Week 7, Reading Diary B: The End

Ram goes back to Ayodhya, but makes stops along the way and also shows Sita the places where he met Hanuman and stuff. When Ram gets back, Bharat starts planning the coronation, meanwhile gifts are given and people going back to their respective homes. Sita becomes pregnant, and Ram hears poeple gossiping about Sita so he abandons her at the river. This is because Vishnu was cursed to be seperated from his wife. Valmiki helps Sita and lets her stay in his house where she gives birth to Kusha and Lava. Ram plans a festival in the forest where Sita is living, where he meets his two sons. Sitaa approaches Ram to prove her innocence so she goes underground with mother earth. Kala comes to meet Ram and whoever interrupts them will die. Lakshman dies because he interuppted them. Ram is leaving and Lakshmi and Earth walk with him, Ram gives Hanuman a ring with his name on it. Ram and his devotees jump in the river.

Week 7, Reading Diary A: The Final Moments

Malyavan goes to meet Shiv, who takes Malyavan away from the battle that was about to happen in Lanka. The two demon magicians die while fighting another demon called Jambavan. They were killed by Hanuman and Sugriva. Ravan sends a message to Ram through Shuka. Ravan dances and calls for a wind storm when Kala comes and threatens Ravan. Ravan doesn’t care about it. Ram and Ravan are fighting but no matter how many times Ravan’s head is cut off it grows back. Ravan takes the form of Indra so Ram didn’t know what to do, Matali saw this disguise and then Ram finally killed Ravan. Sita comes into the hall where Agni is there to test Sita. Hanuman learns from Vibhishan on how to save lives. Everyone returns home before Bharat commits suicide. 

The Tale of Hanuman: Revised

Before Hanuman came to be, there weren’t many monkeys in the forest. In fact, there used to be only one monkey who was both a male and a female named Riksharaja. This monkey in the form of a female monkey gave birth two other monkeys, Vali and Sugriva. Sugriva was fathered by the sun god Surya, and the other baby monkey Vali was fathered by Indra, the wind god. Riksharaja was watching her baby monkeys play and noticed that Sugriva was awfully lonely because Vali would always be training and fighting to become a strong monkey king. Because of this she asked the god of the winds, Vayu, to give her another monkey baby so he could keep Sugriva company. Vayu rejected the offer because he saw another beautiful monkey. Her name was Anjana.

Anjana was a free spirit. She liked to swing around the jungle and do whatever she wanted to do, with no one ever to boss her around. She never had any responsibilities before either, because all the male monkeys would be at her service in an effort to make Anjana their wife. Vayu chose Anjana to bear a child with, and Anjana didn’t refuse either because all she could care about was that she was going to be with a god, and not just an ordinary monkey. Anjana gave birth to Hanuman.

When Hanuman was born, Anjana left Hanuman because she could not handle the responsibility of a child. Hanuman had no one to teach him what things to eat and things not to eat, and what is dangerous or safe.  With no one to take care of him and feed his hunger, this innocent little monkey was swinging through the trees under the canopy looking for something to eat. His hunger grew more and more with each swing, but the poor little monkey still couldn’t find anything to eat. As he swung through the branches, he accidentally picked one of the skinnier, weaker branches. The branch broke and Hanuman landed hard on the ground. As Hanuman lay on the ground in a daze, he saw an orange disk between the leaves of a couple of trees. His eyes grew large with excitement. He thought he had found a mango to eat. What Hanuman thought to be a mango was actually the sun in the far distance about to set. Hanuman (with no knowledge of what it was), reached out toward the sun.

Vayu worried about Hanuman because his mother left him and there was no one to take care of him. Vayu had to quit his job to make sure Hanuman was safe at all times. Vayu noticed his son and stopped Hanuman from touching the sun and saved him from burning himself. This caused a problem in the world because Vayu is the wind god, and if there is no wind there would be no air, and without air there wouldn’t be people or other animals and bugs. The other gods started to worry and tried to convince Vayu to come back and begin blowing wind again before everyone died, but Vayu was way too concerned about his son. Brahma, the creator of the universe, then gave Hanuman the gift of eternal life. And Surya bought him an unlimited supply of mangos. This way Hanuman could never die from things he didn’t know were dangerous, and he would never go hungry. Satisfied with these gifts given to Hanuman for his safety and hunger, Vayu returned back to his old job and brought back the winds.

