Reading Notes: The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan Part B

Notes:

• Two Promises Revived (continued) 

Rama's exile is too much for the King to handle and he dies. On Bharatha's way home I could do a spin off story, maybe he notices something off... he is the only one not aware of the news anyway.

Maybe do a plot twist when Bharatha returns, maybe he did plan Rama;s exile but made it look like his mother, Kaikeyi did planned the whole scheme.

• King Dasaratha's Funeral 

Maybe create a spin off story at he funeral. Go into more detail about the lighting of the Pyre. A fight amongst the brothers.

• Searching for Rama

When Bharatha finds Rama in the forest it can be under different conditions. Maybe the town does not follow or their conversation takes a turn for the worse.
Bharatha agrees to rule for 14 years while Rama is in exile but he does not like the idea. Maybe instead of Bharatha not wanting to rule he likes the idea.
Rama gives Bharatha his sandals as a symbol but maybe in my story he gives him something else as a symbol for him to rule on behalf on.

• Encounters in Exile

Lakshmana builds a beautiful house out of earth but they had to move on. Maybe create a story about Lakshmana's house building and how Rama did not even know his brother could build like that.

Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita meet Jatayu a Great Eagle. Jittery is now their protector. Maybe in my story he is a different animal.

Rama then encounters Ravana's sister, Soorpanaka (this is why he was reincarnated to begin with, to kill Ravana) and she is extremely beautiful but maybe in my story she can change forms to be appealing to whoever is looking at her. Or maybe she convinces Rama to marry her but it takes his wife to break her spell and Lakshmana mutilating her.
This angers Soorpanaka's brothers and they try to fight Rama. After two battles Rama and Lakshmana defeat them and kills Sorrpanaka and Ravana's brother. Maybe in my story I can elaborate on the battles.

• The Grand Tormentor

Maybe elaborate on the story of how the Gods became slaves to Ravana.
Ravana lusts for Sita but maybe in the story I can create another reason for Ravana wanting to seize her, maybe to bring Rama to him because he knows Rama will save Sita no matter what.

Ravana is now tormented by love and wants Sita, maybe go into a little more detail about this and his demand for changing seasons and weather.
Raven must have Sita so he convinces Mareecha to draw Rama and Lakshmana away, maybe Mareecha takes a different form than a golden deer maybe a golden bird or something or maybe instead of drawing Rama and Lakshmana away, Sita is drawn away.

Ravana approaches Sita: Painting from Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R.K.        Narayan

Reading Notes: The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan Part A

Notes: 

• Rama's Initiation

Starts off with Dasaratha (ruler of Kosala) meeting with Viswamithra (who is a King turned Sage). Viswamithra wants to take Rama (the son and reincarnated Vishnu) to Sidhasrama to stop evil creatures from disturbing holy practices.
Dasaratha does not want to let Rama go but eventually agrees to as long as his brother Lakshmana goes too. They leave that day.

The story could start out that Lakshmana was jealous of his brother Rama for getting all the glory and praise of being first born and chosen. Instead of being asked to go on the journey with Viswamithra he follows them unknowingly.
Lakshmana wants to prove he has more wit and strength than his brother.

• Thataka's Story

As Viswamithra tells the story of Thataka, Lakshmana plans on killing Thataka if she appears to prove he is just as strong and fearless as his brother Rama. Though, when Thataka does appear, Lakshmana is afraid and stays in hidden, letting Rama take all the glory for killing Thataka.

• Mahabali's Story

During Viswamithra's telling of this story, Lakshamana realized he did not want to end up like Mahabali in the underworlds due to greed. He comes out of hiding and produces himself to Viswamithra and his brother, Rama.

Viswamithra is happy because it is time to begin the holy practices and now Rama and Lakshmana can protect him from the evil creatures. Rama and Lakshmana work together to fight off the evil creatures, even Thataka's two sons who came to revenge her death.

• Ganga's Story

A story about how the Ganges River formed.

Descent of the Ganga

• Ahalya's Story

I could write a story about when Gautama jumped to conclusions and punished his wife for a crime she unknowingly committed, this angers Brahma (her creator) and he punishes Gautama for turning Ahalya into stone.

