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Week 2: Famous Last Words

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This week I wrote kind of in the style of a classic fairy tale, like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Halfway through, I realized I wasn’t a huge fan of that style for myself. I know now not to waste my time trying to force my way through writing the story in that style.

I looked at a few more past storybooks, too. Few of those follow a traditional storytelling format. One was modeled after Rate My Professor, one was in interview format, and another was in the style of a mystery novel. I should try out some of these writing styles and think of some others to try, too. Maybe I’ll find one that I really like.

I washed all of my baby clothes this week. I only have five weeks until my due date now! I’ve been helping get stuff together for my baby showers this coming month. Sometime this coming week I plan on setting up my crib and packing my hospital bag. Everything is getting so close! I’m taking developmental psychology this semester and this week we learned about prenatal development. Basically the whole chapter I was thinking to myself, “Yup. Mhm. Duh. I’ve known this for the past seven months; why am I reading it again?”

I got halfway through Marketing only to find out that the next due date is next Sunday, not today. That was a bit disappointing that I wasted that time working on something that wasn’t as urgent as other things.

This week at work we got a new manager and several people quit. I get more hours now, but that might be a bad thing as now I’m scrambling to get all of my stuff done before midnight tonight. I’ll need to get better at planning when I am going to do things.

Next week will hopefully be better.

Week 2 Storytelling: The Princess and the Unliftable Bow

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Sita. She had golden skin that glowed in the sunlight and long, flowing black hair that was the envy of all the women in the kingdom. Despite her great beauty, she was not married.

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Princes and men of prestige from countries far and wide had come seeking her hand, but were denied. Long ago, when he saw how beautiful and desirable his daughter was becoming, King Janaka decided to set one condition for Sita’s future husband:  he must lift and string the god Shiva’s enormous bow. Each of the princes had come expecting this to be an easy task, but at seeing the bow turned away to head back to their home country. Only the proud attempted the feat just to find it as impossible as all the others saw it.

The king started to worry. Sita was growing in age. Soon she would be too old to be a desirable bride.

One day a prince of great lineage came into the city. When the princess saw him she fell in love. She became very distressed, for she knew she had little chance for getting to spend the rest of her life with him. “Oh, if only he would have never entered my sight! Then I wouldn’t have fallen in love with him! I wouldn’t be in such torment now!”

The king saw how upset his daughter was and sought after this prince that had captivated his beloved daughter. When the prince arrived before the king, Janaka asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Rama, son of Dasaratha and prince of Kosala,” the prince respectfully answered.

“Why are you here?” the king inquired.

“I was just passing through,” Rama replied. “I was on a journey with the sage Viswamithra and my brother. Once we accomplished our mission, we decided to visit your lovely city.”

“How do you like it?” asked King Janaka.

Rama answered, “Oh, the city is lovely, but it is very dull in comparison to the beautiful princess.”

The king thought Rama a very agreeable person. “If only I had not made that one condition so long ago,” thought King Janaka, “then I would let Rama marry my Sita tomorrow!”

He told the prince of what he must do in order to marry his daughter and expressed his regrets to Rama of setting such a high bar to jump over. He dismissed Rama.

Rama went back and told his travel partners all that passed between him and the king. Viswamithra, confident in Rama’s abilities, sought King Janaka’s presence to ask to give Rama a chance. “He is no ordinary man. His abilities are greater than most. Please ask him to try to lift and string Shiva’s bow. You won’t be disappointed.”

The king, hopeful that the sage was not lying about Rama’s abilities, called his servants to bring in the bow. It took twelve of his strongest servants to lift the bow to be transported to the palace. While they were bringing it, the king called the prince back to him. “Rama, you must try to string the bow. If anyone can do it, you can.”

Sita was still distraught by the fact that she was in love with a man whom she thought she could not marry. As she was weeping, she heard a loud CRACK! “The earth is breaking just like my heart!” she thought.

Just then a handmaid burst in to her chambers and declared, “Prepare for you wedding, Princess! Rama, the prince you saw the other day, has lifted and strung the bow! He was so strong that it broke under his strength!”

Hurriedly all of the servants and citizens of the city prepared the wedding. The next day everything was ready and they had a glorious ceremony. There was a large feast and all over the city people were dancing, singing, and drinking spirits in celebration of the beautiful couple. Rama and Sita were married!

And they lived happily ever after.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author’s note:  Inspiration for the story comes from R. K. Narayan's 1972 edition of the Ramayana, which you can find on Amazon. I realize this story gets a bit rambly at times, but I couldn't decide what to cut where. Halfway through writing it I considered starting over and making it so that Sita had been cursed by an evil stepmother or something so that she would never marry, then Rama comes along and saves her. I realized that I’m not a huge fan of writing this style of story today. In India, brides don't wear white; they wear red (just a bit of information I picked up from watching too many wedding shows; I'm not sure which episodes from which series). The picture I put at the beginning implies that the princess was wearing red, as if longing to be a bride.

Week 2: Reading Diary B

Observations from today's reading:

So far parallels I’ve seen with Christianity:  a trinity as a supreme god, belief that the world will end in fire

Rama is really taking being cast out and denied the throne quite well

“A word given is like an arrow, it goes forward. You cannot recall it midway…”—Rama

Sathrugna lit the funeral pyre

“The gods watched this argument, afraid that if Rama returned to the kingdom, overwhelmed by the needs of the country, the purpose of his incarnation would be defeated, and proclaimed:  ‘Bharatha, go back and rule on Rama’s behalf for fourteen years.’”