Author's Note:

I chose to retell the story of how Hanuman came to be and explain how he attained eternal life and an unlimited supply of mangos.  I was inspired to write about Hanuman mainly because I felt like he was not given enough credit in the Ramayan. The whole story was based around Ram but I felt like no one realized that without Hanuman and his involvement in Ram’s quest, Ram would not have been able to be the hero. Especially when Ram dies and Hanuman goes and brings a whole mountain over to Lanka to help the reviving process. I chose it to be the first story for my portfolio because I could not think of another better character from the Ramayan to base a story around, plus I thought Hanuman deserved some more attention. Not only that but I wanted to give a reason to why Hanuman was alone and why his mother had left him, so I gave a better explanation on how Anjana was a free spirit In the story I also included the story of Riksharaja and her two sons, mainly because it was told in the book but also it was a good lead up to why the decision of having a baby came up. Even though Hanuman turns out to be very strong and smart and a huge part of the Ramayan, I wanted to show that he also was a baby at one point. He is supposed to be a playful and innocent monkey that just wants to eat all the time. Other than that I tried to stick to most of what I read in the book but with extra explanation for the confused readers. This revised version of the story, has been changed so it has better flow within the paragraphs and story itself too, as that problem was brought up by one of my classmates. Other than that I fixed al the grammar errors I could find.

Picture of Hanuman

Bibliography:

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.  

Week 6, Reading DIary B: The War

Hanuman fills Ram in about the whereabouts of Sita, so they leave Kishkinda and head south. WHen they get to the southern tip, Ram gets mad at the ocean because he cannot cross it and curses the ocean. the ocean god rises up and explains to Ram that one of the monkeys can make rocks float, and to use that skill to build a bridge to Lanka. Vibhishan tells Ravan to return Sita, but Ravan gets mad and kicks Vibhishan out. Vibhishan then goes to Ram, and helps Ram in his quest. Ravan tricks Sita, saying that Ram was killed with the help of two demons, Prahasta barges in and foils Ravans attempt. Ram sends Angada to talk to Ravan, but Ravan is stubborn and wants to fight so Prahasta leads the army into war where Ram and his troop defeat them and make them retreat. Ravan then refers to his brother Kumbhkaran, the sleeping giant, who at first denies to help but then gets up and gives a fierce attack. Ram killed him with his arrows by first cutting of his arms and legs and then finally his head. Ravan then refers to his son Indrajit, who leads a succesful attack and manages to kill everyone except Vibhishan and Hanuman. Hanuman brings the whole mountain for medicine and Vibhishan revives everyone.

Week 6, Reading Diary A: Hanuman's Quest

Hanuman was talking to Jambavan, and Jatayu's brother over hears this conversation. Sampati then tells Hanuman that he had seen Ravan take Sita away to Lanka. Hanuman starts his journey to Lanka when a mountain rises so Hanuman can get some rest. A female demon swallows Hanuman and Hanuman kills her and escapes. Hanuman arrives at Lanka and cannot find Sita in Ravan's bedroom so his father, Vayu directs him. After he talks to Sita, Hanuman decides to cause trouble and goes and breaks things. Ravan tells Indrajit to capture him, which Indrajit does with Shiv's noose spell. Ravan then tells Vibishan to cut of Hanuman's head but he doesnt so Ravan sets Hanuman's tail on fire. Hanuman takes his tail and sets Lanka on fire and leaves.

Week: 5 Styles

I chose to do the portfolio project instead of the storybook project because of time constraints. For this project I chose five different styles of writing which would be: diary, news reporter, courtroom, narration, and historical. I chose these five specifically because I see and read these kind of styles the most, and some styles just seem interesting to put context into. Not only that but I would like to see how my stories turn out after I write them in these different styles, and just analyze how much description goes into each style of story, and how each character is developed.

The first type of style I chose was the diary. I personally never written a diary so I have no clue how to go about writing one. I probably would have to put myself in the characters shoes and think about his or hers emotions and vent it out on Microsoft Word. This would not be my first choice of writing style because I don’t know how to write diaries. But this kind of writing would be great to emphasize on the characters feelings, and point of view on situations happening in the story.

