Week 15: Tech Tip

i chose to search a picture on google images which I did not know you could do. I searched the golden temple in India. It is also called the Harmandir Sahib.

The Golden Temple

Week 15: Writing Suggestions

I liked the storytelling part of this class the best because I was able to make it my own and tell the story as I wanted. I chose the Portfolio option and I am really glad I did. It was really helpful because I did not have to spend nearly as much as time I would need on a storybook. For future students I would emphasize the amount of creativity and time needed for both types.  The comments that told me how the story was good because I added a certain thing helped the most because I would make sure and add that to my next story. This class definitely helped my writing and also my grammar. In the future I see myself writing technical papers required for engineering. For writing portion of this class, I would say give yourself time to write the critique comments because those are really hard to come up with.

Week 15: Reading Suggestions

What I liked best about the readings for this class was that it taught me a lot of new things that I did not know about my religion. I also liked the fact that we had two different versions of each story so we can see how stories differ as they get passed down. I did not find any new reading diary suggestions for the second half of the semester. I stuck to writing a concise summary after I was done reading. The overall balance was good except I would have liked the commenting to be left at one per person because I would run out things to say. I do not think you should offer a reading extra credit assignment because there already is a lot of extra credit. The only advice I have for future students is to do the storybook projects on time, they catch up to you in the long run. I also like the new set up for Indian epics where we get to choose readings from the myth-folklore class. It would give a wider knowledge base about Indian stories rather than just two things. 

Week 14, Tech Tip: Google Language

I randomly chose to do the hacker Google Homepage.

Savitri's One True Love

There once lived a beautiful princess named Savitri, and the time had come for this princess to get married. Many princes from huge kingdoms and small kingdoms came to see her and take her hand in marriage but she refused all of them.  Savitri thought "All of them are so stuck up! And none of them have ever earned anything in their life." One day she had had enough of waiting for the perfect prince to walk in to her palace, so she decided to take things into her hands. She decided to leave the palace and find a man, any man who was self-made and respectable.

On her journey to find her perfect husband she saw a lot of men, but none fit her criteria until she ran into this one simple man in the forest. This man had grown up by himself and had built a living all by himself and everyone in the village loved him because he was really nice and caring. At first sight she couldn’t help but fall for him, even though the village seemed to avoid him. The entire village thought that this man was cursed and was a bad omen because of his shortened life from an astrologer's reading, and so they all treated him like he did not exist. She approached him without caring what others thought, believing in what she saw, and asked to marry him but the man refused. She asked why and the man told her that he only had a year to live. Savitri’s face dropped but she didn’t give up. She told him she would like to spend every last day with him and cherish it for the rest of her life. The man was shocked, thinking no girl would ever fall for him because no one in the village paid any attention to him, and he said yes in excitement.

The moment had finally come and it was time for her husband to go with the God of Death, Yama. Savitri with a heavy heart tried to convince Yama with all her might to let him stay. She even offered herself instead. But Yama said no. She had nothing left to do but follow her husband with Yama, so she asked Yama if she could move on to the next life with her husband. Yama was confused to why anyone would want to walk to her own death and asked why. She responded telling Yama about how it was hard to find such a good husband and when she did she loved him more than she loved herself. Yama was pleased to see that true love like this still existed, and to also find that their relationship was so strong. Yama decided to offer Savitri a gift. Savitri’s eyes grew out of excitement and she asked for her husband’s life. Yama could not just give up a life that easily, so he gave her a deal. The deal was that she split her days on earth in half and give them to her husband. Savitri without any hesitation accepted this deal and lived a full life’s happiness in half the time.

Savitri begging for her husband's life.

Author’s Note:

I chose to retell the story that Krishna and Vyasa told Draupadi and the Pandav brothers when they went to visit them in the forest. I was inspired to write this particular story because I was impressed to read about such a love story. I do not see that kind of dedication to their significant other. I see it in my parents and my family, but outside of that I do not see it. The story was not a complete copy of the original story. Some things were taken out so I could fit in the four hundred word limit. In the original story the man she met was actually a prince. He was the son of an old blind king. Also when Yama gave Savitri this deal, Savitri somehow managed to get a couple of other wishes in before she got her husband back. Her first wish was to cure the king’s blindness, the second was to restore the king’s kingdom, and the third was for her father to have a hundred sons. And then Yama finally gave up and offered the deal mentioned in my story. This story was important to Mahabharata because it was told to show how Savitri and Draupadi are alike in their devotion to their husbands.

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.  

Week 14, Storytelling: Duryodhana's End

Duryodhana realized on the battlefield that he had lost and now was scared for his life. He had nowhere to run except into the forest and hide there until things blew over and everyone was over the war. Duryodhana runs as fast as he could into the woods making sure that no one would see him. In the middle of the forest there was a lake. He decides to jump in to the bottom and use his power to create an illusion of a solid lake so that if someone did find him they would not try and get to him.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, Arjun is looking for Duryodhana as he was the last one to be taken care off. The rest of the generals and relatives of Duryodhana had fallen in war bravely. Krishna, Arjun’s charioteer, then tells Arjun that Duryodhana has hid in the lake in the middle of the forest. Hearing this the Pandavs make their way into the forest along with their army. Once they get to the lake that Duryodhana was hiding under, they all wonder who will take the honors to finish him off. Yudishthira then orders Bhīma to take the first try.

Bhima steps on to the lake and using his mighty strength breaks the illusion of the solid lake. He then fishes his arm into the lake and pulls out Duryodhana who is now trembling with fear. Bhima and Duryodhana fight for a while till the others get impatient and yell out to just finish him. And as Bhima had promised earlier, he smashes Duryodhana’s thighs. Duryodhana lay there on the shore of the lake all beaten up and unable to move. The army looked at each other and were cheering with happiness thinking that the war was now over.

Krishna stepped off the chariot which fell apart instantly because it had been broken a few days into the war. Krishna had managed to hold the chariot together in the battle with his powers of illusion. Krishna explained that although the major part of the war was over there were still a few more strikes left to take care off. And so the Pandavs decide to set up camp, and instead of camping up in a tent they decide to camp outside and keep guard along with Krishna. As they patiently waited for the next move the sun went down and the sky turned dark.

The Solid Lake

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.  

Author's Note:
I decided to retell where they find Duryodhana and Bhima smashes his thighs as he had promised. i did not retell it exactly, I retold it in my owns words. I retold it by the images I imagined it as using whatever I could remember about it and filling in the gaps as I went. 

Week 14, Reading Diary B: The End

Yudishthira has post-traumatic stress and is sad thinking that people died because of him. He dreams about his wife and brothers on a journey and they all die. He is offered to go heaven but he has to abandon the dog which he doesn’t. Yudishthira goes back and tells everyone that the war is over. Uttara gives birth to a dead son. Yudishthira throws a festival with food and stuff for everyone. He meets a mongoose with half gold coat, he wants full golden coat. Yudishthira listens to the mongoose and gives him gifts and things too. Dhritarashtra decides to go meditate in the forest. Arjun’s weapons are burned in Indraprastha by Agni.