Week 3 Story: The Brothers and their Battle

Rama and Lakshmana were practicing archery among the trees behind the palace when one of the servants told them the king was waiting for them in the throne room. They put away their bows and went inside to meet King Dasharatha.

As they walked into the room, they noticed their father was slumped on the throne with bowed shoulders as if weighed down by a heavy weight. The two princes froze at the unusual sight, their hearts speeding up with worry before hurrying to stand next to their father.

"You called for us, father?" asked Rama.

The king spoke quietly, "My sons, I am afraid that you both will need to leave our home for a time. A sage has come from another kingdom to ask for a favor I must grant. He wants Rama to defeat a group of troublesome and dangerous demons who are interrupting the sages' offerings." The king voice hardened, "I want Lakshmana to go with you and you both must watch out for each other. You will keep each other safe. Do you understand me?"

"Of course, father. We will be back before you know it." Rama and Lakshmana spoke together. They looked at each other giddy at the thought of an adventure and left to pack and gather their swords, bows and plenty of arrows.

Rama and Lakshmana set out on their adventure

The boys began their adventure the next morning with the sage as their guide. They were slowly making their way through thick vines, swinging their swords and chopping away until they came out into an open area.

The party of three stopped in their tracks. A figure was laying, spread out on vibrant green grass, in the middle of the clearing. The sage slowly and quietly stepped back behind the two princes who cautiously stepped forward. Their hearts sped up and they quickly reached for their bows, each notching and arrow. Hearing them, the figure turned revealing the figure of a woman. Smirking at them, she said, "You lovely boys look so tasty." Then she pounced at them with dagger like claws.

The boys shot at her and injured her but couldn't manage to bring themselves to kill the demon. They were troubled at the thought of killing someone who, ignoring the claws, looks like a normal woman. The boys were twisting and dodging while taking turns shooting arrows. They were unsure of what to do besides simply keep her back. The stalemate broke when she got smart and swiftly slid behind Lakshmana out of Rama's line of sight. Lakshmana brought his bow up to block her hands, buying time for Rama to move into a better position. Rama watched with beating heart and sweating hands as she grappled with Lakshmana's bow with one clawed hand and went for his neck with the other. Rama raised his bow, quickly aimed and fired. The arrow shot true and the demon woman fell with an arrow through her eye socket. Rama ran towards his brother to check on him. Neither Lakshmana nor Rama were badly injured. They both sagged with relief and hugged each other tightly letting their hearts calm down.

Rama clasped his brothers arm saying, "I am glad your safe. I swear to you, brother, I will never again hesitate no matter the appearance of our enemy."

"And nor will I. You may have had to kill today, but you saved my life in doing so." said Lakshmana and patted his brother's shoulder in both thanks and comfort.

The party continued on their way and the two princes were now resolved to do anything to return safely to their father. When the fight against the group of demons came, both brothers fought with every single one of their senses and with calm and sharp focus on the enemy. In the end, the man-eating demons lay scattered on the ground, dead. The boys succeeded in keeping their promise to the King, and returned home safe and sound.


Author's Note: This story was inspired by the beginning of the Ramayana and I wanted to focus on Rama's first true battle in the story. In the original story two princes, Rama and Lakshmana, leave their home with a sage who had asked their father for a favor. The favor is to help get rid of rakshasas (man-eating demons) who are troubling a group of sages living near a city of another kingdom. Along the way the two brothers fight against a rakshasi (female demon) but hesitate to kill her because of her gender. This is the fight with Thataka who is hideous and misshapen and in the fight she becomes invisible and then Rama kills her by sound alone. And then he receives holy weapons that he uses to kill the rest of the rakshasas. The original continues from there but mine does not. I kept the main plot points of the part of the story I retold but added some dialog and details in order to lead into the story and keep it flowing. I ended the story after the brothers help the sage in order to emphasize the first time the boys actually have to fight for real. The entire battle scene with the she demon is different from the original fight with Thataka. I changed and added the specific events of the fight and tried not to make Rama seem as superhuman as the original story does. I also completely dropped the talking holy weapons because that's so realistic.

