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

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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

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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.