Indian Epics Fall 2019

Today, people feel the need to constantly be giving feedback to one another. While this can often be a good thing, it can also be a negative thing. Good feedback would be constructive criticism, while bad feedback is just criticism. As a college student, I receive and give both forms of feedback. For me, I like constructive criticism. It may not make me feel good right away, but I generally take it well and try to improve. The thing I do not like, which is what I receive more than than good feedback is straight up criticism. This criticism is mostly about material things like the clothes we wear to the things we say. I cannot put full blame on everyone else though, because I even criticize people even when I am not meaning to. It is something we all need to be more aware of because criticism hurts.  One of the articles that I read was titled " Why Rejection Hurts so Much ," which talked about how the feelings behind rejection are mostly caused by ourselves. Personally, I h...

Topic 1: Ganesha As my last few blog posts have referenced, I am quite interested in Ganesha and the stories behind him. The main reason behind my interest is all of the questions I still have about him. Why does he have an elephants head is the most glaring one, but also what are his origins? According to Wikipedia , his origin story has been told in many different ways. This would be beneficial in telling my own story because there is not a set narrative for Ganesha, making it easier for my mind to come up with something original. Topic 2: Reincarnation As a child who grew up in a religious family, reincarnation has always been a taboo during conversations. As I have gotten older I have become more open to other religions around me and accepted that questioning is normal. While I still consider myself religious, looking at the aspect of reincarnation is something I have not been able to go in depth about. A story idea that came to mind when thinking about reincarnation is rathe...

In a lake far from the lake where the Crab now lived, was the brother of the Crane that was killed. In this lake, the Brother Crane chose not to eat the fish, but rather the fruit from the nearby trees. One day, Brother Crane started to miss his sibling who he had not seen in a long time, so he decided to pay Crane a visit. The flight was long, but there was plenty of fruit on the trees for him to eat. After 9 days of flying, Brother Crane finally arrived. He called out to his brother, "Crane! It is I. For I have flown many nights to see you. Why do you hide from me?" There was no response. Again, Brother Crane called out, "Brother, where are you?" No response. Meanwhile, Crab was resting in a shallow area of the lake when he heard shouting. He was angered by the noise and decided to investigate. When he came to the surface of the lake, he searched the trees for the voice until he spotted Brother Crane. Crab was frightened, for Brother Crane looked exactly like hi...

Out of all the stories that I read, there were three that were all very common in how they were told, they characters within them, and the overall theme. These were " The Cunning Crane and the Crab " by W.H.D. Rouse, " The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart " by Marie L. Shedlock, and " The Crocodile in the River " by Robert Chalmers. (Crane deceiving fish. Source: Jatakas ) The latter two included the exact same characters: a hungry female crocodile, a loyal male crocodile, and a cunning monkey. The crocodiles were not dumb however, for they had a smart plan of themselves to try and trick the monkey, but the monkey just happened to be smarter. This was also the case in the story about the crane and the crab. The crane was extremely smart himself by tricking the fish into thinking that he was kind; however, the crab was able to outsmart even the crane. For each of these three stories, the "villain" (i.e crocodile and crane) was driven ...

I will be reading the novel version of the Ramayana by Narayan. I have always loved novels and find it to be the easiest for me to read. Reading off of a computer screen is difficult for me at times and I never get as immersed as I do when I have a book in my hand. When it comes to comic books and videos, there were a few that caught my eye. The first being Elephanta: The Island of Shiva . Shiva is one of the few Indian gods/goddesses that I have heard of, so I want to learn more because the only thing I know right now is the name. There was not a description of this particular comic book, but the other two about Shiva did not peak my interest. The next comic book that interested me was  Nachiketa: A Collection Of Stories From The Upanishads   because it had variety of stories in it, with the last one getting my attention the most. Seeing a story where all three beings of different power were miserable with their lives relates to the real world a lot, which I enjoyed. The ...