Epics of India

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...