Brainstorming Topics

Which one? 

Topic One: From the first week of reading in the Jataka Anthology stories, I noticed a common theme where the Buddha or the Bodhisatta told stories of himself in a previous life as an animal. I already enjoy writing stories about animals, so after reading this, my first thought went to using this theme in my final project. The Buddha or the Bodhisatta could be the author of every story explaining his different lives as different animals found in India. I would need to do some research on the different animals that are mainly found in India and which are predators and prey. I would also need to do some research on Buddha or Bodhisatta's story. For example, I am not sure why he is given two different names in the stories I have already read.  

Topic Two: Another possible option for my final project would be to retell the Ramayana story but from the perspective of Sita. I watched the extra readings videos that explained the background information about the epic story. The video, Crash Course Mythology: Ramayana talked about how there are many heroes in the story of each having their unique battle to conquer. Sita, Rama wife, goes through being exiled with her husband, being kidnapped, and then having her husband not believe she was faithful while kidnapped. Sita prevails through everything. We are used to hearing stories of the men heroes and how they save the damsel in distress. I want to create a story about Sita and the bravery she has during the epic. 

Topic Three: Still looking for project ideas in the Ramayana story, Hanuman and Lakshmana seem to play a significant role in the epic. Without their help, it appears that Rama would not be able to rescue Sita or defeat Ravana. Since most stories put the sidekicks to the side, I would like to create an account that showcases the helpers of Rama, Hanuman, and Lakshmana. Both of these characters go and help Rama through the story almost like they are the Three Musketeers. I would need to research the different types of battles they go through or could rewrite so that they work together in conflicts like the three musketeer's each having a strength that they bring to the group. 

Topic Four: As I was looking through possible project topics I saw the idea of creating a final project over Love stories. Last semester my final project had a theme of love, but it was not just the love that a man and women have but the love a family has for each other. I could bookmark stories along with my readings that discussed love not only in couples but different types of love. I already know a possible love story is the one between Sita and Rama, but I would have to learn more through the weekly readings. I think it is important to emphasize that love can come in many different forms. I could find stories to showcase this message that there are different types of love.

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Image: Trying to pick a project topic. Source: Created image at imgflip

Feedback Thoughts

Learning from Feedback. 

Before I discuss the articles I read, I wanted to address what I learned from last semester in giving feedback thoughts to someone's project. I think the most worrisome thing about giving feedback comments to someone is that you do not want to hurt the writer's feelings. I always try to make sure the writer knows something positive about their writing that I enjoyed, and I think it is best to leave the positive comment at the end. That way the last thing the writer reads about in the comment is the positive and what you enjoyed their story. I also know that personally I was never offended when I was given a suggestion but annoyed when they said that everything was okay and they did not think I needed to change anything. It was not helpful for the next week when I had to do rewrites but had nothing to change or make more transparent. So even if any questions pop into your head while reading someone project it is best to let them know, they could use the information to help them later on.

The first article I read was, The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop by Ellen Jackson. Ms. Jackson talks about how as humans we are born comparing ourselves to others over everything we do; this is called social comparison. There are two ways that we social compare ourselves to other, upwards and downwards. In downwards social comparison, we compare ourselves to someone we know is doing less than ourselves to help us feel better. This is only a temporary fix, but we should focus on completing a small task to help boost ourselves as we learned about in The Psychology of Checklists: Why Setting Small Goals Motivates Us to Accomplish Bigger Things. In upward social comparison, we compare ourselves to people that are more successful than ourselves, but this could cause your spirit to deflate when you do not meet the standards of someone else. Trying to remind ourselves that when we compare our work to others to do it for motivation not to make ourselves feel better because they are doing "worse" than us.

The second article I read was, 8 Things to Do When You Make a Mistake. This article goes through eight ways to help a student feel more confident when navigating through college and trying to make it through to graduation. The first helpful advice realizes you are not alone in worrying about your experiences when you make a mistake or have trouble in class. The second is to know that many options on campus can help you get through whatever you are worried or stressed about. Third, you are going to have to adjust how you get your work done; college is something new, and it may not be easy but adjusting from what you are used to doing can be helpful in accomplishing your goal. Fourth, when you get something wrong figure out how to fix it, don't just leave it as wrong, learn from your mistakes. Fifth, find support from friends or family to help you accomplish your goals. Sixth, try to find a balance between work and play. It is essential to have some play time so that you are happy and can continue to put more effort into your work. Seventh, stay mindful. Figure out what method works best for you to accomplish your goal. And eighth, remember to be kind to yourself.

