Week 12: Reading Diary Pt. B

This is the story of eunuch! I didn’t realize that was a word really until I read a script of a classmate’s in another class last semester. I think he had the best script in the class, and I though a eunuch was so intriguing of a character, and it still is. I also love the story of Mankanaka. I’m a vegan, and I can only dream of bleeding green one day instead of red. Hahaha, just kidding. The next story of Rishyashringa makes me think of the upcoming Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple film titled Horns. By the way, can’t wait to see that film. I think it’s great that Hanuman is in this story as well as the Ramayana. It really ties them together and makes me able to visualize a world in which they both took place much easier. And then we end with another love story. This epic certainly has a lot!

Week 12: Reading Diary Pt. A

I don’t think I’ve ever gambled my siblings away. That’s definitely a new one. One thing I’ve noticed about this story is that a lot of characters have names starting with the same letters. I’m always reading and then there’s a wave of characters with names all starting with one letter and then once I’m sort of over that shock to my senses, another waves comes with a new letter. It’s really annoying, and kind of a terrible thing to do to your reader. I really love how Damayanti was still able to recognize Nala even though there were a bunch of Gods wearing his face. Their love story is really great. I’m enjoying the love stories in this Indian epic much more so than the Ramayana. And on top of it all, they tend to have happy endings! I’m a sucker for those.

Week 11: Reading Diary Pt. B

They're quite clever building that escape route out of the house fire-trap, but I'm little concerned that the story just glazes over the six corpses they leave in the Pandavas' places. Like, shouldn't everybody be wondering who these corpses are? I feel like you can't just randomly have six corpses, they need to have come from somewhere. I don't think the characters in this story realize how babies are supposed to be made. There's the woman with the 100 children made in jars after she gives birth to a mass. Then two cups of butter into a fire? This story is so odd. I still love Krishna. Although, I'm not sure how I feel about him being an avatar of Vishnu mainly because Rama was a butthole.

Week 11: Reading Diary Pt. A

I need to start praying to Saraswati. Maybe then I'll be able to write everything I want to write and have tons of inspiration to boot! I really love Ganesha. It's so easy to find gorgeous pictures of Ganesha online, and I just love reading about him. So the ocean used to be milk before the Gods churned it into salt. That's an interesting story. Quite the prologue to the Mahabharata this time around. Buck certainly likes to add and lot to the original epics. So sad that Bhishma put the blind one down and just made Pandu king. Rude. Gandhari is such a sweetheart! She shares in her husband's blindness? That's some true love, but shoot! Pregnant with 100 sons? That's irrational. Nobody should ever have that many children. Ever.

Week 10: Reading Diary Pt. B

I am a huge fan of Krishna. Ever since I took that Non-Western Dance Forms class I have been greatly intrigued by him. Other than that, I really adore these pages! So much action and trickery! It was awful what they did to draw out Drona, but I guess since it worked it's just one more price to pay. But Bhima drinking that guy's blood? That was a little far, am I right? It's okay to kill people, but when you start drinking blood things get awkward. Kind of a depressing ending, but it seems reasonable based on the acts that took place during the story. This one definitely wasn't a super love story (though I guess I wouldn't say the Ramayana was either). I'm not a fan of Indian Epic endings, that's for sure. First, in the Ramayana, Sita is banished and all that stupidity, then in this one everyone dies sadly. But one lives on to carry on the Pandava line! It's just annoying I guess, because I wish everyone had just died heroically in the battle or something. Though none of them felt particularly heroic, I just still would have liked to see them die in battle.

Week 9: Reading Diary Pt. B

I just love how the beginning of this warns about sharing Draupadi as a wife. That should be a clear no-no. I get that it's more of polygamy, but I just still think of it in an incest way (but only really in the story; Sister Wives is a different story). Ohhh, marrying a naga! That's exciting! And then the sister of Krishna. Go hard or go home for this guy. I'm a really big fan of Agni. He's an awesome fire god, and he just brings back fond memories of Avatar the Last Airbender (one of my fave shows ever). Poor Draupadi gets gambled away. No true epics of India story exists where the wife is still there, I guess. Live among women as a eunuch! That's a horrible curse! Poor Arjuna.