The second style of writing I chose was the news reporter style. The story can be told in a way it is told on the news, where it informs the viewers of what happened and how it happened. This kind of writing would be easy to write as I do watch the news and I think it would be easy to just write in an informative way. Some of advantages of this style of writing would be it would not really that much of a bias toward any character, things will just be told to the reader, another advantage would be that it would cover all the characters side of their story.

The third style of writing I chose was the courtroom writing style. This style of writing would also be easy to write because it wouldn't require me to involve emotional stuff. It would just require me to tell all sides of the story and get every character involved in the situation the court is being held over. This way all the characters point of view will be conveyed and also the story will also be told, and the read will be able to choose on whose side of the story is better and also who to believe.

The fourth style of writing I chose was the narration style. This style is what most typical stories are written in. in this kind of writing style the story would be told from an unbiased storyteller so the story will be convey without any bias toward a particular character. The judgment of characters will then be left to the reader and it would be a fair judgment. In this form of writing it will also be easy to go through conversations between different people and also involve what each character would be thinking at the time.

The fifth and final style of writing I chose was the historical style. This style would be super easy to write in as it would completely informative. It would just a timeline of events that is happening, and then the cause and effect can be discussed. It would also be easier to analyze the whole situation, because only the facts are known. The weakness of this style of writing would be that the characters emotions and point of view would be left out, so would the conversations. This would be bad because the reader would not be able to get an insight into the character.

Week 5, Storytelling: Hanuman

Hanuman was the son of Vayu, the wind god, and Anjana. Hanuman didn’t always have the power of eternal life. Hanuman’s mother left him when he was a baby monkey so he had no one to teach him what things to eat and things not to eat, and what is dangerous or safe. One day this innocent little monkey was flinging through the trees under the canopy looking for something to eat. His hunger grew more and more with each swing, but the poor little monkey still couldn’t find anything to eat. As he was swinging through the branches, he accidentally picked one of the skinnier, weaker branches. The branch broke and Hanuman lands had on the ground. As Hanuman laid on the ground in a daze. He saw an orange circle between the leaves of a couple of trees. His eyes grew out of excitement thinking he found a mango to eat. What Hanuman thought to be a mango was actually the sun in the far distance about to set. Hanuman with no knowledge of what it is, reaches out toward the sun. Vayu notices his son and stops Hanuman from touching the sun and saves him from burning himself. Vayu worried about Hanuman, since his mother left him and there was no one to take care of him, quit his job to make sure Hanuman is safe at all times. This caused a problem in the world because Vayu is the wind god, and if there is no wind there would be no air, and without air there wouldn’t be people or other animals and bugs and stuff. The other gods start worrying and try to convince Vayu to come back and start blowing wind again before everyone dies but Vayu was way too concerned about his son. Brahma, the creator of the universe, then gave Hanuman the gift of eternal life. And Surya, the god of the sun, bought him an unlimited supply of mangos. This way Hanuman could never die out of doing things he didn’t know were dangerous, and he would never go hungry. Satisfied with these gifts given to Hanuman for his safety and hunger, Vayu returns back to his old job and brings back the winds.

Authors Note: I just retold the story of how Hanuman got eternal life and free mangos with a little bit more description.

Mango Supply

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Week 5, Reading Diary B: Sita is Kidnapped

Ravan’s uncle Maricha tries to convince Ravan to leave Ram and Sita alone but Ravan doesn’t listen so he decides to go in the form of a golden deer. Ram goes after the deer because of Sita and when Ram kills the deer, the deer screams for help in Ram’s voice so then Lakshman goes out looking for Ram. Ravan comes in disguised as an old man and abducts Sita. Jayatu tries to save Sita but Ravan cuts off his wings, before Jayatu dies he tells Ram that Ravan kidnapped Sita. Ram and Lakshman go south where they find Savari, she tells Ram and Lakshman about Vali, Sugriva, and Hanuman. Vali kills the buffalo demon, so the buffalo demon’s son wants revenge. So Vali and Mayavi fight, Vali manages to to chase the kid down into a cave and Sugriva scared that Vali didn’t make it alive closes the cave. Vali comes out all mad and stuff about that and tells Sugriva that he’s exiled. Sugriva runs away to Hanuman. Ram meets the monkeys and helps Sugriva kill Vali. Sugriva now has to help look for Sita at the end of the rainy season but he doesn’t because he was drunk. So Ram sends Lakshman and then Sugriva bows down and gathers a huge army.

