Storybook Topic Research

What I've Been Looking For. 

Two of my brainstorming topics for my final project focused on the book, The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan which is why I would like to focus/change my final project idea to The Ramayana Told Your Way. When we are finally introduced to Ravana and Soorpanaka in the second part of the reading, I began to see a vision for a recreation of The Ramayana. The characters in The Ramayana reminded me of the main characters from the famous Disney Channel Movie, High School Musical. In High School Musical you have the protagonist Troy Bolten who falls in love for the beautiful Gabriella with the antagonist, the siblings Sharpay and Ryan.  Sharpay seems to be the mastermind of the entire plan and has a crush on Troy throughout the whole movie. Recreating The Ramayana into a High School Musical, Indian culture style could be the theme for my final project.

For the first story Rama could be the "king" of his high school, Koshala High. When one day a new girl arrives at the school, Sita. Rama is smitten by her beauty and must get to know her. This story would be like when they first saw each other and fell in love. The second story could be an introduction to the evil siblings Ravana and Soorpanaka. Soorpanaka has always been in love with Rama but he seemed too busy with his studies to have time to date, that was until this new girl showed up. Soorpanaka is angry and wants Rama for herself all she has to do is convince her brother to help get the new girl Sita out of the way. This story would brief introduce Ravana but mainly we would learn about how Soorpanaka loves Rama and wants to get rid of Sita. The third story will be about Rama with his two best friends Lakshmana and Hanuman discussing if this new girl is worth all of the trouble. The bully of the school Ravana seems to like Sita too, so is it worth the trouble of being on his hit list just to be with some "pretty girl." Rama will, of course, talk about how she is much more than beauty and would do anything to make Sita his girlfriend. This would be similar to when Hunuman wants to help Rama get Sita back and Lakshmana is always trying to help Rama.

******

Image: Four main character from High School Musical. Source: flickr by holidaytoys

Feedback Strategies

Focus on Feedforward 

For this week's feedback thoughts, we are supposed to learn and discuss the ideas of giving praise or non-praise in feedback comments. Before I even picked out what articles I wanted to read I know that my personal thoughts are that it is better to give some praise when providing feedback. I think making sure the reader knows that the effort they extended to complete a project should be noted and praised then constructive criticism can be given.

The first article I read was Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback by Marshall Goldsmith. What I enjoyed about in this article was that feedforward is about helping with the future. Instead of criticizing what someone did wrong in the past, which causes most people to become defensive, feedforward gives ideas for what someone can do in the future. Feedforward helps the person grow and learn so that they can change something the action for the future. Feedforward is about finding the positive actions that can help someone succeed in the future. This seems like a better way to receive feedback or feedforward.

The second article I read was Be A Mirror: Give Readers Feedback that Fosters a Growth Mindset by Gravity Goldberg. The author describes how to be a mirror when giving feedback by reflecting back without judgment. A mirror must be specific, focus on what is there, focus on the process and work, transfer it and lastly take yourself out of the feedback. The last part of the advice, removing yourself out of the feedback, I am very guilty of doing. Instead, the article says I should focus on the reader, not myself when giving feedback. I want to work on when I write comments to others not using pronouns for myself, but focusing my comments towards the person I am commenting on.

******

Image: Kitten with a mirrored image of himself. Source: flickr by TD Labs

Week 3 Story: Four Little Princes

Before the Epic Began. 

King Dasaratha felt so lucky to have his four sons if it would not have been for the Sage Rishya Sringa, he might have died never having any children. Since Dasartha was an older father, he enjoyed watching the boys play and interact together while they were little from afar.

Rama was the eldest and usually made the decisions but never felt he had power over the others and the other brothers had a respect for him. Bharatha was the second and very honorable, but his mother always kept a close eye on him. And last, were the twins Lakshmana and Sathrugna, even though they were twins that were entirely different from each other. Lakshmana enjoyed playing with Rama the most, and you would almost think that they had been born the twins. Sathrugna on the other hand, preferred his studies and did not enjoy the company of others and would go off on his own to meditate. Dasaratha had a feeling that these traits would play a hand in each of the boys' future. On one particular day, the boys had all finished their lessons for the day and went outside to play together.

Lakshmana looked like he wanted to shoot his bow around but first asked Rama what he wanted to play. "Rama what should we play today?" Asked Lakshmana.

Rama looked around then already knowing that Lakshmana preferred to play with the bows replied, "I am happy to play whatever game we all decide on, but I think I would like to play a shooting game with the bows?"

Lakshmana laughed, Rama always knew what he was thinking. "Okay but only if you want to too? Are you two going to play?" Lakshmana asked his two other brothers.

