Reading Notes: Seven Secrets of Vishnu Part B

Seven Secrets of Vishnu: Matsya

I've loved looking at these videos so far because the ideas that it portrays. I would say that my favorite part of part B would have to be the first video. It starts out by saying that animals live to survive and their are no rules in the wild. Humans are the only beings that can think of a life in which two animals, like a goat and a lion, can live in harmony. The video goes on to say that from the imagination comes heaven and the desire to create the paradise of perfection causes man to create culture. This all kind of reminds me of the epified videos where they talk about the Mahabharata and how they said that it is a perfect example of karma. Everything is a direct result of what happened before it. Humans are the only people with imagination, they use that imagination to create heaven, they create culture because of that notion of heaven.

Seven Secrets of Vishnu: Matsya's secrect

Reading Notes: The Seven Secrets of Vishnu Part A

The Seven Secrets of Vishnu

The reason why I chose this video playlist was because of the title, The Seven Secrets of Vishnu. Titles like that really get people's attention and sometimes my titles fall flat so I that's something I need to work on. Watching these videos was not only informative be super interesting. I had no idea that Vishnu had a female form. I liked how they said that in Hindu mythology, they have two realities, a spiritual one and a material one. I am pretty sure my next story would be about Mohini and another reality. She is described and an enchantress and temptress which would be more fun to write about. I feel like she has the kind of personality that is lax on the strict rules we have seen in the protagonists the previous epics (like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata). 


Mohini's Secret

Reading Notes: Krishna Part B

Krishna and Radha

My favorite part of Part B of the Krishna videos has to be the part of how Radha and Krishna grew up together and their love story. I am still not a big fan how she Radha to see how faithful she was to Krishna but the testing itself was interesting. Radha had to drink milk and Krishna tongue was blistered. The only way for his tongue to heal was by the help of Radha. I do like that Krishna played a part of the testing too instead like in the Ramayana where Sita had to be basically set on fire.   I think that in my retelling I would like to maybe switch places of and have Krishna being tested than Radha or write in her perspective. 

Krishna Reading Notes: Part A

Yashoda and Krishna

I decided to watch the Krishna Epified videos because I saw how so many people had done stories over them last week. I love watching the epified videos so this was an easy choice. I wasn't disappointed. I would have to say that my favorite part is Krishna being switched a birth. This is definitely part of the story I could have fun writing a story about. In my portfolio, I have written in the perspective of women and I think this would be a great addition to it. 

Krishna Epified, Part A.

Eastern Stories and Legends Reading Notes: Part B

Book Cover

Like most of the Jatakas that I’ve read, Part B’s Reading is filled with stories that have a lesson behind it. This kind of reminds me of parables. One story that stuck out to me was The Man who Overcame All Obsticles. For what I got from the story was that a man made a grave mistake that could have killed all his friends but instead of freaking out and accepting his fate, he was able to think his way through it and solve his problems.

Title: Eastern Stories and Legends

Author: Marie Shedlock

Year: 1920 (originally published in 1910)

reading link

Eastern Stories and Legends Reading Notes: Part A

Book Cover

I read a lot about the Jataka Tales and I really enjoyed them so when I saw there was another reading about Jataka Tales, I couldn’t resist. This reading has the monkey and the crocodile story which I am very familiar with. I think I’ve said before how much I loved reading as a child (and now) and I used to have these children encyclopedia set of books. One of those books had a bunch of stories and Monkey and the Crocodile was one of those stories. For those people who are familiar with these stories and enjoyed them as children, I think they would like to here a retelling that keeps the similar aspects of the original but still unique. I think a lot of the problems with remakes is that they can’t live up to the original and yet they try to. Maybe changing the characters to humans, the situation, or the point of view the story is written will work.


Title: Eastern Stories and Legends
Author: Marie Shedlock
Year: 1920 (originally published in 1910)
Reading Link
Photo link

Jataka Tales:Reading Notes Part B

A Pigeon and A Crow

The Pigeon and the Crow was my favorite story in Part B of the Jataka Tales. Even though there were other stories in this section that had more of a mythical aspect, this story stood out to me. It kind of reminded me of parables. I haven’t written a story that has a meaning behind it and I think that adding a story that teaches something will help me expand as a writer. 