• The Wedding

When Rama sees Sita for the first time it is in the city of Mithilia, a rich city. In the story it could be a very poor city though. Instead of flowers and pearls on the streets there can be beggars and sludge.
Rama had to pick up Shiva's bow but maybe can change to sword or something like King Author's tale.
 Rama marries Sita and returns with his father and brothers to their home, leaving Viswamithra in the story.

• Two Promises Revived

Kaikeyi lets her hand maiden convince her that Rama should not be Kind and that her own son Bharatha should be even though Kaikeyi sees no difference between the two in the reading. I can twist the plot here somehow. Maybe Kaikeyi is a jealous wife or something along those lines. Maybe her son Bharatha returns from his trip early to stop the throning. Maybe Rama's banishment will be elsewhere or the terms of his leaving might be different. Maybe can change up the story about Dasaratha killing the boy at the river with the blind parents. Sita and Lakshmana go with Rama into exile.






Bibliography: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan

Growth Mindset

You know when you learn a new word or the meaning of it at least and all of a sudden become hyperaware of that particular word and start hearing it everywhere you go, well that has happened to me with Mindsets.

Just a week ago I attended an orientation for a student leadership workshop and the speaker was a man who had teamed up with the OU math department to study the difference in Mindsets. After listening to his short presentation my mind was literally blown away. Mindsets is something I think people are already somewhat aware of, especially for teachers or really anyone who teaches a skill. These instructors see the difference between students who go far and those who wind up quitting. Now we just have a coined term for the difference in those people. The way I can relate to Mindsets the most is when it comes to math. I never felt like I was good at math, maybe decent enough to get me by but by no means was I a math genius. Did I have society to thank for leading me to believe girls are not good at math? Did I have my parents to thank for giving me too much praise for being able to count to 10? I'm not sure who I have to thank but I know for one thing I was absolutely positively NOT going to take math in college. I thought I will choose a degree that has nothing to do with it! Now if you have read my introduction blog you will know, I am a junior in my Geology degree. When I first declared my major I had failed to look at the degree sheet and not see all the Engineering Calculus, Physics and Chemistry courses needed to complete my degree. By the end of my freshman year I was defeated, I told myself I was too dumb for this and instead of seeking help I quit.

Imposter Syndrom, it is a term I had not heard before last weekend. It is a term used for people who have had high achievements and feel as if people are watching and waiting for them to do well but fear being exposed as a fraud. During my freshman year before I had quit this is exactly what I had felt. I did not want people to know I needed help, I was afraid of looking dumb. I was smart (or at least that is what I had been told my whole life), I did not need help, I had never needed help before!

During the year I took off  I decided one late night that if Geology is what I want to do then Geology is what I am doing! I did not care if I had to go to every office hour, tutoring session, spend hours watching youtube videos over math, I was going to retake my failed classes and pass!

I did not understand or know it but in that moment my Mindset had changed from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset. I may have learned the hard way but I am happy I learned and now when people see my grades or find out my major and say "wow, you're smart!" I reply, "no, I just try and study really hard. You could do it too!".

The study of Mindsets has intrigued me so and am happy to find out this course will give me the opportunity to find more out as I have already done so by watching Carol Dweck videos and learning more from the original research.

Control-Alt-Delete from learning by heart blog

Starting the Semester

My biggest suggestion when someone asks me what my biggest organizational tip is, is buy and USE an agenda/planner. Before the semester even begins I write down what day my classes are, the times and place. In the case of this semester I was then able to plan out when I would have time for my online course months before school even started. Writing everything down into a weekly planner really, really helps me visualize when I will have time do homework, go to work, study, and have actual free time (so I can see there is a light at the end of the tunnel). 

Many people like using planners or calendars on their phones or electronic devices but I'm more of an old school pen and paper type of person which means online courses can prove to be pretty difficult for me but I am definitely taking up the bookmarking websites advice. There is nothing worse than trying to remember that one website that was extremely useful a week ago and not being able to find it again. For being a millennial, one would really think I would be more tech savvy but somewhere along the way I missed that punch line. 

Here is a link to my favorite agenda!

Another extremely useful tool I found after last semester especially having a job and school both at the University is separating all the e-mails I receive into folders. This way e-mails are easily accessible instead of searching through e-mails from multiple professors, my boss, and not to mention the e-mails the different colleges send out as well. As soon as I get an e-mail before I even read it I will put it in the properly labeled folder. 

