Week 11 - Reading Diary B

Most of this section of the reading was a bit boring although i did enjoy two of fthe major fights that occurred. I loved how easily Bhima destroyed Vaka. He tore him apart with is bare hands. I fee like this is a great example of how truly strong the pandavas are especially the wind god's son. There is another example of how weirdly children are conceived with how Draupadi and her brother are born. I feel like no children are born through direct sexual intercourrse, but by way more weird measures. I liked that some of the focus on this section of the story was on Arjuna, my favorite character. I find him quite awesome and cool when he show his mastery of the bow to earn Draupadi's hand in marriage. He is quite the team player in letting his brothers marry her as well. The imagery for agni created a very scary image in my mind. The fight to ward off Indra seemed epic and I really have a fascination with architechture so getting to read about the Pandava's palace was nice.

Week 11 - Reading Diary A

Reading through the invocation was a bit boring. I didn't really care much for the background information. Although, it was great to read about one of my favortie gods: Ganesha. I also liked the story of how the ocean was formed. It was interesting to find out that Shiva gained his blue hue from drinking up all the poison from the churned ocean. I like how caring and sefless Bhishma is when he gives up his throne. This version of the epic has made me start to see the characters with different feelings. The story of how Satyavati was born was really weird.. Also the part where it says Vyasa cuts the flesh ball into 100 sons and one daughter was relatively weird as well. Dang, and third times the charm because the origin of Drona's name and how he came to be are also weird. Overall this version of the epic seems much more sexual however more descriptive and interesting in comparison to Narayana's version.

Week 10 Storytelling - Revenge Gone Wrong

This story is about a very rich man. As a boy he came from nothing. Left as an orphan with no family, he was taken in by inhabitants of the village and supported immensely. The village he hailed from was called Sisodra. It was a quaint, rural village in almost a remote area of India. Although this village did not have many quality things to offer, the quality and generosity of  the people was no less than marvelous.

As a boy, the rich man ventured off to the city and worked his way to riches. He always promised to come back to his village and give back to his community. The village he came from was small and impoverished. Along his travels, he planned and built many establishments to help the village. Soon he decided to return for one major project that would be truly beneficial for the small town of Sisodra.

He decided to build a large factory on the outskirts of the village in order to create job opportunities. The factory would be a state-of-the-art facility, like none that had ever been built before. The main product manufactured there would be textiles in order to create an equal opportunity of employment for both males and females. The factory would be complete in one year and in the meantime the man decided to live in the village for the time being as the factory began development.

The man had no sense self-entitlement. He came from nothing, and sympathy and empathy were both traits he could best be described as having. He also came from nothing, so he never felt as if he was better than anyone. He was one of the richest and most respected men in the land and yet decided to live in the small home he grew up in. Day in and day out people would come to him for help, and his generosity never wavered. He built introduced proper plumbing, more reliable electricity and many other facilities to make the lives of the villagers much easier. Many women would walk miles on end everyday to reach the nearest source of clean. He built a small water treatment plant in order to assuage this problem. Along with these many projects he also spent his days overseeing the factory and nights helping the people of his village.

There also was a young man, about ten years younger than the rich man. He too, came from the same orphanage and was raised by the village. As he grew older, he decided not to venture out, as the rich man had done, and instead came seeking help directly from him but was turned away. He was seeking a monetary investment in his business. He wanted to build a large shopping center near the town and have various vendors rent out the open units. However, the generous man saw no beneficial qualities to the village and saw that it would solely take advantage of the village's resources. He also felt that this would drive the villagers off the path that was so characteristic of Sisodra. Sisodra was a a special place because almost all the businesses there helped the community in some way. The young man would not hear the generous man's explanation and began to despise him. His spite manifested in him a drive to become successful in any way possible.

Both the young man, and rich man came from very similar backgrounds and yet the young man felt less love, and support from his village. He felt as if winning the hearts of his village would lead to his happiness and the main object in his path was the rich man,

The young man left his village and did whatever it took to become as rich as the generous man. He took advantage of many people, and conned people through lying about his intentions.  His motivation was his hatred for the generous man, and he dreamed one day of shaming him.