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Image: Giving feedback. Source: pixabay by geralt

Reading Notes: More Reading: Ramayana Intro Videos

Learning the Background. 

I am not very familiar with Indian culture, so I decided to watch the Ramayana Introductory Videos to learn about the story before we begin reading it next week. In the first video, Crash Course Mythology: Ramayana I was able to get an understanding of the significant characters that I will be reading about in the story and the video also gave me some general information about the plot line of the story. Figuring out the king's family and having a family map of how everyone is related will be helpful when reading the story. Here is what I have so far. The King, Dasaratha, has three wives, Kausalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra. Dasaratha and Kausalya have one child Rama that stands out and curiously is blue (I am still unsure of why he is blue.). Dasaratha and Kaikeyi have two children that are twins Satruchna and Lakshmana. It seems that Lakshmana is very loyal to his brother Rama and helps him throughout the story. I did not figure out what Satruchna does during the story. Dasaratha and Sumitra have one child, Bharata, who takes over the throne after his father dies and banishes Rama to the forest for fourteen years. Once I figured out the set-up of the family I learned about the villain Ravana who kidnaps Rama's wife Sita and tries to force her to marry him. Rama and Lakshmana with the help of a monkey king and an army go and rescue Sita by defeating Ravana's army.  The second film, Ramayana, and Diwali explained how the story of Ramayana is essential to the holiday of Diwali. Indian culture celebrates Diwali because it was the day that Rama and Sita were able to return home after being banished for fourteen years. When Rama and Sita returned home, the City was excited and celebrated their homecoming, so they still honor the hero's homecoming to this day with Diwali. In the final video, Ramayana Epic: Live I learned about how popular the story of Ramayana is to the rest of the world. The story of Ramayana has been told in many different forms through plays, puppets, comic books, and even TV shows it has been created to all different types of media. The video explains how it might just seem like a cultural or religious thing for Indian culture, but it has spread to more than that culture and is genuinely an epic that is still taught and read today by many different ethnic groups.

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Image: Ramayana monument at the garden in Prema Mandir. Source: Wikipedia by Saisumantha532

Week 2 Story: Taking the Time to Learn

Late one night ...

The deer Kharadiya had a son, and she named him Harina. Harina stayed by his mother's side for the first six months of his life, but he began to become curious about the world and would wander from his mother. Kharadiya knew that it was time her son to learn about deer ruses so that he could stay safe in the world.

Kharadiya went to find her brother to ask him to teach her son about deer ruses. Her brother was the Bodhisatta who was born a deer. He readily agreed to help his nephew and told him, "You must meet me tomorrow morning preciously at eight to begin learning."

The young deer agreed on and walked home with his mother. That night Harina fell asleep not excited to begin instructions the next day. Harina thought to himself, "Why should I get instruction on deer ruses, I have been wandering on my own and have been fine." Harina fell asleep that night with no plans of meeting Bodhisatta for instructions.

The next morning Bodhisatta waited and waited, but by eight thirty he decided his nephew deer did not care to learn and went on his way.

Harina slept in that morning. When Harina finally woke up, he wondered to himself if he should try to hurry and make it meet Bodhisatta. Harina knew it would make his mother happy if he went. But when he noticed it was already too late Harina decided to go off on his own.

While wandering through the forest alone, Harina became caught in a hunter's snare. Terrified the little deer struggled to free himself. He began to grow fearful that he would die within the hour if he could not get free. Finally, all out of strength, Harina started to cry and tearfully said, "I should have gone to my instructions, now I am surely dead."

During this time the Bodhisatta had also gone wandering through the forest to see if he could find his nephew. The Bodhisatta watched as Harina foolishly walked into the hunter's snare and then how he kept moving around making the snare tighter. After hearing Harina final cry Bodhisatta came out and asked him, "If I help you get free will you come to instruction and learn about deer ruses?"

