Epics of India

Lakshmana Consoling Rama  By Chitra Ramayana by Ramachandra Madhwa Mahishi, Illustrated by Balasaheb Pandit Pant Pratinidhi, 1916 [Public domain], via  WikiMedia Commons Lakshmana, Rama's brother and close friend, accompanies Rama for most of his adventures in Part A of the Ramayana . Like Rama, Lakshmana and the other two sons of Dasharatha were avatars of Vishnu, but Rama was the most loved, most beautiful, and strongest of them. There are many times in the stories that Lakshmana is overlooked like when it is Rama that Vishvamitra needs to protect him from the rakshasas Muricha and Subahu or when Dasharatha chooses Rama to be the Yuvarajah (heir apparent). When he isn't overlooked entirely Lakshmana is usually a supporting figure while Rama performs great feats or embarks on a new quest. For example when Rama wins Sita's hand in marriage by breaking Shiva's bow, Lakshmana is there but doesn't do much besides try to defend Rama to Parashurama. Though ...

Image: WikiMedia Commons Most of my experience receiving criticism comes from my time as a ballet dancer. In ballet, dancers generally crave constructive criticism from their teachers, choreographers, ballet masters, and peers because it is very difficult even with mirrors or video recordings to know what you look like while you're dancing. Since constant criticism is so imperative to a dancer's development they are taught from a very young age to appreciate the feedback, and as a dancer you learn very quickly that criticism is much more valuable than praise. As William  Treseder  says in  "Using Harsh Feedback to Fuel Your Career,"  criticism is an investment in your continued improvement. No one is going to take the time to give constructive criticism to someone they don't think can improve, so as a dancer when someone would take the time to give me a personalized correction part of me took it as a vote of confidence from them (the other parts of me got u...

The four possible topics I'm considering are food, vahanas, weapons of the gods, and creation stories. Food Vegetarian Meal from Andhra Pradesh I love Indian food and food in general, so I was immediately intrigued by the idea of telling stories relating to food. My first hand experience with Indian food has been at Indian restaurants in the US. I don't know how authentic any of that is, but I love all the flavors and spices. I would like to learn more about the characteristics of some of the regional cuisines of India. According to Wikipedia the Indian foods most Americans are used to are Americanized interpretations of North Indian food, so I'd like to learn what else is out there. Food is such a huge part of human life that there are a lot of stories that could be told about it. Since recipes are passed down through the generation I could tell an intergenerational story that is grounded by teaching the next generation a recipe. Cooking and eating is also a centra...

NOTE: This story has been revised and added to my portfolio project here . There were once two ponds or rather one beautiful, deep lake that was cool and bountiful all year long and one shallow pool that would nearly dry up every summer when the rains stopped. In the shallow pool there lived many fish, and life was hard for them during the dry summers. Even though it wasn’t easy, every summer the fish managed to survive and grew stronger because of it. Not far from the shallow pool was the deep lake, and along its banks beneath a shady mango tree there lived a conniving crane. There were plenty of fish and bugs to eat in and around the lake, and the crane was not hungry by any means. Now, the crane did not particularly like eating bugs and avoided them if he could. However the water was so deep the fish could easily hide from the crane, so he had to work very hard to catch the fish by surprise. One summer the conniving crane happened upon the shallow pool when the water lev...

The Cunning Crane and the Crab By W.H.D. Rouse The story begins by establishing that the little pool where the fish live is a fine place to live sometimes, but there are times when it is more difficult. There is also another lake nearby that is always comfortable and easy to survive in. The Crane sees a way to take advantage of the fish struggling to survive in the little pool by telling them about the existence of the beautiful lake and igniting a desire in them for a better life. Once the fish were excited about the possibilities that await in the beautiful lake they were willing to consider trusting the Crane, going against evidence “since the world began” that a crane would not help a fish. The fish devise a plan to try to verify the Crane’s story by sending the old Fish with one eye with the Crane to the lake and back. However, once the old Fish returns and shares how wonderful the lake is all the Fish became so excited they couldn’t wait to go themselves and didn’t think a...