Years passed, and soon the young man came back to his home village to exact his revenge. By this time, the generous man's textile factory was doing quite well, and it provided a significant amount of job opportunities to inhabitants of the village.

The young man's plan was to build a factory. A factory very similar to the generous man's, however with more state-of-the-art technologies. It would be located right next to the generous man's factory. The young man hoped to take all of his employees and run the factory to the ground.

However, the building process was slow and encountered many delays. The young man grew impatient and put his entire savings into speeding up the process. His drive to spite the generous man over being rejected was quite ridiculous but the young man was blinded by rage and hatred.

Soon his factory would be opening and he began recruiting villagers to work in his factory. He talked to many families that were given jobs by the generous man and offered them lavish benefits. However, they could see through the young man's intentions and their loyalty and that of many other families still lay with the generous man for he had done so much for them already. This left the young man with no workers and an empty factory. The young man's plan to bring the generous man's amazing factory to the ground backfired and he was left bankrupt with no money. His factory remains vacant and never saw a plume of smoke exit its chimney.

Author's Note: This story is based off of Duryodhana's plan to make an extravagant camp next to the Pandavas to shame them. Duryodhana's plan, however, backfires when he ends up being saved by the Pandavas which is quite embarrassing for him. In my retelling of this story the generous man is the Pandavas, and the young man is Duryodhana. Similar to Narayan's story, the young man (Duryodhana) builds a factory (his camp) next to the already existing one (the Pandavas camp) in order to ruin the generous man (the Pandavas). However the plan backfires, just like in the epic. I decided to exclude a part where the generous man would save the young man's factory (similar to how the Pandavas save Duryodhana) because when I read the epic I really wished they had not saved them since he was such an evil person. Since this was my version of the story I got to let the young man receive what he rightfully deserved. This was a major reason why I chose this story. In order for me to be able to control the ending in the way that I thought was best fit. I think the Pandavas are much nicer than I would ever be and my track of thinking would be to simply let Duryodhana or in this case, the young man, learn his lesson.

The young man's empty factory and the generous man's factory

Bibliography :
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata

Week 10 - Reading Diary B

I feel that is rightful karma that Duryodhana died at the end of this story. Obviously for all the many bad things he had already done but also to be foolish enough to try and capture Krishna after he is trying to make one last peace effort. Duryodhana is truly a foolish character, his actions strike me as almost as absurd as Yudhishthira gambling away his life and his family's. I really wish I would have gotten better imagery of Krishna's divine form. For some reason, I'm extremely fascinated with the various transformations the characters in these epics undergo. Finally, the war begins and all the interesting battle scenes take place. Once again, I wish I could have a better image in my head of Krishna's cosmic form. All the various individual battles during the war were all a very fun read. Although, Arjuna's bouts are my favorite. I am really confused as to by Bhima mutilates and drinks Duhshasana's blood. No wonder why Bhima never made it to heaven. I really liked how Krishna justified their enemies' deaths through Karma to Yudhishthira. It made me feel better about all the deaths after reading about Yudhishthira being sad about it. I feel like all of these epics have such unfulfilling endings. I don't like the way that Krishna dies and that his people destroy each other. I wish that these epics had more happy endings!

Week 10 - Reading Diary A

Overall, I found this portion to be quite boing and more of a tease than anything. I feel like all the preparations for war are being way to drawn out and I'm just ready for the war to begin so I can read about some more amazing battles. The only thing that I gave a lot of thought to was Krishna letting the Pandavas choose between him and his one million person army. If I was a soldier in Krishna's army the last thing I would want to do is fight against my own leader. On a more funny note, I'm suprised that Yudhishtira was smart enough to actually answer the questions since he was dumb enough to gamble literally everything away. I think out of all the Pandavas that Arjuna is my favorite. I enjoyed reading about his 5 year journey to find weapons and prepare for battle.

