Storybook Topic Brainstorm

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 central part of family life, so food would fit nicely into any story about family.

 Vahana
I was initially drawn to the concept of vahanas because I think the relationship between a person or a god and their pet or their vahana has a lot of narrative potential. After reading on Wikipedia that deities' vahanas could be symbolic of the deities' positive role in Hinduism and the negative parts of the world they protect people from I thought it could be interesting to play with that symbolism in my writings. I also like that I had never heard of vahanas before, and I always enjoy learning something new. I think vahana could be used in stories that center on cooperation between a deity and their trusted vahana to overcome challenges.

Weapons of the Gods
In the mythology of other cultures that I've read the weapons of mythical figures have very interesting stories attached to them, so I am expecting that will be at least somewhat true of the Indian epics. I also always enjoy a good backstory in books, TV shows, and other media, so writing backstories of weapons from the epics could be an interesting storybook. This Wikipedia article has a good list of astras with brief descriptions of each that could be a useful starting point.

Creation Stories
Again I love a good backstory, and what is a creation story other than the ultimate backstory. Creation stories intrigue me because every culture has them, and a lot of them share many common themes. Creating a new creation story using the characters of the Indian epics would be one way I could take this topic in creating a storybook. The reading guides for the Ramayana and Mahabharata seem like good places to start because it has links to more information about a lot of the characters in the epics.


Image: Vegetarian Meal Andhra style by Pritya Books

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