Learning Challenges: Health/ Happiness & Cheeseburger

I may or may not be a little too excited about learning how to make a meme. I also, may or may not be very good at it but it sure is fun!

I am coupling the happiness H.E.A.R.T. challenge with the cheezburger meme creator so I have made some silly memes to go along with it. 

I am somewhat of a believer of making oneself owns happiness (if that makes sense). For instance when I am feeling sad or angry my favorite thing to do is go to the gym. Something about being able to plug in some headphones, blast my favorite music, and throw some heavy weights around calms me. I learned a trick a while ago (when I was a little more self conscience) that if I turned up my music and only payed attention to what I was doing, what I wanted to achieve in the next couple of minutes that everyone else in the room disappeared and my anxiety and anger or whatever it was I was feeling at the time went out the window. I try and channel my feelings into physical capabilities, if that makes any sense. For instance, I remember one time being so angry (of course I have no clue what I was angry about anymore) and my gym was closed so I took my frustration out on the track. I ran my fastest mile that day. 

Or sometimes you just want a friend to make casual conversation with. In cases such as that, I don't blast my music but simply leave my head phones out of my ears. There are many, many conversations going on in the gym. Sometimes I somehow end up involved in one myself, with random friendly people or sometimes I just listen. Some might say the later one is ease dropping... I call it "leaving my reality" for a just a second anyway. Sometimes I make up stories for people I see at the gym, (especially if I'm on the treadmill. I need something to occupy my time!) I typically keep the stories pretty happy and upbeat. 

Some people say the gym is a depressing place... I must disagree with that statement. It is a place full of people trying to better themselves with goals and aspirations. What is more inspiring and happy than that? What is even more awesome is when you notice someone who is not giving up, or someone who has the courage to ask the muscular dude what he does to get his triceps like that. 

The gym is not my only happy place. I would consider eating corndogs at the state fair, seeing a food truck park near where I am, and Roxy's Ice-cream in OKC another happy place of mine. I'm all about the balance. 

(cheezburger.com)

(Cheezburger)

Portfolio Index

The Fishing Trip
The day of the big fishing trip has finally arrived but King Santanu is in a rather gloomy mood. Has he lost everything in his kingdom? Does he have a fatal illness? His son, Prince Davavratha, is determined to get to the bottom of it while on their annual trip.

The Beautiful Maiden

A young beautiful maiden has been cast to a forest by her jealous stepmother. One day she sneezes and catches the attention of a goblin that lives near by her cabin in the forest! She hears his approach and becomes frozen with fright. What will be her next move?

The Prom Barter

It is the day of the prom and Kadru and Vinata are getting ready for their prom dates. Vinata has always been jealous of her twin sister who seems like she gets everything Vinata wants, but will her luck change tonight?  

The Football King

It has all come down to one final game to decide who will go to Nationals but in practice the star quarterback, Yudhishthira, hurt his throwing arm! Now Arjuna must travel in search of the Football King for celestial shoulder pads.

The God of Fire 
The god of fire tells his tale of how he, Vayu, the god of wind and Yama, the god of death have found themselves held captive in Lanka by the evil demon, Ravana. 

Reading Notes: The Sacred Tales of India, Part C

The Gift of the Ascetic

• A king with 3 wives had no children and this was depressing to him because that signified that he lived a sinful life in a previous existence. No one even liked being in his presence. 
• Even the man who swept the palace who lost his appetite upon seeing the king. 
• The king heard of this and became depressed until one day a holy ascetic went to see him and told him he will be a father if he eats this drug along with his wives.

              - The catch is one of the sons must be his (the ascetics)

• The two eldest wives took all the medicine for themselves bc they did not like the young wife.

              - The young wife heard of this though and resorted to licking the cup

              - The two eldest wives gave birth to 2 sons each, the young wife gave birth to a conch shell

• The boys grew up and the wives and husband forgot about the deal with the ascetic and the young wife realized her conch shell was splitting at night and revealing young man inside.
• The ascetic eventually went back and the king thought he could outwit him by giving him a son of a maid but the ascetic knew and was furious the king eventually gave him the son of the youngest. 
• The youngest wife prayed to Sancta- Narayan, he said her son will come back to her.
• The conch shell son met a beautiful maiden in a cabin in an area the ascetic forbade him to go and they fell in love but turns out him and the maiden are going to be sacrificed. 