Harina slowly stood up and replied, "Forgive me Bodhisatta I was foolish to think I did not need to learn deer ruses from you. If you help me get free, I will listen and learn everything you teach me."

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Author's Notes: This story comes from The Jataka Volume I  by Robert Chalmers in the tale The Self-Willed Deer. In the original tale, the Bodhisatta is a deer and is asked by his sister Kharadiya to teach his nephew deer about the ruses of a deer. The nephew deer does not meet up with Bodhisatta the first day or the next seven, so the young deer gets caught in a snare. In my story instead of having the deer die in the snare, I decided to have Bodhisatta give him a second chance. The Bodhisatta can use the nephew deer getting stuck in the snare as a way to get him to understand the importance of learning from others. I also gave the nephew deer a name in my story. The name Harina was found online as a Hindu name that means deer.

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Image: Mother and baby deer. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Anoushka Trivedi

Reading Notes: Reading B: Jatakas Anthology

In Another Life. 

For this first week's reading, I was happy to get to read the Jataka Anthology stories. A common theme in most of the stories was Buddha or the Bodhisatta talking about a lesson that was learned from one of his previous lives when he was an animal. It seems that the Buddha could have been any animal in a previous life, but the most common animal used in the stories is a monkey. In the tales of The Crocodile in the River and The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses, both of the monkeys are Buddha in a past life. The monkeys are very intelligent and always outwit the "bad guy". I could keep along with this theme of using the Buddha monkey as the main character but in a new story. The Buddha monkey will be able to outwit another animal in the predator family like a lion. I will need to look up the predators of a monkey to try and keep the story true to Indian culture. Another possibility for a story is changing the animal; there are stories where Buddha is not a monkey. In the story, The Self-Willed Deer, Buddha is a deer in his previous life. The story is explained by Buddha about how his nephew deer would not learn the rules of being a deer and therefore gets trapped in a snare and dies. The story is told from the perspective of the Buddha deer, but the young nephew deer's side of the story is not explained. I could create a story that is told from the point of view of the nephew deer who is more concerned about playing with other young deer or finding the best food then attending his lesson. The final story in the reading was called Goblin City. This story was completely different than the other tales but had some good information about Indian fairytales. I learned about she-goblins and that they have magical powers but are terrified of water. I also learned that Indian culture had created a Pegasus, "flying horse" creature to help rescue the sailors from the she-goblins. This could help information could help with possible rewrites on stories, where I bring in a Pegasus to help save someone.

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Image: Monkey in India. Source: Pexels by Pritha Ganguly

Reading Notes: Reading A: Indian Epics Reading Options

What to Read? 

Since I took the Mythology and Folklore course last semester, I was surprised to find that the weekly readings are in a different format. Instead of reading some mainly small stories, we will be reading two longer books, Ramayana and Mahabharata. I am curious to learn if these two Epics are similar to the Iliad and Odyssey Epics we read in high school. I learned from Mythology and Folklore that a lot of stories are similar to ones you have already heard. To get the books my first choice is going to be to check with the OU bookstore so that I can purchase a used copy of the books, however, if they are not available, I will download the Kindle versions. I think it will be easier for me to read if the story is rewritten by one author in the same style instead of multiple authors with different styles. I am excited that some of the reading options for this course are videos. This was not an option available in the Mythology and Folklore class; I am curious on how I will rewrite a story based off of a video? Something new! I also think I am going to have to do some research on the different types of gods in Hinduism since most of the readings seem to revolve around them. I browsed through the various readings we could choose later on in the course and naturally the first one that caught my eye was, The Panchatantra. The reading seems to be full of many different animal stories. I love stories with animals in it and would like to make this course's final project animals themed too. Another reading that caught my eye was Krishna and Shishupala: He was Forgiven a Hundred Times. In the different final project, I read through I noticed these two names came up a lot and would like to learn more about their rivalry. The last reading that caught my attention was Amar Chitra Katha Comic Books, and this is another new type of reading material for me. I was not a comic book kid when I was younger, but I want to see what the craze is all about. The picture on the front of the comic book Kumbhakarna: The Sleeping Giant seemed funny and would have a good story inside.

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Image: Many books! Source: Pixabay by EliFrancis