Image information: The image above was found here

Bibliography: Ramayana, Public Domain Edition by M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder. Web source

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part B

Story: Ramayana, Public Domain Edition by M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder. Web source

Setting:

• Dandaka jungle

Plot:

• Bharata comes home and is upset at his mother
• Goes to find Rama and offer throne but denied on account of father's honor
• Bharata decided rule for Rama till returns
• Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita come across rakshasi who wants Rama as a husband
• The boys beat her away and fight others who come to revenge her
• Rakshasi goes to her brother Ravana and asks him to take Sita from Rama
• Ravana and a brother come up with a plan to separate the boys from Sita and it works (the rakshasa as a deer plan that Lakshmana felt was off)
• Ravana decides he wants Sita as a wife and take her to his kingdom where he tries to woo her but her heart will always be Rama's
• Rama reacts strongly to Sita missing and Lakshmana tries to comfort him
• The boys find the king of vultures who tell them Ravana took Sita
• A rakshasa (cursed spirit) told them to look for the ape chief Sugriva

Characters

• Ravana - rakshasa king of Lanka, arrogant but is strong
• Shurpanakha - sister of Ravana, spiteful
• Jatayu - king of vultures, protective of Sita who calls him friend
• Bharata - brother of Rama, son of Kaikeyi, loyal to his brothers, did not desire throne for himself
• Those already in previous post: Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita

Historical Picture of Ravana (image source)

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part A

Story: Ramayana Part A, Public Domain Edition by M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder. Web source

Setting:

• Ayodhya in Koshala kingdom
• Jungle filled with rakshasas
• Videha

Plot:

• King Dasharatha sacrifices a horse to ask for a son and gets 4
• Sage Vishvamitra comes for a favor and takes Rama and Lakshmana to battle rakshasas
• Rama defeated a rakshasi and gains divine weapons
• Rama and Sita meet and Rama declared worthy after breaking Shiva’s bow and then they are married
• Rama gets the bow of Vishnu when a follower of Shiva comes to see what happened to the bow
• Rama and Sita go back to his home
• King Dasharatha decides to declare Rama his heir but is stopped by Kaikeyi who wants her son to be heir and forces the issue
• Rama is exiled and Sita and Lakshmana go with him
• Dasharatha dies from grief of losing 2 sons

Characters:

• King Dasharatha - ruler of Koshala, living in Ayodhya
• Rama - son of Dasharatha and Kaushalya, avatar of Vishnu, strong and honorable 
• Lakshmana - son of Dasharatha and Sumitra, younger brother of Rama, loyal and strong
• Sita - daughter of Janaka, princess, kind and humble, sheltered
• Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, Sumtra - Queens of Koshala
• Brahmins - “priests, teachers and protectors of sacred learning” - wikipedia page
• The hag - ugly, jealous, hateful

Possible Changes:

• Telling the story from either Rama or Lakshmana's POV

Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita

(image source)

Microfiction: Two Small Stories on Karma

Karma Through Claws

Claws closed, karma killed the crane.

The Termination of the Trickster

There once was a trickster who loved false promises. However, in the end he met his match, was outwitted, and would never again make a false promise.

The crab who dished out Karma

(image source)

Author's Note: For these two microfictions I chose to write the same original story. The original is about a crane who tricks some fish into getting eaten by promising them to move them to a bigger lake. In the end, the crane tries to do the same to a crab but is outwitted and the Crab uses his pincers to chop off the cranes head.
For the 6 word story I wanted to make sure I used the word karma since that is what got the crane in the end and then I noticed I could used alliteration and keep the message of the story so I did so just for fun. I the two sentence story I wanted to try being vague about who or what the characters are to focus the readers attention on the events.