            - They devise this plan and it turns out great.

            - the conch shell sons pretends to not understand the ascetics instruction's so he showed him and the conch shell son cut off his head!

• They lived happily ever after

The Sun's Twin Sons

• Very odd story about a woman who was not married 
• A king sent for her to bring sun to his kingdom for just 1 day.
• She prayed to the sun god and said she would give herself to him if he shone the sun on the king for just one day.

          - he did just that but she hid from him so he married her in spirit.
          - she gave birth to twin sons
          -  I don't really understand why the king is so worried about if she has children or not but he
             keeps checking on her to make sure and overtime she hides them.

• Her kids turn into vessels of blood when the sun is out?
• she pours them on a tree one day to hide them from the king

The Consequences of Generosity

• a Brahman woman and a milkmaid were friends
• Obviously the Brahman had more wealth than the milkmaid and the milkmaid one day asked if she could borrow the Brahman's image of Narayana for a year so she might praise her and find wealth too.

            - The Brahman agreed

• Soon the Brahman lost all her wealth and traveled looking for a place to stay but all the people she had cared for previously turned her away, not recognizing her.
• After a year when she retrieved her image of Narayana and her wealth was returned to her approached those people and was like hey, why didn't you care for me

                - all the people (including her own daughter) were all like I'm so sorry I did not know it was
                      you

(Narayana)

A Brahman's Ban

• Indra, king of the gods threw a party
• The party was getting a little crazy and a Brahman showed up and instead of Indra saluting him threw some flowers at him that had just been received by dancing girls.
• The brahman took this as an insult and cursed Indra, saying he has to be a cat for 12 years.

            - Indra died right then and returned as a cat

• Sachi, Indra's wife was unaware of this transition. She went looking for the Brahman who cursed him so she could find out where he was reborn at.
• Sachi found Indra and they slept for 12 years until Indra turned into a man again.

(Cat from pixabay)

The Pir's Power

• A beggar (who worshiped Narayan) ran into a Brahman (who worshiped Satya Pir)
• The beggar decided to worship Satya Pir and found much wealth and his neighbor who was childless worshiped him too after hearing about the beggars wealth.
• He had a daughter who grew up to be beautiful
• She married a wealthy merchant

              - they set sail and landed in a kingdom and bought a stolen necklace (they did not know it
                 was stolen).
              - the merchant was arrested
              - his wife prayed to Satya Pir and he visited the king that held their husbands captive and
                demanded their husbands be released

• The husbands journeyed home with their restored wealth and never forgot to praise Satya Pir

The Gander- Eater

• A poor Brahman widow had a son who went to school with all the other kids and was ashamed that he only ate vegetables and not fish like the rich kids. 

                 - He went home crying to his mom, embarrassed.

• The boy stole  bird for his mom to cook and the next day he was imprisoned. 
• The poor widow praised the goddess Subachani and it worked bc she granted her a wish
• Her son was released from prison and married the kings daughter earning him half the kingdom
• The widowed Brahman never stopped praising Subachani from then on.

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India. D.N. Neogi. Illustrated by P. Ghose. 1916.

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India, Part B

The Bride of Yama

• A poor Brahman lost his bull (The gods were testing him)
• Him and his sister performed a religious ceremony to the goddess of love, Paravati.

           - Paravati enjoyed the devoted people and gave them their bull back and granted them both a
                   boon.
          - The Brahman became King and his sister (now a princess) married Yama, the god of death
          - Now Yama told her not to go near the southern portion of the grounds around the house
         - Of course her curiosity overcame her and she saw women who have sinned burning...
            including her own mother!

• She begged Yama to let her mother go, he said it could only be bought with a  portion of her brothers reward.

             - Of course he said no.

• Her last resort was disguising herself as a Shepherdess and present herself to Gautama who was also reaping benefits like her brother. 

             - She finally agreed and her mother was released from agony. Happy ending.


The Goddess Who Devoured Elephants

(The Goddess who sat upon a lotus holding two elephants) 

• 2 wives married to a rich merchant

            - Lahana, the younger one and Khullana
            - Lahana was better loved the two wives, needless to say did not get along!
            - Lahana got Khullana banned and she was forced to tend to a flock of goats to earn a living.