Title: Jataka Tales
Author: H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas
Year: 1916

Link to reading

Jataka Tales: Reading Note Part A

Depiction of the Monkey King

I've read Twenty Jataka Tales and loved the different stories so much that I decided to do read some more tales. My favorite story by far was the Monkey and the Ogre. I love reading stories that have to do with fantasy and anything with mythical creatures and talking animals gets my attention in a way no other genre can. I noticed with my writing that there is more of a realistic way about it. Even when writing about the epics that are filled with shapeshifters and demons. Reading this story makes me want to add those kind of characteristics to my stories.

Title: Jataka Tales
Author: H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas
Year: 1916
Link to reading

Reading Notes Part B: Twenty Jataka Tales

Twenty Jataka Tales Cover

Part B of Jataka Tales was as intriguing as the part A. The first story was really unexpected. I was surprised that pigs were the choice of animal for what happens in the story. If you think of a pig, you think of a loud, huge animal that rolls around in mud. When it comes to animals that embody wisdom, pigs are not your first choice. I think that adding aspects to my story that are unexpected like this first story can really make it better.

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939
Link

Reading Notes Part A: Twenty Jataka Tales

I was immediately interested in this book because when I clicked on the link, one of the stories caught my eye. I’ve always loved anything that has to do with fantasy so when I saw one of the stories was called the Fairy and the Hare, I couldn’t help but want to read it. One thing that I noticed about this story was the writing itself. The choice of vocabulary and descriptions really help people visualize the story. I think that adding more descriptive words would really add to my writing. I also noticed that I wrote first person a lot and this is written in third person. I think that for my next story, I should try to do something different and write in third person. Writing in the point of view maybe difficult but I feel like I need to mix things up. 

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

Jataka Tales

After reading the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for the past month, I wasn't used to reading stories that were just one and done. It wasn't bad just different in the way that I expected more to happen and it just kinda ended fast. I chose to read the More Jataka Tales because I remember reading the Monkey and the Crocodile already and I wanted to read something new. I wasn't disappointed. I loved reading this stories mostly because everything was a bit unexpected. My favorite story was The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer. It was such a sweet story about friendship between animals that you wouldn't think would associate. 

More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Reading notes Mahabharata:

Kunti shows Pandu baby Yudhisthira

I noticed that there was some differences when watching the Epified videos. Like the hermit that Pandu killed was a Rishi in deer form. I also was looking foreword to seeing how Epified would depict the more interesting parts of the story like the birth of the Kandavas. Some of these stories and forgot most of the details about and seeing them in visual form just made the already incredible epic much more interesting.

Epified Mahabarata Videos Part B

Reading Notes Mahabhararta: Part A

Still of Episode 5 - Amba's Ruin

I decided to watch the Mahabharata videos for this weeks reading. I am glad I did because one thing that the narrator explained was that the story was about how Karma works. For me, it opened my eyes to see the story in a different light. I am more of a visual person so when I was watching the retelling with the drawings, it was more intense for me than when I read it. I think that if I do a retelling that maybe adding more than one picture and maybe some music would enhance the imagery and feeling. 


Epified Mahabharata Youtubeplaylist

Reading Notes Mahabharata: Part D

Bhishma Laying on a Pillow of Arrows

As I was reading the Mahabharata, I was wondering when Amba's reincarnation would show up. We saw her a bit at the end of part C. Bhishma's death was sad in the sense that he literally died because Shikhandin was born a women and he refused to fight him and Arjuna arrows pierced him. Again, for people that are all about honor, I feel that that death and fight was dishonorable. I know that Bhishma is super old so it is surprising that he is able to such a great warrior and a formidable opponent for Arjuna. I also think that it is weird that Bhishma wants to stay alive until the solstice. Why would he want to experience the pain of his wounds or prolong the inevitable? He was just left there in the battlefield and no one thought to take him someplace else?
The ending of the epic made me panic a little bit. I was upset that the all the brothers and their wife fell except for Yudhishthira didn't get into heaven. Not only that but that the Kauravas were in heaven and Duryodhana was sitting on the throne. I was glad to see that it was just an illusion. It was a good twist ending to a great epic.

 Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). 

Reading Notes Part C: Mahabharata

Draupadi and Krishna

I see a lot of parallels with the Ramayana and the Mahabharta. Both Rama and the Pandavas are both in exile. Even though they are begged to come back. Granted in the Mahabharata, a brother and a wife were the ones begging Yudhishthira to go back and fight for their kingdom, Yudhishthira refused. He had to do the honorable thing and live out the exile. I think that if I were to write about this specific part of a story, I would see if I could have the Pandavas meet Rama in passing in the forest.


Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

Reading Notes Mahabharata: Part B

The Pandava and Queen Kunit

Part B was pretty enjoyable to read. One thing that I was kind of upset about was the planning of the death of the Pandava and their mother Kunti. Not really that they were platted against by their own cousins, but that the lower caste women and her sons were killed. If the Pandava were so good and noble, why did they just let them die in the fire? They were allowed in to eat but they paid for it with their lives. If I do write about this story I would probably change it so that it explains why they were left to die. Maybe they couldn't be awoken because they were in a drunken sleep. Or maybe the Pandava knowingly left them there so that they could hide that they survived. Either way, I hate not knowing the reasons why characters do things. 

The Indian Heroes by C. A. Kincaid (1921).

Mahabharata Reading Notes: Part A

Vasaya

So this story is so interesting. I was immediately drawn in with all the things happening since it's like they happen one after the other. Like how Vayasa's mother was born. The king's semen just fell into a river and a fish just ate it. Two kids just happened to pop out of a fish. I also noticed that these people take honor and birth seriously but there are people in the monarch that are not even of royal blood. Satyavti is only royal because she married the king. He son died and she brought Vayasa to father the next monarch. I wonder why no one is disputing it. And the fact that one of the wives was like, " no, I'm not sleeping with this guy again." and sends her maiden. Wouldn't she get punished for disobeying the queen mother? And that has to be a big hit to Vayasa's ego since he was so repulsive that his babies came out with some kind of defect. My favorite part by far that I found so funny was when King Pandu kills a deer and turns out to be a sage in the form of a deer. The sage isn't even made that he was killed. It was that he didn't get to finish having sex with his mate. He literally cursed Pandu because of it. My roommate and I both laughed so hard at this part.


The Mahabharata

Sita Sings the Blues: Reading Notes Part B

Still of Sita Sings the Blue

Again, I loved the intro of the second half! It's super mesmerizing and the music just added to that. I think that I might add some music for my story next time. I finally got what the San Francisco couple had to do with the story line. It's just a modern story that parallels with the original. I don't think I could write a story that has parallel story line since that would be confusing. Also I don't think I would be able to do it within the word limit. I really enjoyed this movie, not only was it entertaining, it was super informative.

Sita Sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues: Reading Notes Part A

Still of Sita and Rama in "Sita Sings the Blues"

So I am going to be quite honest, I was a little confused in the beginning. The introduction with the different gods and the music was super mesmerizing. That was one of my favorite parts of the first half of the movie. I was a little confused about the San Francisco couple and how it pertained to the story at first. I loved the retelling of how Rama got banished. I literally laughed out loud when Kaikeyi told Rama to not let the door hit his ass on the way out. I think I would like to add some of that modern and slightly less than royal feeling that this movie gave to my story for this week.

Sita Sings the Blues

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part D

Sita Proves Her Purity

So the part of the Ramayana where they rescue Sita kind of pissed me off a little bit. I'll put some of my notes that I wrote down while reading.

• Sita literally did nothing wrong and is accused of infidelity
• Rama says it's improper to take her back after she is gone for a year
• Like she said, how is it her fault that she is taken
• why doesn't he choose her over what is "proper"?
• does he not trust her?
• if he knew her he would know that she wouldn't cheat on him
• they are literally reincarnations that are MADE for each other

• She has to step into a fire to PROVE that she is pure. 
• What the heck? If he was taken, his purity would not be in question.

Narayan's Ramayana