Lakshmana is a good hut builder and interior decorator

Warrior, brahmin, and aura are all classes in the caste system

Kamavalli/Soorpanaka says she wants to renounce her brothers and family, but she also says if her brothers find out she and Rama are married, they will bless him with “honours and wealth and overlordship of several worlds” she can’t be trusted

Ravana:

-        had stolen Indra’s magical wish-granting tree

-        has ten heads

-        has the power to change the weather

-        made time stand still

-        asked the moon to come and when it did he insulted it, then did the same with the sun

-        “valued the formality of being counselled”

Mareecha felt that he was approaching the end of his life and that Ravana was going towards his and his race’s (rakshasa/demon) destruction, foreshadowing

Rama realized he had been fooled by the deer once he had gotten very far away from the cottage and shot it

Lakshmana was never fooled by the deer, only followed the cry of “Rama” so Sita wouldn’t kill herself

Week 2: Reading Diary A

So... I'm not 100% sure how these reading diaries are supposed to look, so I'm just going to write a list of notes that I jotted down while reading and quotes I thought might be significant. This is the Reading Guide for future reference.

The solar dynasty was Dasaratha’s family’s rule

Rama’s brothers are Vishnu’s tools and all the other gods are coming as monkeys to defeat Ravana

Sage Risha Sringa is the only one who can do the right yagna to give the king sons

Kausala—Rama, Kaikeyi—Bharatha, Sumithra—Lakshmana and Sathrugna

Rama cared about the people of Ayodhya

Viswamithra hates all reference to him being king (wants to just be known as a Brahma Rishi), is not offended by not given a proper sendoff

A Brahma Rishi is kind of like a monk, from what I can tell

“A seed that sprouts at the foot of its parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted.” –Viswamithra

Dasaratha really didn’t want to let his sons go with Viswamithra

Serpents large enough for elephants to seek shade in their jaws in the desert

“Viswamithra…transmitted to them [the boys] mentally two mantras.” Does he have psychic powers?

“When they meditated on and recited these incantations, the arid atmosphere was transformed for the rest of their passage and they felt as if they were wading through a cool stream with a southern summer breeze blowing on their faces.” powerful mantras, magic

The desert is so terrible because of Thataka

“Just as the presence of a little loba (meanness) dries up and disfigures a whole human personality, so does the presence of this monster [Thataka] turn into desert a region which was once fertile.”

“Her strength, ruthlessness, appearance, rule her out of that category [womanhood],” “A woman of demoniac tendencies loses all consideration to be treated as a woman”—Viswamithra

Vishnu dwarf made a deal with Mahabali, then grew and took control of earth and the heavens and pressed Mahabali into the netherworld

Thataka’s sons tried to seek revenge during the yagna, but Rama destroyed them; the other demons fled

“We attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine and other associations of every piece of ground we tread on. Otherwise it would be like the passage of a blind man through illuminated halls and gardens. That is the reason why I have explained to you the story of every place we have passed through.”—Viswamithra

Washing in the Ganges or dumping someone’s ashes there gives someone salvation

People live a really long time (30,000+ years)

The oceans were created by the trenches made in search of the horse being filled by the Ganges

The city is described and “as if to welcome a royal bridegroom-to-be” foreshadows the wedding

Everyone in Mithila is rich

Sita is distressed after seeing Rama

All the earth and all the gods celebrated Rama’s use of the bow

The author talks a lot about breasts

Viswamithra leaves them after the wedding

Dasaratha fears that something bad will happen to prevent Rama from becoming his successor

“one in Rama’s position should count five mothers:  the one who has borne him, a stepmother, a father’s sister, an elder brother’s wife, and the wife of the guru—all these have equal rank as mother”—Kaikeyi, happy at the news of Rama’s coming coronation

Kaikeyi asked for her two wishes in the room of anger

“You [Kaikeyi] are no longer my wife, and your son shall not be entitled to cremate me when I die”—Dasaratha

“I take back my word to Kaikeyi.”—Dasaratha, not wanting Rama to leave

Week 1: Famous Last Words

This week I have become a blogger. I had never had a blog before this class and now I have one. Sure, my blog is for class and I don't really have completely free reign over what I post, but it's a blog none the less. I could make a blog for just me, but I don't have time for that. I don't really know what I'd talk about, anyway.

Another thing that happened this week is that I realized my creative writing skills could use quite a bit of practice. The last piece of creative writing I did was in high school. It wasn't too great then, either. I'll get to work on that quite a bit this semester. Hopefully I can get to a point where I don’t have to work too hard to get the creative juices flowing like what happened this week.

I started reading ahead for next week. I decided to read out loud to my daughter. She doesn't have a clue what I'm saying yet (she can probably just make out syllables), but studies have shown that getting started on reading early in life leads to all sorts of really good things.

I also learned that life is busier than I thought it would be. I need to create a schedule of when all of my assignments are due and when I will do them. There is just so much stuff I need to keep track of. I also need to be more realistic about how long it’ll take me to do something. I also need to find a good, quiet study spot in Enid. I was very disappointed to learn that the library, despite the stereotype of libraries, was not especially quiet (something I had never noticed before).

Overall, it’s been a good week and a good start to the semester. I’m excited for all of the things I’ll learn in the next few months.

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