Week 5, Reading Diary A: Bharat looks for Ram, and Ram gets a Proposal

Kausalya wakes up to find that King Dasarath is dead. Poor Bharat doesn’t know that his dad is dead so when he comes back he finds it weird to see all the changes. Bharat does not like what his mother did and goes out to find Ram in the big dangerous forest. Guha the forest King directs Bharat to Ram and Bharat finds Ram at Chitrakuta. Yay Bharat. Ram still doesn’t come back because he is exiled. Poor guy. On the fourteenth summer Ram, Lakshman, and Sita go to the scary dangerous Dandaka forest. Some demon kidnaps Sita, and Ram saves the day by killing the demon.  Lakshman builds a house for them to live in and Ravans bad sister comes and proposes to Ram and he rejects her. She gets a demon army and once again Ram with his brother, save the day by killing them all. Shurpanakha tells on Ram to Ravan.

Comment Wall

Week 4 Storytelling: Ravan and Mandodari

One day Ravan was out like usual on his conquest to defeat various kings in order to gain more land for his demons to reign over. He came upon one kingdom ruled under King Maya, who was a well-known asura, and Ravan could not resist but to approach the palace. Ravan storm inside the castle in full force screaming for the King of the palace so he can suppress the king into giving his kingdom away but no one heard and the castle was empty. He makes his way through the castle to the back of castle where there was a beautiful courtyard with all sorts of flowers, birds, and a grand fountain in the middle. Ravan now infuriated by the fact that no one had responded to him, saw a beautiful princess at the end of the courtyard playing with birds and watering the flowers. The princess’s name was Mandodari. She was no ordinary princess but she was the master of illusions, she had the ability to shape shift and look like anyone she pleased but her original form was an ugly form that no one ever wanted. At first sight Ravan was in awe and wanted to have her for himself. He starts walking towards her when he is interrupted by one of the palace servants, the servant tells him that the king has been waiting for his arrival. Ravan went to see the king but all he could think about was the beautiful princess. The king knew that sooner or later Ravan was going to come in conquest for his kingdom. Ravan stood in front of the king and demanded that the king hand over the kingdom. The king was smart though, he offered Ravan an offer that Ravan couldn’t deny. The offer was that Ravan can take his daughter and in return the King gets to keep his land and acquire Ravan as his ally. Ravan, who was in awe, accepted the offer and took the princess’s hand in marriage. The King had safely and smartly gotten away from being under the rule of Ravan.

Authors Note:

The original story is when Ravan goes into the forest where he stumbles upon an Asura named Maya who also has a daughter of many arts. I retold the story in a whole new setting and gave the Asura a richer and smarter background.

Courtyard

Kitchen Garden Wikipedia

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Week 4: Reading Diary B, Ram Leaving

Bharat is gone away to visit his grandfather, Dasarath names Ram the king. Kaikeyi did not want this because she wanted her son Bharat to be the king so she used one of the two promises that the King had owed her and made the king exile Ram and make Bharat king. Ram and Sita are leaving and before they leave they give away their things and the citizens of the Kosala want to follow Ram. The elders also make the river go up in order to slow Ram down and make him stay the night. Dasarath is grieving and relates to the boy, who he had once killed in the forest, to Ram. Kausalya wakes up to find Dasarath dead in the morning. 

Week 4: Reading DIary A: Ram, Ravan

This version of the Ramayan is a lot like the one we read previously but there is a lot more back story. This explains how Ravan came to be and why Ram had to take birth. Ravan was very powerful because Brahma had given him a lot of powers. He could not be killed by any demon or anything, except humans because he did not ask protection from humans. He had three other siblings, two brothers and one sister, he also had a wife named Mandodari. Ravan’s conquest got him into trouble with Shiv, but he was able to sing which pleased Shiv so he was released. Ravan also had trouble with the King of the Haihaya people, he tried to attack the king while he was showering but he failed as the king squeezed him with his fifty arms. Ravan went a challenged many others and he was successful, such as the god of death, the sun and moon gods, and Indra’s heaven. From this point Vishwamitra approaches Dasaratha for Ram just like in the previous version. In this story Ram wins Sita by breaking the bow of Shiv. 