Bibliography: "The Cunning Crane and the Crab" from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. Web Source

Positive Thinking and Feedback Thoughts

The fear of making mistakes or not doing well can stop anyone from even attempting something new. The goal is to get past the fear or self-doubt and try anyway because mistakes are the greatest learning tool. There are certainly examples in my life that I've learned from mistakes and that learning is still with me today.
Getting feedback on pretty much anything can be very helpful because someone else might think of something you did not consider. Also, it's always good to have a second set of eyes because it can be easy to miss your own mistakes, especially in writing.
Two articles I read had some very good advice. The first one, Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work by John Spencer, goes well with Growth Mindset and tells us that we should not be comparing ourselves to others nor attempting to be perfect. This is good advice because it is way too easy to compare ourselves to others and find more reasons to doubt ourselves because of that. Also, in attempting to be perfect can erase the character of the individual in their work and that is no good. The other article, A Simple 5-Second Habit to Rewire Your Harshly Self-Critical Brain by Joel Almeida, uses science to tell us that we can develop our brains to be more helpful and stop being too critical of ourselves. This reminds me of a saying I've heard, "Life is what you make it." And thus is completely true because there is huge difference in the enjoyment someone gets out of something depending on their attitude.

Positive Thinking Cat

 (image source)

Topic Brainstorm

I basically have no previous knowledge on any of these topics except for a few references and what I have read for this class so far. The following are the topics that I am considering:


Epic brothers - I am interested in the topic of brothers because family has always been important to me and I also have a younger brother. For this topic it would be fun to tell a story of two brothers who always have each other's back and can always rely on each other. I could do this by taking two brothers and either retelling a story of an adventure or creating a new adventure for them to go on. What I would like to do with this topic is put the brothers in a situation where one ends up helping the other with something and then they get dragged into trouble in which they work together to get out of. Here are two links I found that look promising on the demon brothers who I would most likely end up writing about: Ilvala Wikipedia page and The Story of Ilvala and Vatapi from medium.com


Creation stories - This topic seems interesting because a big question about life is "Why are we here?" And to understand the end of something, it is good to look at the beginning. Every place has it's own creation stories and for this topic, since there are different creation stories and myths for Indian epics, I think it would be interesting to try and combine some of them into one story. I could tell them in such a way that some character is teaching someone else. And this is a link I found: Hindu creation myths Wikipedia page


Supernatural characters from Ramayana - I have always found supernatural creatures and stories interesting. For this it would be fun to create new origin story for a character or take a character that is seen as bad and make him/her or at least more "grey" and relatable. These are a couple links I found: Ashura vs Rakshasa video and Rakshasa Wikipedia page

Supernatural Beings of Indian Epics

(image source)

The Chiranjivi immortals - This topic also goes along with the supernatural which I have always found interesting. For this I would most likely tell a story of one of the immortals from their birth to gaining immortality and then what they might be doing in the modern world today.  Here are two links: Chiranjivi Wikipedia page and The 8 Immortals video

Week 2 Story: The Crew's Salvation

This is a story of the rescue of a captain and his crew. It begins on a day that was not going very well for the captain and his crew. They were out to sea on their ship and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. The waves were crashing and the wind was screaming and the rain was pounding. The crew and her ship were fighting together against the storm until they could fight no more. Then, when there was land barely in sight, an excessively large wave tipped the ship sending her crew into the sea. The men all found themselves washed ashore on an island and soon they began to see figures approaching. It was a group of women coming near. These women offered dry clothes, warm beds and hot meals and the captain could not refuse such generosity. They were led to a beautiful city with houses of stone with thick thatch roofing with fires already lit for warmth. Once they were dry, warm and full, conversation started up.

 "My men and I are very thankful for the help you have given us," the captain began "but do you mind if I ask why there are no men around?"

The oldest of the women stepped forward to answer, "Because we are a coastal city all of our men were sailors like you, however, it has been many years since they last set sail and we have lost hope of them ever returning."

One of the younger women excitedly exclaimed "Oh! You could all stay here with us. We all would really love the company." This statement was accompanied by many nods from the women.

The captain looked around at his happy and relaxed crew before replying, "We would greatly appreciate being allowed to stay longer and it is the least we can do to repay your kindness." He paused for just a moment before adding, "Perhaps you would allow us the use of tools and supplies to build ourselves a new ship while we are here?"

All of the women looked around at each other and grinned before the oldest replied, "Of course. Such a project will be a long one and we would be glad for your company during that time."

