Week 14 Indian Fairy Tales

Indian Fairy Tales Unit 

The Lion and the Crane

• The crane helps the lion get a bone out of his throat but when the crane wants something in return, the lion does not help. 

The Broken Pot

• This is a story about being greedy. The man is planning out everything he will buy using the rice and eventually is the one that causes there to be no more rice. 

The Magic Fiddle

• The beginning of this story reminds me of Joseph and the dream coat from the bible. The brother's wives try to kill their sister but she takes revenge on them in the end. 

The Cruel Crane Outwitted

• The crane tries to outwit the fish but ends up getting outwitted by the crabs. 

The Tiger, The Brahman and the Jackal

• The tiger tries to kill the Brahman but instead the brahman and jackal trick the tiger to go back into it's cage. 

Harisarman

• The Harisarman starts poor but is eventually given everything he could ever want.

The Charmed Ring

• The story reminded me of a mixture of Lord of the Rings and the prodigal son from the bible.

The Talkative Tortoise

• The tortoise was riding with the ducks but fell because of the fact that he opened his mouth. 

The Gold-Giving Serpent

• The Brahman's son tried to kill the serpent but he turned around and killed him instead.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

• The robbers learned not to trust everyone

Why the Fish Laughed

• This one was my favorite because it had such a deeper moral than just about a fish. 

Reading Diary Week 13

The Birth of Rama

• Brahma commands the story of Rama to be told 
• This version is told by Valmiki
• Dasaratha was sad because he did not have a son
• He gave many gifts to the Brahmans and then Rama was born

Vishwamitra 

• Rama was the most beautiful of the children
• He felt he obtained the moon
• Rama was the most accomplished prince
• Vishwamitra led Rama to his hermitage

Rama and Sita

• Rama and Sita were instantly destined to be married
• They fell in love at first sight
• They spent a lot of time together

Kaikeyi's Plot

• Manthara hated Rama and did not rejoice at his new relationship
• She was very ugly
• Kaikeyi defended Rama

Rama's Exile

• Rama knew he had to be exiled and was not moved by it 
• Dasaratha was heart broken 
• He told Sita the distance would increase his love

The Death of Dasaratha

• He is very very sad that Rama is gone
• He eventually dies of a broken heart

Rama and Bhrata

• Bhrata is determinded to bring his brother out of the jungle
• The shoes represent royal authority

The Rakshasas

• Rama and Sita and Lakshmana go into the jungle
• They come across Ravana's sister

The Golden Deer

• Sita first sees the golden deer
• Ravana develops a gross interest in Sita

Rama's Quest for Sita

• Rama is heartbroken without Sita and is determined to get her back

Hanuman

• Ravana is constantly trying to win the love of Sita
• Rama's has people who will help him get Sita back

Rama's Coronation

• Rama and Sita are reunited
• Sita leaves at the end of the story because of things that happened when she was away

Reading Diary B Week 12

Jakata Tales

The Three Fishes- In this story three fish are swimming and see men fishing. Two of them unknowingly swim into a nest and get saved by the third because he tells them to dive into the net and break it! This story reminds me of Finding Nemo!

The Tricky Wolf and the Rats- In this story there is a lot of rats who have a master who is very witty. He out smarts the wolf who is eating all of his men and kills him.

The Golden Goose- In this story there are two geese, one poor and one golden. They golden one is too trustworthy and gives the poor goose all of his feathers.

The Stupid Monkeys- This is about a bunch of monkeys who are extremely dumb. They have to check on the condition of a bunch of trees and the way they do it is by pulling their roots out of the ground and killing the trees.

The Cunning Wolf- This story is pretty simple. A man attempts to kill some animals for food and instead they know what he is doing and get away.

The Woodpecker and the Lion- This is a simple one as well. This is about how the lion and woodpecker's relationship was ruined.

Reading Diary Week 11 Part B

Ghostly Wife: This story was about a woman who was nearly beaten to death and then a ghost goes home in her in her place. The husband and mother in law don't realize for a while. When they finally realize, they set a trap and then find out she is fake. They go and rescue his real wife.

The Story of the Brahmadaitya: In this story a poor Brahman goes into the forest and comes across some memorable characters. He eventually gets supplied with all the things he needs and is overjoyed with his wife.

Part B

Reading Diary A Week 10

I have definitely enjoyed reading this book a lot because of the differences yet similarities to the last two. I have, however, struggled a little bit with all of the difficult names. My favorite part of this section of the reading this week was the cattle raid. I think my favorite part of Indian Epics has been reading of animals and their perceptions of those animals. Susharman is happy about the death of Kichaka but is quickly captured by Bhima. I just thought it was funny to read about the way of getting even or revenge was by stealing cattle. I also enjoyed reading about everyone disguising themselves.

