to leave behind until Kunti revealed that she could called a god with a mantra and bear his children. One by one Kunti called the gods and had five children. Her first son, Yudhishthir, who was virtuous and patient was from Yama. The next son, Bheem, was strong and fast as the wind and he came from Vayudev, the Wind God. The last son from Kunti and Indra was Arjun. He was destined to be a great warrior. Madri did not have children ye...

For today's reading notes I would like to focus on Bhishma/Devarat. Devarat is the son of King Shantanu and Ganga. Kind Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati. However, she refused to marry him because her sons would not be the crown princes with Devarat being the first born son. To make his father happy, Devarat made a terrible oath that he would not take the throne or marry/have children so there would not be an opponent for the claim of the throne. The terrible oath that Devarat swore is how Devarat became known as Bhishma. Bhishma came to mentor his half brothers Chitrangad and Vichitiraveerya. Not once did he try to take their throne. Bhishma went as far as kidnapping Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika to be the wives of Vichitiraveerya. Amba asked to leave for she had eyes for another and Bhishma apologized to her and let her go. However, when she went to King Shalva he rejected her and told her to go marry Bhishma. Bhishma also refused Amba because he wanted to keep his oath. Vichitir...

So far, I am satisfied with my progress in this class. I have 238 points right now and an A for the beginning of week 8 is 205 points. Basically, I am a week ahead which is what I wanted. I wanted the extra points just in case something happened in the future. I am proud to be ahead in this class. I do the reading assignments and story on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday accordingly. I try and do the end of the week assignments on Friday. The ones I do not finish I do on Sunday because I work all day Saturday. The class assignment I enjoy the most is creating my own story or story lab. Even though I had little to no experience in blogging, I think I have gotten the hang of it. I have even customized the design of my blog! I can't think of any changes I want to make because my progress in this class is going well. I want to avoid in getting behind in class. I also want to avoid "late" assignments even though we have a grace period in this class. I want to try and make the ...

Overall, I feel that the feedback that I am receiving is improving. The feedback is more specific and useful. I like the comments that are WWW feedback strategy. The part where they ask questions is the most useful part to me. It makes me see that there may have been a gap in my story or I  just need to clear something up. These comments give me another prospective so that I can improve my story. I believe or I would like to believe that the feedback that I am giving out is useful. I try to implement the WWW feedback strategy every time I am leaving feedback on a classmate's story. I do get good ideas for my own writing when as I analyze other people's writings. For example, some people make it a really modern concept or switch animals to humans or vice versa. I believe these things make the stories more interesting. I do feel like I am getting to know my classmates better by reading their blogs. Their introduction post was the best way to get to know my classmates. I noti...

Overall, I think the reading and writing assignments are going well. They are take more time than I would like because I go back and reread things I did not quite understand. I feel like I have to take it slower to actually understand the story just because this is all new to me. The names of the characters get confusing. However, I have noticed that I have been getting better at reading the stories as I get to know Indian Epics better. For example, I remembered who Hanuman was from Ramayana when I was reading Mahabharata. I am happy with my blog. I feel like it is more aesthetically pleasing to look at now than before. Before it was really plain, but I added some flowers to make it look pretty. Also, I like the display of the images from the stories. One of my favorite pictures is this picture of Sita pregnant with Ravana's children. It gave me inspiration to write a story of Sita's revenge against Rama. This allowed to get really creative with my story. People who have commen...