Epics of India - MLLL 4993-996

The Last Wish Source We've all been there haven't we? Stuck in-between breaking a sacred oath or the complete destruction of the planet... Just me?...Oh... I take it that you would like to here my story then. Life as a genie isn't always as easy as it sounds. Being an all powerful magical being seems fun. Three wishes and that's it, easy enough, right? Wrong! Sure, you get your occasional person who, feeling bad for all the things they have done, wishes to give back, and to help others. It is people like this that I live to serve. However, this is rarely the case. It is surprising, the amount of cruelty, spite, and rage that exists between Humans. Anyone and everyone always has someone they hate. Today’s case was far different from the rest. Years back, I had served a man with the largest of grudges. For he held in his heart an amount of a...

Bharata Returns  1 With Bharata on course to be the new king with work of Kaikeyi. It was entirely possible for him to do so and there would not have been a rejection from anyone as Dasharatha was bound by his boons, thus so was Bharata. However, Bharata was reluctant to become the raj. He felt betrayed by his own mother and was distraught at the loss of his father and brother. He vowed that "he would never sit on the throne, but would hasten after Rama to entreat him to return" (it doesn't work). The Sandals  2 After failing to get Rama to return a become the raj Bharata offered to Rama a pair of fancy sandals. Rama, also, rejected these returning them to Bharata. This results in an interesting aspect to form in Bharata rule over Ayodhya. These sandals will now serve as a stand-in for Rama as the figurative authority in Ayodhya. Sandals...ruling a city... Battle with Khara  3 One note asp...

Rama Wins Sita 1 This story to me showed many similarities to King Arthur and Excalibur. With Rama needing to do an previously impossible task that no man had done before, in exchange for a gift of extraordinary worth. In this case Rama wins Sita in the contest of power, while Arthur won the rite to be king. It would be fun to intermix these two stories into one that still retains the original themes of both. Dasharatha's Karma 2 "Hasten to my sire and inform him of my fate lest his curse should consume thee as a fire consumes a withered tree." This line was foreshadowing of how both the mother and the father of the young boy would jump into his funeral pyre with him as how a 'fire consumes a withered tree'. Dasharatha's Sons 3 I found this story interesting because of the horse sacrifice and the detail that went into...

Feedback and Me Article 1 - Eight things students should do when they make a mistake Here are two points from this article that I found the most important. "If you get something wrong, figure out how to fix it" For me this is a very important part of taking criticism. It is not just enough to know what is wrong with a person's work. They have to take actions to identify the sources of those problem and create a plan to prevent the same errors from occurring again. "Balance is Key" Finding a good balance between work and home life is a difficult task for most people. Personally, I find myself switching around between either too much focus on relaxation, or not enough. It is a very fine line to determine where and when is too much, but it is still important to enjoy life along to the way. Above is the goal, but it is often hard to obtain. Source . Article 2 - Overcoming The Fea...

Possible Topics for Project Rama - Topic 1 From Wikipedia Rama is a major deity of Hinduism. He is the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, and is sometimes considered the Supreme Being. He married Sita. Despite being royalty he was faced with many challenges such as being exiled and the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana. Possible topics are duties, rights, and social responsibilities of an individual. 1 From Projects Tales of Rama 2 - "They all somehow have a connection to this Rama guy and each one of their stories is different. I think the stories are helping them get along here. In all the rough times these stories seem to bring some sense of unity to the group." This quote seems to embody the ideas that have been mentions about the Indian story-telling traditions. I found it neat that each story had a different theme and each were applicable to those stranded on the...

The Timid, Foolish Student Once upon a time, a student was visiting a college. While he was there he thought, "What if I have to go to college! What then would become of me if I couldn’t succeed?" Later that day the college recruiters came to talk to him. Hearing them talk, the student said to himself, "I must go to college!" And he focused and studied as much as he could, without even looking back to see other possibilities. Another student saw him studying, and asked him, "What are you studying so much for?" "Don't ask me!" he cried. But the other student ran after him, begging to know what was the matter. Then the first student said, "Don't you know? We have to go to college, it is the only way!" And on he  studied , and the second student studied with him. The next student they met also studied hard with them when he heard that college was to only way to succeed. One student after another joined them, until there were hund...

Definitions Buddhism - Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Jataka Tales - a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. "The Jātakas are a textual division of the Pāli Canon" 1 "The word 'jataka' means 'birth,' so the Jataka Tales are actually stories of the Buddha's previous births, and in the traditional version, each Jataka has a little poem that conveys the moral of the story, as you will see here." 2 Full Reading List The reading list for this assignment can be found here . Possibilities for the Story The Foolish, Timid Rabbit (Babbitt). I found this one to be the one with the most relatable story (I will describe this more in my story-telling post). The story itself was ...