That night the weather finally calmed and the crew slept very well, except for the captain. He was awake pondering the situation and the plan of building a ship from the ground up. Some time into his pondering, he heard a noise from outside. Thinking there must be an animal, he went to investigate but what he found was the frightening truth of the city. The women were outside and heading towards what looked like a prison. When arriving there, they tore apart and ate a very bloody meal. What was most frightening was that the meal they ate was human flesh. These lovely ladies were not ladies at all, they were she-goblins! The captain crept away slow and silent and eventually found himself walking along the shore with horrors in his mind. He knew that he and his crew needed to get away now or they would all be kept and eaten like livestock. Then, as if in answer to his prayer of saving his crew, he came across a bright hope. His ship had washed ashore and was mostly intact!

The next day he gathered his crew away from their hosts and told them of both his discoveries. Although there were some among the crew who did not believe the women to be man-eating monsters, his crew trusted him and so agreed to keep the ship a secret from the city's inhabitants. Throughout the day they gathered supplies to fix their ship and when night came they snuck out to the shore. There they worked long and hard the entire night and when the day was just barely brightening they finally set sail with all aboard. And thus, the crew rescued themselves to face the open seas once more.

A crew and their ship

The image can be found on Flickr here

Author's Note: The idea of this story came from "Goblin City" in which the she-goblins desire husbands and then eat them once they are bored of them. In the original, there is a fairy that sends a flying horse to save the crew members who believed the captains warning. I changed the ending big time because I wanted it to be a little more realistic.

Bibliography: "Goblin City" from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. Web Source: Goblins

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

Story: "Goblin City" from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India
Author: W. H. D. Rouse

Setting

• City on the island of Ceylon that is solely inhabited by man eating she-goblins
• There is a prison in the city
• Can infer that the city buildings and layout look normal
• Can infer that there is farm land or pasture outside the city

Main Plot Points

• Crew of 500 men are shipwrecked near the city
• She-goblins convince men to marry them
• The captain discovers the truth and warns the crew
• The crew that believe him are saved by a fairy sending a flying horse
• The crew that didn't believe him are eaten

Characters

• She-goblins: have magic used to deceive the men and desire husbands that they will then eat
• The captain: cares for his crew and wants to save them
• Crew: possibly veteran sailors

Style

• 3rd person point of view
• Story is a telling of events
• Reader is told the truth if the she-goblins from the start
• Little to no dialog and details of the environment

Possible Improvements/Changes

• More descriptive details
• Point of view focused on a single character (the captain)
• Add more dialog

Old Map of Ceylon - source

Week 2 Reading Overview

For the Ramayana story I will read the Public Domain Edition. I decided on this because of the convenience of having the story on a website I can read on any device and the ability to choose whether to listen to the story, read it or both.

For the two Comic books I choose the following:
Ganesha - This one sounds interesting to me because it seems to be an origin story of how Ganesha gets an elephant head. It also may have some family elements and family has always been very important to me.
Konark - This one sounds interesting because it is a history of a temple over some time and also seems like it also has some family elements.

For the two videos I chose the following:
Ancient Technology - Atlantis and India - I chose this one because I have always found technology interesting and I am curious to see how the video ties Atlantis and India together.
Symbols of Divinity - I chose this one because I am curious to learn about the different symbols and see how they compare to symbols I know of growing up here in the US.

Lord Shiva - source

This is a picture of a statue of Lord Shiva outside a temple. I chose this one because the angle the picture is taken really makes the statue look impressive.

Time Strategies

For this semester, at least for this class, I believe working ahead will be the best strategy. And for classes where I can't work ahead, the best strategy would be to just start the work when it is given. That way I can get a feel for how long it will take and can then plan on working so many hours a day on it to get it done on time without getting swamped with work. Bellow is the two articles I read and found very interesting and because of them, I plan to keep in mind my end goal and make sure that I stay motivated to do my work as well as start work by determining a small first step and just doing it. Another great strategy I will follow this semester is to separate myself from distractions as much as possible.

The Important Habit of Just Starting
I found this one very interesting because thinking back on my own experiences I have noticed this is very true. There's been many time where something seems to big or daunting and so I never start. And there are other times where I've found if I just start it then I'll be able to finish it even if it was something I wasn't looking forward to doing or thought would be hard to finish.