The variety of materials that are based off of these ancient epics and myths surprised me. I’m especially interested in watching some of the video options because I love movies and television from around the world. I don’t think I’ve seen any Indian films that aren’t Bollywood musicals, so I’m looking forward to experiencing different forms of Indian visual storytelling. Along the same lines, I’m also looking forward to perusing the Amar Chitra Katha comics more. A couple caught my eye when I looked through the blog specifically How Friends are Parted: Tales from the Hitopadesha because I like cute stories featuring animals (and really who doesn’t right?) and the picture on the cover is of cute animals. I also think I’d enjoy Stories of Creation from the Brahma Purana because creation myths have always fascinated me. Image: Brahma the Hindu creator god Wikimedia: illustrated Mahabharata As for the more traditional reading options I thought the options that examined the epics...

I’m a procrastinator. I know it. I admit it. I procrastinate with school work. I procrastinate with house work. I procrastinate with choosing what to cook for dinner every afternoon. I’ve always been this way, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned more about myself and why I have trouble starting some tasks. In “How to Beat Procrastination” Caroline Webb identifies one of the most common pitfalls that I find myself falling into with big projects. I get overwhelmed by the project as whole and don’t know where to start. I’ve gotten better at recognizing when this is happening in the past few years, and I’ve found that once I realize that’s what's holding me back I can help myself take the first step by breaking the whole project down into smaller parts. Amanda Collins talks about the benefits of breaking tasks into “small, manageable chunks” in “How to build a realistic study plan that you’ll actually stick to.” I’ve definitely seen how this approach can work when I’ve worked on la...

Image Source: Alan Levine Caption added with Cheezburger I’m most excited to explore website publishing for my class project this semester. I’ve casually played with platforms like WordPress and Wix (and GeoCities back in the day), but I’ve never had a specific project in mind that I wanted to work on and complete. Hopefully I’ll have enough time to explore some HTML and CSS scripting, too. As a computer science major I’ve done a lot with programming languages, but I don’t have much experience with markup languages like HTML. I really appreciate having access to so much helpful information about the topics we’ll be covering this semester. Since there is so much available to explore it allows each student to follow what interests them instead of following a very narrowly prescribed path. I’m looking forward to exploring more of both the Indian Epics and Mythology content sites and the Freebookapalooza site.

I am looking forward to being exposed to more Indian stories through the readings this semester. I took a mythology class at Oklahoma City Community College my freshman year, and in the section on India and the Far East we read The Ramayana which I enjoyed. I thought the concept of dharma was interesting because of how different this moral code was from classic western moral codes like chivalry for knights and how important it was to Hindu society.  Image: Episodes in the Panchavati Forest, Folio from a Ramayana (Adventures of Rama) Source: WikiMedia I like the way this class is structured which is quite different from other online classes I’ve taken. Other classes I’ve taken online tried to force the same experiences that occur in a classroom to happen online through online discussions that no one full-heartedly participated in. This class seems to be structured to take advantage of the unique possibilities only available to an online course like c...

Hi I’m Ryan, and I’m a computer science major. I guess you could say I’m in school to prepare for my second career. My first career was as a ballet dancer, and it was my dream job. I wanted to dance before I could walk, so about as soon as I could talk I started trying to convince my parents to sign me up for dance lessons. They finally agreed when I was eight years old, and after that I never stopped taking classes until I gave my last performance as a professional ballet dancer nearly two and a half years ago. Dance and ballet in particular has been one of the most important forces that has shaped my life, so I decided to share some of the story of my career in ballet. Image Source:  pxhere From when I started taking ballet class at eight through middle school, I took class for fun and didn’t take it very seriously or consider pursuing professional career in dance until I started high school. In high school I started to have class and rehearsal six days a week, and the l...

Carol Dweck’s explanation of the differences between fixed and growth mindsets resonates with me because it is similar to the way I approached ballet during my career as a dancer. The way that she suggests people should handle setbacks and seek out ways to improve is especially reminiscent of how many ballet dancers including myself approach their training. Dancers always crave constructive criticism from their teachers, directors, and choreographers because in the ballet world it is drilled into you from a young age that you get corrections because the teacher thinks you have the potential to get better. Since I grew up in this world and was a part of it for most of my life I still have that mentality in most things that I do. (image from cheezburger ) I also relate to her method of emphasizing hard work and persistence over innate ability. I had a ballet teacher that would tell the class stories that were almost like his own little parables about how if y...