Famous Last Words Week 4

           This week I have actually been able to get ahead in most of my classes.  I wish I was farther ahead in this class, but overall, I am pretty happy where I am.  This week has definitely been better as things are slowing down, but I still wish that some of these big presentations that I have coming up would just be done and over with.  Other than those weighing heavy on my mind, school is good.

I’m pretty proud of my story this week.  At first, I was really struggling with finding something to write but I’m very happy with what I did.  I just have to remember to stop being so critical of my own writing because all that matters is that I just do it and get those points.  Something interesting that I did see when I was trying to the extra credit blog commenting was how different everyone takes notes.  For me, I always write out my thought in full sentences and paragraphs, but other people were using bullet points with few words and plenty of quotes.  Other people asked questions to themselves, which I thought was a great way to start the creative process for a storytelling post.

Nothing too important has been going on outside of this class except that I went shopping for niece’s birthday today.   Her birthday party is going to be My Little Pony themed, so I thought that it was only appropriate that I buy her something My Little Pony.  However, everything that Target had of My Little Pony was almost completely sold out.  For this reason, I thought it was safe to go with an Elsa jacket and some Hello Kitty accessories.  However, I did manage to find her a My Little Pony beanie.  I just hope that she’s happy with what I got her.  I mean what little girl doesn’t love a birthday present combination of Hello Kitty, Frozen, and My Little Pony.

My Little Pony.  Source: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 4: Valmiki and Narada

            Valmiki was sitting quietly by the river, only opening his eyes to see the world around him.  By now, the anthill had covered the majority of his body.  The only body part that could be seen was his eyes.  Valmiki had planned to stay this way for another thousand years and possibly forever. 

            However, one day, Narada flew down from Heaven and asked, “Valmiki, will you help me?”

            “No, I’m too comfortable, and besides, the world offers me nothing that I cannot get by sitting within anthill,” Valmiki replied abruptly.

            “What can I say to you to make you do something besides live within that anthill?”

            “You really want to know what can make me move from this anthill?  Name one person, in the entire world, in the entire history of the world, who is honest,” Valmiki growled to Narada.

            “Rama,” Narada said smugly as he looked at the ground.

            “Rama?” Valmiki asked confused.  “Who is Rama?”

            “Rama is the ruler of Ayodhya.  He is the defeater of great Rakshasas such as Ravana and he is the only honest man the world has known.”

            “Why should I care about Rama?” Valmiki asked annoyed.

            “Perhaps you shouldn’t care about Rama, but you should care about his queen Sita, who has been abandoned by Rama.  If you do not comfort her when she arrives, she will surely commit suicide by throwing herself into the Ganga River,” Narada hastened in one breath.

            “Well, what did she do wrong?” Valmiki asked concerned.

            “Nothing,” said Narada shortly.  “She is the most virtuous and noble woman in the world who has been beside Rama through hardships such as exile and the death of his father.  She has done absolutely nothing wrong in her entire life,” Narada declared with pride.

            “Then why has she been abandoned?” Valmiki yelled, now even more confused.

            “Oh, well, the people of Ayodhya don’t like her so it is Rama’s duty as king that he abandon her.”

            “What?  You mean after all that, she gets tossed aside by the most honest man in the world, in the entire history of the world?”

            “Valmiki, I said he was honest, not a great husband.  So, will you help her?”  Narada begged.

            Without a word, Valmiki stood up and began to shake the dirt off that had previously covered his entire body.  He walked towards the river to rescue to Sita, thinking what mess this whole situation was to his search for peace.

Author’s Note

             I chose to tell the beginning of Buck’s version of the Ramayana.  I wanted to update the dialogue between Valmiki and Narada but I also wanted to focus on Sita’s situation, which is why I decided to leave out Valmiki’s duty of teaching the Ramayana to Rama’s sons.  My goal was to have a character who had a similar reaction about Sita’s abandonment to my own.  I just thought, “Really Rama? This is what you do to Sita after she has been beside you through everything?”  I know it’s only a story, but I liked the idea of Valmiki thinking that this situation doesn’t make much sense.  Other than leaving out Valmiki teaching the Ramayana to Rama’s sons, the rest of the story is true to the plot.

Valmiki.  Source: Wikipedia

Bibliography
             Buck, William (1976).  Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Reading Diary B Week 4: The Language of Animals

            A really interesting excerpt from this reading section was Kaikeyi asking Dasaratha to teach her the language of animals.  I found this section to be really interesting because it just seems so unexpected.  It literally feels like it comes out of nowhere, but I have a guess as to why it is inserted into the Ramayana.  Now, I could be totally wrong, but I believe that this is put into the story to possibly show Kaikeyi as having a past of being selfish.  Kaikeyi has just used her two boons to banish Rama and make her son Bharata king.  This story follows up that event by showing Kaikeyi asking Dasaratha to teach her to speak to animals in exchange for his death.  To be honest, how the Ramayana describes their relationship is sickening.  It is honestly like a teenage romance.  My reaction to this section is just pure disgust.  I’m not necessarily getting worked up about it but I’m just over it. 

            Other than that reaction, I thought Kaikeyi’s behavior was odd.  I mean she wanted to know how to speak to animals at the cost of her husband’s life.  Within the excerpt, she is described as sitting nonchalant waiting for him to tell her then die.  It’s insane.  At least within her exiling Rama and demanding Bharata to be king, the reader may see that she is doing this in order to protect herself.  However, this shows her as completely selfish.  I kind of hate it because it puts Kaikeyi in a worse light.  

Kaikeyi and Dasaratha.  Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A Week 4: The Beginning

            Something that I really like about Buck’s version of the Ramayana is that he includes so much background information.  The beginning is what is so striking to me.  He sets up the story as happening thousands of years later from the events of the Ramayana through someone telling a story about someone else telling a story.  It’s a bit complicated at first, but eventually it all starts to make sense. 

            What most interested me in this reading section was Valmiki helping Sita.  Buck’s version explains that Valmiki has been chosen to care for Sita so that she does not commit suicide after Rama has abandoned her.  When I first read this, I was surprised.  I honestly thought Buck’s version would not have differed so much from Narayan’s but I was obviously wrong.  Something else that is interesting to me is that the text explains that Sita has done nothing wrong, but Rama must still banish her because the people within their kingdom do not like her.  Here, I really wish that we would have been given more details, but I suppose we are most likely not supposed to know what she is accused of because she didn’t do anything wrong.  However, the suspense and ambiguity is killing me.  Obviously, I understand that Sita’s banishment is nothing more than a useful plot device so that the Ramayana can be told to us, but it is annoying. 

             Overall, I am pleasantly surprised because I thought that Buck’s version of the Ramayana would have been so similar to Narayan’s version that I would have been bored and uninspired to write storytelling posts, but it appears that this version will be very different.  

Valmiki. Source: Wikipedia