• Chilean heard a noise from a nearby town and went to check it out. They were performing a religious ceremony to Mangal- Chandi who brings fortune to whoever.
• Chilean then decided to perform these ceremonies with what little she had.

              - It worked! When she opened her eyes, her husband was standing in front of her wanting to
                    bring her back with him.

• Years passed and Khullana gave birth to a son while her husband was gone trading.. He never returned so her son grew up not knowing his father. 
• Her son wanted to go searching for his father but not without performing a ceremony to Mangal- Chandi. 
• Turns out Khullana's husband saw a lady in a lotus devouring two elephants... the king in that town did not like this and sent him to prison.
• Now when the son went through, he saw the same thing but the king did not believe him and ordered him to die. 
• Now Mangal- Chandi visited the king in his dreams and showed him the woman in the lotus holding the two elephants and bade him he let the son and husband go.
• They arrived home and lived happily ever after

The Slayer of Kangsa

• Kangsa, king of Mathura was a harsh tyrant and Basundhara went to heaven to complain to Shiva.
• The gods assembled together in front of Vishnu to advocate fro Basundhara
• Turns out Vishnu was the one that made king Mathura great bc he had pleased him at one time.

                - his own sons cannot kill him but he never said anything about a nephew
                - So vishnu is going to rise again born to king Kangsa's sister
                - and Paravati be born again as well!

• The king was killing all the babies in fear they were to kill him. Reminds me of the Bible story about Moses and the Pharaoh. 
• Anyway, Vishnu's reincarnated self was able to escape this death with the help of Paravati and Vishnu's reincarnation grew up to slay the king. 

Chand, The Unbeliever

• Mahadeo, greatest god of heaven, visited Earth in human form and met a young girl in a lower caste. Neither cared and she gave birth to a girl but she was already full grown.... they named her Padma.
• Kinda odd. Padma's mother grew jealous of her and clawed one of her eyes out. Mahadeo cried and another woman appeared out of his tears.... he sent this woman and Padma off.

               - they found a place to live and wash clothes... nearby lived a man of equal wealth to Padma
                    but he refused to accept her and not worship her.
                - she was like oh nu uh! and after giving birth to a bunch of snakes had them kill his 6 sons

• The guy with the 6 sons eventually had another son and he got married when he was of age but still refused to praise Padma so she killed him too

                - the wife went searching for Padma to bring her husband back to life because her father-in-law said he would praise Padma if she brought her son back to life.

• The wife eventually found parma and she indeed brought him back to life and the rich guy praised her. 
• and then she brought all his sons back to life!

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India. D.N. Neogi. Illustrated by P. Ghose. 1916.

Famous Last Words: Coming to an End

As the semester is coming to an end and my mind is already focusing on my finals and final projects due, I reflect on the whirlwind of events. This was my first time being a full time student since 2012, that along with a demanding part- time job and having a boyfriend being a full- time engineering student meant no time for relaxation. The good thing is, I realized it was too much for me if I wanted to make the grades I want/ need. When I quit my job, I felt so elated. Yes, I will be on a job search once the semester is over but this time I will focus on it furthering my career... and not knowing how to order copious amounts of food for events (which is definitely a skill I have learned).
Enough of my job woes, though.

I believe I will I will be able to finish up this class over Thanksgiving break and I am very, very thankful that we have that option to finish early. In my other online course the assignments due that week are not posted until Monday (sometimes even later). This can be very frustrating and can make it difficult to plan ahead. Other online professors at the University would really benefit by looking at how we do things in this course. I really feel we have been set up for success in the Indian Epics course plan.

I started a story this week but never published it. It is just not what I want it to be. I have decided based on our time left in the semester and the points I need to finish I am not going to write another story unless I become very inspired by something in the readings. I have decided to focus on my portfolio and perfecting those stories.

(The University of Colorado Boulder)

I chose a picture of The University of Colorado Boulder because I have been focusing on what graduate schools I would like to attend. This is definitely in my top five picks along with The University of California. I would like to study Hydrology in graduate school. I just bought a GRE study guide and will probably spend my summer studying for the exam. 

I liked writing a To-Do list last week so I will keep up with it.