So far I have been using a Word document to check my spelling and word count but installing one into the browser seems like a much more efficient means so I will definitely be checking into those options as well. 

A meme from Business of Dentistry

Reading Options

I believe I am going to choose option 1, R.K. Narayan's version of the Ramayana. I had no clue the Bizzell has pre-loaded Kindles students can check out and I find that pretty awesome. 

If I end up not finding the time to make my way to the Bizzell to check out the book, I can just purchase it on my personal Kindle which makes it easily accessible. 

I have never or at least knowingly heard or read an Indian Epic or folklore. The last time I even had exposure to mythology in a classroom setting was when I took Greek Mythology way back in my middle school days. Of course here and there in most of my English classes the professor would touch on a children's story or folklore/epic but never too in depth. 

The title of this course caught my eye because I did not know much about India and thought it would be interesting to compare the folklores and tales I do know to India's Epics. So far I have enjoyed the short stories we have been exposed to and am excited to get started in on the Ramayana to see what it is all about. 

This is not the only picture that caught my eye but while looking through the image library I noticed a trend. Most of the images about Indian folklore are violent and gruesome in some ways. I know nothing of the Indian Epics so the images intrigue me to read more epics so to understand the images better. 

Vishnu slays Madhu-Kaitabha

Storybook Favorites

After looking through a few storybooks I chose the three that stuck out the most to me. Two of them are pretty similar in their layout and the third is pretty different in how the writer chose to do his or her layout.

In the first storybook, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Missing River, the writer had a different layout than most of the others. The title drew me in simply because Sherlock Holmes is a house name that most people are familiar with in the modern day and I thought it interesting how the writer was going to link Sherlock Holmes to an Indian Epic. The introduction was very intriguing and of course made me want to continue reading, like a good mystery should. The only problem is, I was confused on what the storybook was about, which I guess vagueness is what makes a book a page-turner. I also really enjoyed the layout and how it was made to look like a diary entry from Watson. The author did a really good job of tying the pictures into the story line as well.

The picture from the introduction page of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Missing River

The next two storybooks I chose took the same approach to their layout.

The first titled, Indian Epics: Indra. The title and introduction page are not as eye catching as the other two storybooks but the opening line caught my attention enough to make me want to keep reading. A ranting King of Gods that did not realize he had an audience (us, the readers) at first is humorous enough to intrigue me to keep reading. The author then is inviting the reader to read the next few stories so we can decide for ourselves whether or not this King of Gods deserves what has been brought on him. As seen by the recent Netflix series Making a Murderer, no one likes better than to watch or read stories about others and make their own judgment about the situation.

The next storybook I chose and probably my favorite is, Hindu Beasts. It reads like a children's storybook and brings me back to my childhood. Maybe it is my love of Harry Potter and the title intrigued me due to the Magical Beasts movie coming out over the holidays but nonetheless, the writer did a good job keeping my attention after reading the first sentence of the introduction. I liked how unlike the other two, the writer had a brief overview of the stories within the storybook. Basically letting the reader know, hey you do not have to read these stories in order but read the one that is intriguing you the most first. People like to feel in control even if it is just which order one reads their stories.

Introduction: Life as a Geology Major

As you know by now (hence the title), I am a Geology student here at the University of Oklahoma.  As exciting as that sounds I had a pretty boring summer all thanks to my summer class I took at the Oklahoma City Community College. Maybe it would not have been so horrible if it were not Physics II but yes, the answer is, it was as bad as it sounds. So, unfortunately, no thrilling tails of climbing up a mountain or identifying a new rock species for me this summer.

(Per my post; my summer was boring and this was taken a few years back

at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs)

On a not so depressing note, I am now officially a Norman resident within walking distance to campus. I no longer have to dodge construction (which is pretty much impossible these days) and plan my day around traffic like I was attempting to do as a commuter. I am also a student assistant in the Engineering Dean's Office so the choice to move was pretty obvious when my entire day and evenings were spent in Norman.