How to Beat Procrastination
I decided to read this one because procrastination is one of my major weaknesses. This goes along well with the previous mentioned article because there are both about starting a project and focusing on the future goal.

 

A procrastinators reasoning...

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The Technology Tools

The majority of the mentioned websites I have never used before other than, of course, canvas. The websites used for this class are very different from I am used to an online class doing. Usually everything is on canvas so this is a refreshing change to be able to use and explore other websites. I am looking forward to creating a website due to that being something I have never done before but know people who have done so. I have never kept any sort of blog before and while learning to do so is very interesting, I don't see myself continuing with a blog after this class. However, maybe this class will change my mind on that.
As far as the tools mentioned I have always used folders to organize my bookmarks which, now that there are so many of them, is a necessity for me to be able to find anything. I have not had to use a word count or spell checker on my browser before because any writing I did was through Google docs and that acts very much like Microsoft Word does. I have never had a reason to use more than one web browser and likely will not because I have yet to find a website that Chrome, my preferred web browser, will not load nicely. However I do think Firefox is also a good browser and if Chrome stopped working for me that is the one I would switch to.

The Battle of The Browsers 

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First Impressions of Assignments

This semester I am quite excited about being in this class. I have never had a class such as this and thus it is why it has captured my attention. In all honesty, I wish more classes were like this. In a way we can take a break from all the harder classes and enjoy ourselves with a class that is actually fun. I believe that professors who keep a class simple and enjoyable should be teaching this method of their way to future prospering teachers. What I am looking forward to in this class is the whole story project where we as students can let our creative writing out and maybe learn not only about others but ourselves.

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"A good teacher is like a candle- it consumes itself to light the way for others"- Mustafa

Growth Mindset and Education

I had never heard of Carol Dweck before watching these videos. I find the topic very interesting and relevant and am very interested in learning more about it. I have always believed that people can succeed in anything they choose just as long as they fully put their minds to it and work hard and with the right attitude. Dweck's idea on growth mindset would support that. If this idea could be applied to the education system of today with truly good teachers then I completely believe that students would learn more because they would not be afraid of their efforts not being enough and would be more willing to work hard because of that. However this would not guarantee that all students would learn as well as others. Each and every one of us has a preferred learning method. There are auditory learners, visual learners and hands-on learners and different learning speeds on top of that as well as different strengths. Because of all these different methods of learning. I do not believe that one system can truly benefit all of them in one class time. Dave Paunesku brings up a good point about this. He mentions that a student failing to learn cannot be blamed all on the student for it is the system behind education that is responsible for teaching students. And I completely agree with that statement. I have heard of an idea where there would be different classes or even different schools for the different learning styles. This is an interesting idea but I'm not sure how practical it would be in reality. Where would you find all the teachers to teach for the specific styles? Oklahoma already has too few teachers for the number of students and I'm sure other states have the same issue. Maybe the first thing to consider is how to get qualified people to teach at public schools and make sure those teachers know how to create a good learning environment for students. And, of course, attract more teachers to the public schools in order to decrease class sizes and make the students feel more included.

"If you only focus on the problem you might miss the easy solution" - (source)

1NTR0DUC71ON .... Me,Myself, and I

Alright ladies and gentlemen and those of unspecified genders, please put your hands together for one of the world’s most egoistic, charismatic, funny, prideful, and maybe clinically insane individuals, ME... lol

My name is Rafeh Waheed, a lot of my friends go by Raphael, because you know, why not be called a ninja turtle. Thankfully our beloved professor has listed some questions for us to answer so people could have the unfortunate event of getting to know me.

My major is Bio-Chemical Sciences. There is nothing cool about it but once I get my hands on it, the coolest thing about the degree is that someone like me is holding it.

There was no class last semester I took that interested me

The biggest accomplishment last semester was that I passed a boring class

I went overseas to Pakistan and like all Pakistani weddings, it’s always over dramatic, overpriced, and *drum-roll* overrated.

well so, Im a 90s kid, so Im a huge fan of marvel + DC comics, and books like Harry potter, Eragon, Percy Jackson, Goosebumps. Kane Chronicles, and the list continues. I am a huge nerd as well and love playing Yugioh, Pokemon, and occasionally online games.

favorite music type- rock, rap. techno, dub-step, and classic remixes.