Week 3 Storytelling: Dundubi

There once was a demon named Dundubi. This demon was in the form of a buffalo and had thirst for fighting and blood. All he ever wanted to do was fight everyone that crossed his path for the rest of his life trying to prove his power and strength. One day this demon decided to challenge one of the gods to show off his strength, so he went a challenged Lord Vishnu to fight him. Vishnu saw his thirst for fighting and killing and thought it would be for Lord Shiv, also known as the god of destroying. Vishnu told Dundubi to go to Mount Kailash and fight Shiv to show off his power, because after all Shiv is the destroyer and more powerful. Dundubi agreed and went to Kailash where he smashed his horns into the mountain side, making the whole mountain shake. Shiv, infuriated that someone had awakened him from meditation, came raging down to see who it was. Shiv sees it was Dundubi and asked what was so urgent that a buffalo has to shake his whole mountain. Dundubi challenges Shiv to fight. Shiv, the all-knowing god, realized that all Dundubi wanted to do was fight so he thought that he should send him to Indra, so he can join Indra’s army and fight as much as his desires. Shiv sent of Dundubi to Indra. Dundubi is now furious because every god he goes to, has redirected him to someone else. Dundubi enrages at Indra saying that all he wants to do is fight, why can’t the gods fulfill his wish. Indra didn’t want to deal with him, as Indra was egotistical and thought this buffalo demon to be petty and worthless. Indra explains to Dundubi that Vali is the only one who can provide him a lifetime full of fights. Dundubi had lost all of his patience and mindlessly made his way to Vali, and without any thought attack Vali at full speed. Vali and Dundubi run around the whole world fighting each other until Vali finally loses his temper and decides to end Dundubi. Vali takes out his weapon of choice and smashes the demons horns off. He then takes the horns and uses it against Dundubi to permanently finish him. Vali picks up the buffalos dead body and flings it across the country, where it lands on a sages prayer grounds. The sage in return curses Vali.

Authors Note:

This is the story of Dundubi the buffalo demon. I just retold the story I read in the book in my own words, I haven’t really made a whole new story line.

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

                                                               Dundubi The Buffalo

                                                                  Buffalo Wikipedia

Week 3, Reading Diary B: The Ending

When they reach the southern shore, Hanuman grows into a giant monkey and steps in to Lanka and then shrinks down to small size. He goes and looks for Sita and first mistakes Ravan’s wife to be Sita. He finally finds her in a garden where Hanuman and Sita exchange jewelry. After exchanging jewelry Hanuman again goes big and destroys the garden, and then Ravan’s brother tries capturing Hanuman, Hanuman allows himself to be captured and be presented in front of Ravan. Hanuman advises to let Sita return or he’s going to be in big trouble but Ravan doesn’t listen and lights fire to Hanumans tail. Hanuman then burns Lanka down with the flame. Vibhishan, one of Ravan’s brothers, advises to return Sita or he will be killed but Ravan denies and exiles Vibhishan. Vibhishan now goes to Ram, where Ram treats him like he is the king. Ram tells the sea god to make a path a so they can cross the waters, but the sea god tells him he can make a bridge so all creatures and men help build a bridge. They cross and Ram and Ravan fight, Ram continuously chops off Ravan’s head but with no result, and then he finally kills him by sending a Brahma astra. Ram finally gets Sita back but he doesn’t believe Sita of purity so then Sita jumps into the fire proving she is pure. They return to Ayodhya. Overall the story was close to what I was taught but Sita dies in the fire and comes back in the next life, because marriages are a knot of seven lifetimes. 

Week 3, Reading Diary A: Kidnap and Search

Ravan kidnapped Sita, and Ram had to call for help from his younger brother Lakshman. Sita is scared because of this. Meanwhile Ravan comes up to Sita disguised as a hermit and when Sita finds out it was Ravan the whole time she tells him to leave. Jayatu tries to save Sita but is killed in the effort, and when Ram arrives he points them I the direction of Ravan where they meet a monkey named Hanuman. Hanuman knew that Ram was a reincarnation of Vishnu. Ram helps Sugriva defeat Vali and in return Sugriva helps Ram by gathering a huge army to help search for Sita. This army was led by Hanuman. That basically summarizes the reading. Overall this was a review of what my parents had taught me.