Other than being a Geology student and loving everything rocks, I love to bake. For as far back as I can remember I always thought I would grow up to own my own bakery. That was at least until I actually worked in a bakery and after a few months decided the bakery life was just not for me and made it my hobby instead of career goal. It is oddly a stress reliever for me, kind of like the memes you see online about having so much to do you just take a nap instead well... when I'm feeling overwhelmed I bake. My specialty I only break out for special occasions though is cheesecake. Not that I'm biased or anything but I'm going to go ahead and say it is better than Cheesecake Factory's cheesecake and that is pretty good!

(The cheesecake mentioned above with a strawberry topping)

Not much going on right now in this geologists life, just excited to get this semester started!

I've recently started listening to Tori Kelly lately. She was a contestant on American Idol and didn't even make it to the live show! Can you believe it?? Anyway here she is singing one of her songs acoustically.

      Tori Kelly- All In My Head (Acoustic version) 

Week 1 Story: The Mountains in Labor

There once was a small town nestled under a large mountain. The soil surrounding this mountain was very nutritious and the farmer's reaped crops so great they had enough to feed their families and even sell some to buy fine things. These farmers did not even have to practice crop rotating and rest their soil for a season like their ancestors and surrounding farmers had to. When word about the magical soil under the large mountain made its way through surrounding towns, these farmers also wanted to reap great crops from the magical soil. These farmers gathered up their shovels and plows and flocked to the small town nestled under the large mountain. 

When the surrounding farmers made it to the small town they demanded farming land under the large mountain. The farmers in the small town were not willing to give up or split their land with the magical soil. After many negotiation attempts a fight broke out among the farmers. 

Mount Mayon in Albay, Philippines by Tomas Tam

The farmers became so preoccupied with fighting each other they failed to notice the sleeping mountain awoke with their loud arguing. The ground began to trimmer as smoke billowed from the mountaintop. Still no one had noticed the mountain becoming more and more angry as the fighting grew louder and louder. With one more giant tremor the farmers finally noticed the smoke and ground shaking. The farmers became fearful and promised to share the land in peace but it was too late. The mountain sent hot lava oozing down its sides burning the bountiful crops. 

The soil was now unable to be farmed which forced the small town under the mountain to move to the surrounding towns. Farmers from all over heard of the story about the magical soil under the mountain that awoke in anger and was told from generation to generation. This story warned young farmers to not become greedy with ones bountiful harvest because one never knows when a disaster will occur and find oneself in need of a helping hand. 

Authors Note: In the original short fable, the countrymen noticed the mountains quivering and rocks sliding down the side and all became very worried. As they sat and waited in anticipation to see what doom would come none never did, as a a little mouse crawled out of a crack that was formed from all the commotion. The country men then decided "much outcry, little outcome". As I thought about what direction I would like to take my tale I wanted to take a different approach and try and convey a new moral to the story, one about greed. I thought the title was still fitting since the farmers in my version labored the soil from the Volcano.  

Bibliography."The Mountains In Labor" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs.Web Source

My Favorite Place... So far

After taking a while to think about where my favorite place was (strangely I have never really given it much thought) I could not take my mind off Haystack Mountain in southern Oklahoma. In reality it's not even a mountain, technically it is a plateau but to a native Oklahoman it most definitely is considered a mountain and don't tell us any different! 

The thing about favorite places is when you really start to think about them, you want nothing more than to be there in that moment and that is how I decided Haystack was my favorite place. I thought about all the places I have been (it's not many) and I could not take my mind off the place I had been a hundred times and how I would give anything to visit in that moment. 

Unfortunately for this particular assignment there are not many pictures on the internet of the lone plateau in Greer County Oklahoma so I chose my second favorite place. The Garden of the Gods. 

Garden of the Gods is basically a rock climbers, geologist, outdoor concert,tourist, bicyclist, runner, Colorado lovers dream. Literally if you think you might slightly enjoy any of the above you would love this place. You can thank the Rockies for the unusual vertical tilt of the rocks, during their formation the pressure built up caused the tilt of the basement rock to tilt vertically. The love I have for this place may come from a geological place in my heart but no matter, I think most would agree is is beautiful. 

  

Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

flickr.com

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Hi! My name is Candace and I am a Geology student here at OU.
I work in the Engineering Deans Office as a student employee as well and just recently moved to Norman so I do not have to mess with the terrible construction/traffic.

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