Week 1: Introduction

     Hi, my name is Soham Patel and I am a mechanical engineering major. I have been at the University of Oklahoma for the past two and a half years. And before OU, I spent my first semester at the University of Kansas. I originally started out as a biochemistry with pre-medicine major, but realized that biochemistry is really boring so then I changed to chemical engineer. Chemical engineering was somewhat okay but nothing interested me more than machines, and finally ended at mechanical engineering and it’s perfect.

     Before OU and KU, there was major event in my life. My birth.  I was born in Leicester, England and lived there for about ten years. My parents lost their factory job, and jobs in England were sparse so they decided to move to America. When we moved to America we moved around a whole lot. As far as I remember we moved from Cincinnati, to Indianapolis, to Kentucky, to Sacramento, back to Indianapolis, and then Tulsa.

     I was in Tulsa for most of my high school years.  My parents bought a motel in Tulsa called the Best Budget Inn. It was a small business with twenty five rooms. It was located in the ghetto. The only good thing about the motel was that there was an elementary school behind with a basketball court. I learned and improved at basketball there playing with the older bigger guys.

     Other than basketball I like to run. I ran in high school, but the bad thing about that was I’m too skinny. Some other stuff I enjoy doing other than playing ball and running would be building random stuff, watching random stuff on Netflix while I’m bored, and being lazy. I’m out of stuff to say about myself, but that basically was my whole life story.

Random Map of England to show location of Leicester

Map

Week 1: Storybook Faavorites

Ram and Sita

The first story I thought was interesting was of Ram and Sita’s. According to the website the lady who was visiting India found a little cave when she went temple watching. And in the little cave she found two diaries each belonging to Ram and Sita. Both diaries talked about their marriage together, and how they were kicked out of their village. Another thing that was mentioned was Sita being kidnapped by Ravan. This part of Sita’s diary is not clear because it was washed out with what seemed to be tears. The diary talks about how Ram had to fight to get her back.

Shiva

The second story I thought that was interesting was of Shiv. Shiv is one of the three most important gods and out of these three gods he is the most powerful. Shiv is known as the destroyer and he wields a trishul which is a trident. Shiv also has a crescent moon on his head, symbolizing rebirth. The combination of the power to destroy and renew makes him the most powerful god in Hinduism. It is also said that his third eye is powerful and when opened, it has the power to destroy the whole world.

Kalki

Kalki is the last reincarnation of Vishnu or Ram. Kalki is meant to take birth on earth again to save the world from kalyug. Kalyug is one of the four yugs. A yug is a period of time, not sure of how long each are but as each period progresses the worst it gets. Kalyug being the last yug, is one the worst time period and so Kalki is meant to end kalyug and start the cycle over again with satyug. Satyug is the period of truth and purity. Kalki will need weapons in order to bring balance back to the world so he heads for his journey. 

Week 1: Indian Epics

I know the basics of Ramanyan and Mahabharat.

I just want to know all the details.

Week 1 Storytelling: The Goat who fooled the Wolf

Once upon a time there was a young goat. This goat was somewhat of a self-conceited goat, the goat thought that he was smarter than all the other goats in his age group. He thought that he was smart and old enough to make his own decisions. One day this young goat was grazing grass with the rest of his fellow goats and when the day was coming to an end the goats started to make their way back home, except for the young goat who thought he was old enough to make his own decisions. So this goat decided to stay back and keep chomping on the grass, defying his fellow goats and making his own decision.

The sun went down and the got realized it had gotten too late. The started to tremble in fear of the wolf. The young goat start running back to his home as fast as he could trying not to think about the wolf, but he suddenly tripped over a tree root and slid across the mud. The wind started blowing and sun was completely down. The goat got up and started to run again when suddenly the wolf jumps out in front. The goat, at this point completely loses hope.

The wolf grins evilly at the goat and starts to walk closer to the goat to make his kill. The goat thinks on his feet and asks the wolf for a final wish before his death. The wolf asks “What is the wish?” The goat replies “I would like to die happily, so please play me a tune to dance on.” The wolf agrees and pulls out his whistle to play the goat a song. As the goat dances to the wolf’s tune, the farmer’s dog hears the whistles and run to the goat. The wolf realizing that the goat had made a fool of him made a quick escape swearing a revenge on the goat.

Authors Note: The goat stays back because he thinks he grown up, the wolf comes and he's scared. He tells the wolf to play a song so he can die merrily. The wolf plays his whistles which the dogs hear and save the goats life.

Wolf Running Away

Wolf Wikipedia

Bibliography: The Aesop for Children by Aesop (2006). Web Source: Gutenberg

Week 1: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I lived in Tulsa for almost my entire high school career and a few years of my college career, I lived there up until this past year when my parents moved out. It was my favorite place because there was a basketball court right behind the motel we used to live in.

Tulsa Skyline

Wikipedia Tulsa, OK

Curry

No Spice.
No Taste.