Week 9: Reading Diary Pt. A

Finally! A new story to read! I'm so excited (especially since my Non-Western Dance Forms class talked about this story a lot). I thought the story of the birth of the three children was really interesting and brought back a lot of memories of the Ramayana. I can tell that there are gonna be some intriguing similarities between the two great epics of India. And then there's the story about the deer who curses Pandu? So many similarities! Oh and the story of the child in the basket? Hmm? Which story does that remind me of (surprising not a Ramayana story, but still a well known one)? I heard so much about the Pandavas in my class (since the Mahabharata is about them) and it's fun to hear their origin story! Krishna! I know him too! I'm really excited for this story.

Week 7: Reading Diary Pt. B

I think the journey to Ayodhya was very nice. Kind of Aladdin-esque with a whole new world of sorts. I like that Rama wants Sita to know everything about what happened during their time apart. It really showcases his love for her in a way. There's just so much to the end of this variation. It seems almost like too much. I guess I would call it an epilogue, because it's just so much extra information about the characters after the story occurs. Oh my God, really Rama? Banish the love of your life because some rumors?

Week 7: Reading Diary Pt. A

I really love how epic Buck's variation is in comparison to Narayan's. I feel like there is always talks about epic poems like the Odyssey and the Illiad, and I feel like Buck's version of the Ramayana is the Indian version of that sort of epic. Narayan's version had the frame tale aspect going of the epic but I don't feel like it was an exciting and epic and Buck's. It's just a really interesting difference. In this reading I really thought the demon magicians Lightning Tongue and Thunder Tooth were awesome. And of course Hanuman was amazing. He's so trusting and loyal. It's no surprise that Vibhishana put so much

Week 6: Reading Diary Pt. A

I really like all of Hanuman's actions throughout this reading. He's a very active character and I enjoyed reading that. I really like that he basically tells Rama that he must kill Ravana. Hanuman is kind of like a mentor in a way. He is the one that gets Rama to do what must be done. There wasn't a lot of Rama in this reading and I think that's important because it gives the illusion that Rama sort of things his "army" can save Sita, when in the end it must be him. It's shaping up to be an epic and exciting finale.

Week 5: Reading Diary Pt. A

This version is so much more different and extravagant than the last one we read! I'm sure a lot of people mentioned this in last week's reading diaries, but since I didn't have the chance to do them I guess this one will be my first one for this author's rendition. But so far I really enjoy the added level of detail. I loved that the first author we read wrote theirs so colorfully I guess would be the word, but I feel like I can really delve into this author's writing. It's different and it's weird because it's kind of the same story, but I like the contrast. I preferred the last version of Rama and Sita, where Rama finds Sita on the road, but otherwise I really like this version. Although I feel as though there are more terms that are just thrown around in this one. I can definitely sees a sort of children's story vs scholarly story

Week 5: Reading Diary Pt. B

I really enjoyed the story of Hanuman. I don't know why but this version of his story was just so much more captivating and I really loved it. It's definitely the story that I'll be doing for my retelling. Jeez, Tara was overdramatic. I liked it though. It makes me torn on which story to retell. I just really loved that Tara impaled herself on the arrow that killed her love. So tragic, so grand! There so much drama and kidnapping and suicide in this version. It's all so morbid but epic in the same way. Overall, this version seems less overly about Rama's story. I know the first version was clearly a frame tale (they both are), but the first version still felt like it was completely Rama's story. In this version, it seems more like a bunch of different stories converging together into one final story. It's like one of those movies with a million interconnected characters who's stories don't truly connect to us until the end. It's an interesting difference between the two versions. Also, the picture's that got put on the reading guide were all really gorgeous. My favorites yet.