Week 9 Storytelling - Beginner's Luck

There once was a man who loved to play by chance. Everything he did was decided by a mere coin flip. Decisions were simplified to two choice decisions. As a child he stumbled upon a deer with its leg stuck under a fallen tree. He managed to set the deer free and it ended up being Lakshmi in disguise and she granted him amazing luck. What once was a young innocent boy became a sly and calculative man. His blessing had changed him completely. A boy, who came from nothing, conned and swooned many out of their goods and soon became a powerful man in the underground. His reputation as a gambler became infamous across the land. He was the master of all games and could never ever reject an offer. Eventually he grew powerful enough to hold large gambling events in his mansion. They were massive upscale parties with bands and merriment. All the richest and best players came to take their shot at the man. At the man’s very last party, many came to challenge him. As the night drew on, it became a giant drunken frenzy and the musical entertainment became the center of all interest in the grand hall. One young gambler sang along with the band, he sang and danced until he became dizzy and fell to the floor. Everyone laughed; the man led the laughter and drew it on through the crowd for quite some time. The young gambler was enraged and vowed to seek his revenge on the haughty man. One day the young gambler challenged the man to a simple game. Of course, the man accepted, like any other challenge. The young gambler got the man quite drunk off of his favorite wines and decided to challenge him to a coin flip. The young gambler waged his eternal servitude and that of all his family for the man’s fortune. The man, although drunk, haughtily accepted the simple coin flip. The young gambler flipped the coin, and the man called tails. Like he had for the past twenty years. The young gambler revealed the coin and it indicate ‘heads’. The man was defeated. Lakshmi had blessed the man with amazing luck, but not perfect luck. The young gambler had simply used a same-side coin and just like that – the man had been undone.

Author's Note: This story is based off of Yudhishthira and Shakuni's gambling story. The young gambler is Shakuni and the man is Yudhishthira. Similar to Narayan's epic, the young gambler (Shakuni) is embarrassed by the man (Yudhishthira), and then seeks revenge on him by waging his servitude. 

A gambling event in the man's large mansion

Bibliography:

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.

Week 9 - Reading Diary B

From readings part A & B I have yet to find any positive feelings towards the Pandavas. Most of the things they have done so far are things I don't really like. Sharing Draupadi as a wife is weird to me, even though she prayed for it in a past life. I don't like that Yudihishthira is crowned, and he makes me like him even less when he gambles away literally everything like a giant moron. I don't understand how somebody could be allowed to gamble away other peoples' lives. Especially Draupadi and the brothers. Also it made me so sad when they were demeaning Draupadi. And then they are given a second chance by Dhritarashtra but Yudihishthira ruins that by having them all exiled for 13 years. My favorite part of the story so far is Arjuna's excursion to find weapons and be trained. I am curious to see how Arjuna's curse turns out to be a blessing.

Week 8 - Reading Diary

I really like that we are doing diary posts this semester. I heard before that there were quizzes over the readings, and I would not have liked that as much. I noticed that my diary posts vary in many aspects. Some were very long and others were quite short. Some get a little off-topic and others delve strongly into the subject matter. Overall, I wouldn’t say my work has been consistently the same, I think this had to do with a lot of things. It seems like I wrote more on sections of the story that I liked, rather than some I found a bit boring. I loved writing diary posts about sections of the book with a lot of battles. I liked looking back at my old diary posts, because through the diction I can kind of tell what kind of day I was having that day as well. Overall, I love the readings in this class because they hit so close to home. I’ve grown up hearing about all these stories and I’m glad I get the opportunity to critically think and use my creativity for Indian Epics. I remember a lot about the stories we have read. Some of the things are a bit blurry, because I found them boring. However, most of the readings I can remember, and going back and reading my diaries helps to fine tune and refresh my memory of the subtle details. My number one tip to others about reading diaries is simply, to just do them. They help you out in the long run and are very simple to do. Getting the chance to reread my old diaries gave me a few ideas for my Portfolio, which was an added bonus. I hope to keep learning a lot through the use of reading diaries, and cannot wait to read our next epic.