My career goals are to become a good son, the worse enemy of my enemies: P, a good brother, the best father, the best husband. BE A BADA**, and be a very competent medical physician in the future. 

I have falcon...... just kidding I have a conure that rivals my character, her name is Louloua. She thinks she’s a falcon though.

I don’t really have any favorite places; my favorite place is home with my tribe.

I LOVE MEAT. That is something I don’t compromise on. but a best alternative is chicken flavored ramen noodles because being broke sucks in collage.

My hobbies are as follows - memes, -reading, -laughing at political scandals, -criticizing governments, -making jokes, playing games online. playing the viola (out of practice) and finally I kickbox at one of Moores MMA gyms.

There is a lot about me that I don’t tell people. Only because people would get jealous of how Awesome I am. JK. In all honesty I am very similar to you. I am the main character of my life and I am someone who just like you is trying to find his way in this chaos. A life that is always harsh, cruel and relentless, I am someone just like you fighting to keep a smile on my face and staying strong in front of my loved ones. I know what it feels like to have doubts and struggles, but I tell myself as I tell you, to stay strong and fight on because I promise you will get there. Wherever it is. 

"It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, It’s the size of fight in the dog that will prevail" - Mark Twain

Source

<---- My spirit animal

Storybook Favorites

Ghost Stories - Where is Everyone?

This story grabbed my attention right from the introduction. The introduction was well written and was written in such a way that it dares the reader to continue. I really liked this story because it makes you think about places that I walk by every day and wonder about the history of the place. The style was a recounting of events but written in such a way that the characters seem real. This story tells of events that could actually happen and have likely happened somewhere and is a reminder to stay close to your loved ones and don't give up a fight just because you lost once.

No Birth No Death - Transformation

The style of this story was more of a poem than a book. I found the different style very interesting and fitting to the story. On the surface the story is quite simple but by digging down into it there are deeper meanings and messages in the story. I like the fact that this story can hold several meanings to the reader through the personification of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. It could be a message of how you can only know someone when you have seen all sides of them. It could also be a message of how time is always moving and the world changes but there are repeating patterns. And it could also be a message of how people are stronger by sticking together. The meaning of this story really depends on what the reader finds important or interesting.

The Demon King of Lanka, Ravana

So I really liked this story, first of all its overall style in portraying these epic legends in a casual modern day atmosphere. I come from an Indian/ Hindu background from my father’s side and when visiting overseas there are epic legends about these fictional characters.  What I find captivating about this storybook is how alive it feels. I am amazed at how the author has such excellent writing skills that it makes the reader want more. It’s a story that never dies because it shows that young creative minded authors can make everyone feel an emotional connection in stories. To think that Ravana, the demon king is also a guy with a conscious that isn't all evil makes people like us become more attached to these characters. By giving us a sensation of don’t judge a book by its cover, I can say that this story shows great promise to the reader. Also love how the two brothers are in pursuit of having mixed feeling of Ravana the demon king. I believe I once heard that the more complex a story is, the better it becomes. I am sure we all had a movie or book that made us understand where the villains point of view was. I am sure there were stories where we sympathize with them as well, I sort of sympathize with Ravana in this story. Sometimes you have to be a villain in other places to be a hero to your own people.  Like a great villain once said, " The hardest choices sometimes require the strongest will" - Thanos. I believe Ravana had a similar philosophy where he wanted to do anything to achieve his dream that he would take his own heads off. Overall, this was an amazing story and hope to see more. 

- A very cool Ravana wallpaper
Sourse of Wallpaper

Favorite Place

https://www.visitcos.com/blog/summit-these-five-lesser-known-colorado-mountains/

I went to the Colorado mountains once when i was young, and since that time adventuring in the mountains with my family, I have yet to feel the same kind of peace and excitement from anywhere else. I would say this is my favorite place because of its beauty and amazing weather. 

T3ST P0ST

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