Reading Diary Assessment

When I was going back over the instructions for the reading diaries I really I like when it said that they are more for our benefit than for an actual assignment if that makes sense. When I went back and read stuff I could easily recall other facts that I had not included merely because I had written down the facts that I felt were the most important. It's completely true that our schedules get so busy so this is a perfect assignment. I actually feel like I need to go and making reading diaries for other books I read because often times I will be reading a book and then not be able to pick it up for a couple weeks which causes me to forget a lot of the information I was reading. I think I did a pretty good job on my assignments because they definitely serve their purpose of allowing me to remember what I read. I actually never included any images in my diary posts but I guess that idea never really crossed my mind. I definitely think that's something that will help me remember the stories more in the future. As I'm reading my posts I can definitely tell what a hopeless romantic I am because more of the things that I find the most memorable are things about the love story that went on in the books. As far as advice for other students goes I would say to definitely focus on the fact that this assignment is for us and our benefit. It should compliment our learning styles. It's hard to compare other peoples reading diaries because things that are important to one person might not be important to another and/or the learning styles between people may be completely different.

Reading Diary B Week 7

The final reading assignment of this awesome book. I was very skeptical of these books before reading them because they would not normally be something that I would choose at a book store. I have loved seeing all of the personalities of the characters in this book and also being able to read more about these characters from other stories from Indian epics.

Lots of love is shown for Rama from Bharata, especially now that he is back and taking over the title. I love the relationship between the two.

People talk about Sita and her actions. This really goes to show how many things don't actually change over time because this is something that would definitely happen again in today's time.

Sumantra blames the result on karma. Lakshmana must obey Rama's wishes to leave Sita at the Ganges.

I love when she comes back to Rama. It shows her humility even though it doesn't work out the way she was hoping.

I really loved this book and can't wait to do more research about it in the future!

Reading Diary A Week 7

The part of this reading that stands out the most to me is at the beginning of the reading when Jambavan is fighting the demons. Jambavan has quickly become my favorite character in this book. I liked when it said that he "hugged them to death."

After the battle between Rama and Ravana, Ravana dies and Maya takes it very hard.

I actually lied about the part of the reading that stood out to me. I think the best part was when Hanuman finds Sita. She is definitely one of my favorite parts of this book so when they were reunited I felt very emotionally attached to her character.

It was also exciting to read about Rama's coronation and to realize that the end of the exile is in sight!

Reading Diary B

I really liked the quote at the beginning of this reading that Maricha says to Ravana when he says, "let the Sun and Moon stand in fear of you but let Sita be!" It kind of reminds me of the reading from last week where someone is talking someone out of being bad. I felt like I was rooting for Lakshmana so much where he was skeptical about the deer, I wish that people would have listened to him. I felt like I do while watching a scary movie when the person is doing something stupid and you can't help but get angry that they're doing. I always feel some weird emotional attachment to Sita during these readings so I was getting really upset when Ravana finally kidnapped her. I was especially annoyed when Ravana was fighting Jatayu. It significantly creeped me out when Ravana calls Sita "Mine."

I thought this was the most entertaining reading with the most interesting little stories. It is definitely going to be easy to figure out a storytelling for this week's reading.

Reading Diary B Week 4

 I thought it was crazy that Dasaratha forced his own son into exile on the request of someone else. I feel like he gave into the request of Kaikeyi way too fast. It was pretty frustrating for me while I was reading it. I also thought it was crazy how peacefully Rama responded. I really liked the line that Lakshmana said when he said "a wrong thrown at Rama seems to bring out no anger in him; it is like a seed thrown on stone" (71). I really don't like the character of Kaikeyi, it bugged me reading about how she tried so hard to get Dasaratha to teach her the language of the animals. I got super sad (once again) when I read about the death of Dasaratha. That's sad that he dies because of the departure of Rama which I completely blame on Kaikeyi, which makes me not like her even more.

Reading Diary A Week 4

Sauti and Sanuaka set up the story by saying that they are going to talk about the story of Ramayana. Narada wants Valmiki to rescue Sita from exile and to teach her sons about Rama. Rama has twin sons named Kusa and Lava who are named by Valmiki. My favorite part of this reading was learning about the story of Pulastya and Vaishravana. It just really caught my attention because of the detail of the characters and the way the author introduces them. Besides that story I also really got a lot of out the story of Ravana and Shiva. I loved rereading about Rama and Vishwamitra. I think it is very interesting reading the same story from two different translations. This reading ends with my favorite story of Rama and Sita. I definitely plan on including them in my storybook because I am such a big fan of this story!