Week 3: Reading Diary Pt. B

Poor, poor Ravana being attacked by monkeys. I wish I knew why monkeys exactly. That's definitely something I'll have to look into online. But after everything, Ravana is still so narcissistic and egotistical that he refuses to accept that he can ever be defeated, cursed or not. Ravana is just so prideful for a 10-headed demon. This part of the story is very 300, you know? Rama builds his army up but it may never be as strong as Ravana's demon army. Ravana is really just an unstoppable force. He's got so much hubris that he literally cannot see him impending failure, and this makes him a brilliant antagonist. He is attacked by monkeys, and then uses monkeys to trick Sita into thinking Rama is dead. When this fails, he simply uses another method to try and trick Sita. He fails time and time again, and loses many of his army in the process, and still he keeps on going like the Energizer bunny or something. He's got perseverance, I'll tell you that. But in the end, Rama triumphs! He defeats Ravana and saves his one true love Sita. And then he tests her love. She was willing to leap into a fire for Rama. It sucks that she had to prove her love, but reasonable enough. I wish these people in stories didn't have to always prove their love, but I guess since Rama was able to defeat Ravana then Sita should be able to prove herself too. I guess in that way, that bit didn't annoy me too much at all.

Week 3: Reading Diary Pt. A

The moral of this reading: do not send someone else to do what you are supposed to do. Rama keeps sending all these people to save Sita when he should be the one doing all the work, not them. He needs to be her knight, not everybody else in the world. Ravana's curse has been mentioned and it's a great curse in case I haven't mentioned that yet. He cannot touch a non-consenting woman or else he'll die. Perfect. But that doesn't stop him. Oh no, he merely lifts up the earth around her feet. That demon and his loopholes! Will nothing stop him and his evil ways!? Well now that you mention it, there are the monkeys! Monkeys and humans will do Ravana in, and we have now met the monkeys of that statement. It's like the whole gang is finally together and we can finally set forth on the quest to save Sita and destroy Ravana!

Week 2: Reading Diary Pt. B

This section makes me love Bharata. Even though his little brother was supposed to be king, and his mother found dirtily for him to be king, he knew that only Rama could truly be a great king for the kingdom. It’s quite sad that the king had to go and die when two of his children left him. He had thee sons, and that makes me wonder what happened to that third son. Did he just accept everything? Or did he revolt and join Ravana? It’s an interesting story that could be delved into further for the storybook project. Like, what happened with the son? In this reading, I was just thinking of how much I love and hate the women in these stories. With Sita especially, there’s that star-crossed love aspect, but then with the other women in Rama story there’s nothing, and I think that’s important. So, so far I want a story about Ravana’s 10-headed demonic self, the lack of feminism in epic stories and more of Rama being a beast!

Week 2: Reading Diary Pt. A

I have really enjoyed the introduction of the characters so far. I always find it interesting the way reincarnation is just a huge deal in Indian stories. Their Gods and Goddesses are always being reborn and receiving new avatars. That’s the thing that really caught me about Rama and Sita. They are avatars and destined to be together because they have already been together for many, many years. I am also very intrigued to see Ravana come back. He seems like the worst sort of villain and I’m excited to see the final showdown between him and Rama. I mean, a 10-headed demon? It’s going to be exciting. The last thing that caught my eye about this tale is that the entire thing is a frame story; or rather there are a bunch of stories within the large encompassing story. I know I should have expected it, since this is an epic, but I was still happily surprised. So far in the story, there’s been a lot of set-up. There’s the set-up of the town, the set-up of the characters, and the set-up of the stories of characters that I assume will come into play later on in the story. It’s fun though. Oh, but everybody is a pushover, and Kaikeyi is terrible! I realize that Rama needs to leave the palace to get his life experience and to rid the world of evil, but that does not mean that Kaikeyi needed to be such a brat. I mean seriously, such a pushover. Then Rama just accepts his banishment without even consulting his father about it. It’s very obnoxious. Poor King.