Bharatha readily agreed, but Sathrugna declined and went to sit under a tree to watch. "Yes, it will be fun to practice our shooting, count me in," Bharatha told Rama and Lakshmana.

The three brothers began to shoot their arrows towards the targets. Rama had the best shot, but Lakshmana came in a very close second. After playing around for a while, Bharatha mother Kaikeyi came to call Bharatha away. Even though he did not want to go Bharatha went away with his mother because he knew it was the right thing to do.

Once Bharatha left Rama and Lakshmana were left to play together just the two of them. It seemed that this pattern, of only the two bothers getting to play together, played out for most of their lives with the Rama and Lakshmana becoming closer as they got older.

******

Author’s Note: This story is based off of the story The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan. In the story of The Ramayana we learn about King Dasaratha who has four sons. The book only briefly describes the four sons as children and then skips ahead to when Rama and Lakshmana leave with Viswamithra to help protect him against rakshasa. I decide to write a story that gives a little more information about the childhood of the boys. I wanted to show that Rama and Lakshmana became close when they were little and then how Bharatha wanted to play with them too but his mother always seemed to pull him away. This is parallel to how the boys are when they grow up and how Bharatha mother makes him look like the bad guy even though he wants Rama to be King not himself. I decided to have Sathrugna not participate because in the book it seems like he does not want to get involved with anything and is just a quiet bystander that is barely mentioned. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback!

******

Image: Four brothers playing around. Source: pixabay by blueMix

Reading Notes: Reading B: The Ramayana p. 53-89

Get your head in the game. 

I continued reading The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan pages 54-89. In the Reading A assignment, I had thought about creating a story about the four brothers as they were growing up. And from the information I had gathered, I thought Bharata was an evil brother that wanted to make himself the king and get rid of Rama. I was happily surprised to learn that he was not happy with what his mother had done and did not want to take the throne instead tried to convince Rama to come back and assume the throne (p.60).  I also learned more about Lakshmana character in this section of reading. First, we found out in the reading that when Lakshmana finds out that Rama was banished, he becomes outraged and is ready to kill anyone who tries to get rid of Rama. Lakshmana seems to have a little bit of a hot head and can get worked up fast, but Rama has a calming effect on him. Later, however, it is Lakshmana who knows that the golden deer is a trick and is the voice reason for Rama and tries to be the level headed one (p. 82). I still really enjoy reading about Sita character and how well she and Rama fit together. While it leads to disaster Rama wants to please Sita and just make her smile by getting the golden deer for her to keep as a pet (p. 83). They genuinely love each other and I am sure would have many charming love stories together. When Ravana comes into the story, I pictured him as a high school bully who thought he should have everything, even if it had already belonged to someone else. The Ramayana characters could be used, in high school form, in my final project where The Ramayana is turned into a high school musical type feud. Rama and Sita would be like Troy and Gabriella, and Ravana and Soorpanaka could be the siblings Sharpay and Ryan.

******

Image: High School Musical. Source: Wikipedia 

Reading Notes: Reading A: The Ramayana p. 1-53

Love is in the air. 

I ended up choosing the book option of The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan and reading part A pages 1-53. I liked that in the book before the actual story begins there is a "List of Characters" section. It helps keep the different characters in order since some of the names are similar. The start of the story we learn how Dasaratha was able to conceive his boys and why Vishnu reincarnate into to Rama so that he can defeat Ravana. The book briefly discusses the four brothers as they grow up in the palace, but we do not get very much information about the boys when they are younger (p. 6). I think a story could be created that discussed the four brothers growing up in the palace and how they acted as children. We know that Rama and Lakshmana are very close but did something happen when they were young that made these boys become such close friends. As the book progresses, we follow Rama, Lakshmana, and Viswamithra as they travel learning about different demons and Rama then defeating them. Another possible rewrite is that each of these stories; Thataka (p. 11), Mahabali (p. 13), Ganga (p. 16), and Ahalya (p. 19), are not given complete stories. They are small synopsis that could have more detail. The main story that I would love to rewrite and possibly add to my final project was when Sita and Rama first see each other (p. 23). This seems to be the first "love at first sight" story ever told. I would love to recreate the tale to where the characters are more modern. Sita and Rama could still experience there "love at first sight" but at a mall. While Sita is hanging out with friends in an upstairs food court, Rama is with brother Lakshmana as they follow their new employer Viswamithra teaching them the ends and outs of mall security. Each of them would go home that night and journal about the most beautiful person they had laid eyes on that day, unable to sleep.

******

Image: Sita and Rama sitting together. Source: flickr by Infinite Eyes