• Complete my readings for Monday/ Tuesday by Tuesday Morning.
• Maybe do the Tech Tip and Growth Mindset extra credit on Tuesday as well
• Do my Project Comments on Wednesday or Thursday morning. 
• Do comments and extra blog comments on Friday
• Do project ASAP

Learning Challenges: Time

H-ealth
E-mpathy
A-ttention
R-eading
T-ime

This week I chose to focus on time. I mean who wouldn't like more time? Or at least manage it better so it feels like you have more time. I started out by watching this video that was posted on the Learning by HEART blog page. (Using my new skills learned with a  TechTip to insert a video)

I watched the video before I went to bed and slept on it then watched it again this morning. I must admit, I have never thought of the science behind procrastination or think about why we even do it. So watching this video is rather mind blowing! The video suggests a promodoro technique which is setting a timer for about 25 minutes and then giving yourself an award whether it be to get on social media or candy. I have tried using this technique in the past but would not actually use a timer but just try to be aware and at least get up and walk around. This actual technique intrigued me so I did a quick pomodoro technique google search and found there is an actual website (you can find that here). The website is pretty cool and totally worth a look around if you are interested. There is even another video going more in depth of what the promodoro technique is. 

I am definitely going to give this whole reward technique another try. Specifically when I am studying all Saturday and Sunday for a test or writing a paper. The only thing I am worried about is when I get into my zone I do not like to be interrupted. Maybe when I write my Famous Last Words Post on Monday I can give you an update on how it went!

Growth Mindset: Stories About Growth

Being a science major and sometimes one of the very few women in my classes I absolutely hate pointing out gender differences. Like when people say, "Men are just good at math." Like yes, that MUST be the reason why there are only 5 women out of 40 in my calculus III class!  It really does not get anymore close minded than that.  People like that are the reason why there were only 5 women in my calculus class... because we have been told our whole lives, women just are not good at math. But this is not what I am writing about! (I just got side tracked by one of my tangents).

After reading the prompt for this Growth Mindset challenge I started to really think about some of the characters I have read about this semester and what kind of mindsets they had. Women do not play huge roles in most of the Indian Epics but most of them have relatively open minds. Rama told Sita she did not have to follow him but she was willing to try something new and not afraid. Savitri was willing to marry Satyavan even though she knew he would die after a year of marriage. In the story, The Divine Brothers, the youngest wife grabbed at opportunities and brought her family riches.

These women and many more have all practiced a growth mindset the way I see it. Savitri could have easily not married Satyavan when she found out his curse that he had no idea about. She chose to stay with him and grow. In the end she was able to persuade Yama to give him a second chance.
The women in the stories seem to not let bad luck or circumstances get them down but keep fighting on.

(women in the workforce)

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India, Part A

The Divine Brothers

• A rich farmer had 7 sons, all of whom were married. 
• Their 7 wives were sitting around one day talking about what their wish would be if they were granted one.

             - The youngest did not talk until called upon to state her's but she was hesitant she finally said
                hers.
          *I could write a story about how since she was patient her wish came true and all the other
            wives were jealous.

• I could write a story about her time spent with the snakes. I would like to do something different though. Not with snakes or if I used snakes they would only have a minor role in my story. 
• I would like to focus more on the 7 wives and how they share jobs and gossip to one another. Maybe the youngest wife is bullied by them or something like that. 

Snatched from Death

(Savitri and Satyavan)

• Savitri is a princess and is able to choose her own husband. She chooses a blind hermit's son, Satyaban. 
• Unknown to him, he is cursed and will die at the end of the first years marriage.
• Savitri knows this and prays to the gods every day to let him live. 
• Yama's messengers went to collect Satyaban when he died but could not bc the chastity of his wife Savitri. 
• I already have one story about Yama I would love to write another one!
• Savitri tricks Yama into giving Satyaban's life back.
• I really feel like I can do something with this story. 
• **In my story I think the messengers will act as the middle men between Yama and Savitri. Neither of them willing to give in.**

By Itu's Favor

• 2 daughters, Isani and Rama, were banished in the forest for eating loafs of bread the wife made. 
• I do not really like this story.
• Their dad basically tricks them into thinking he was attacked but then they still wish wealth for him... so they knew he was alive the whole time?
• After years the girls returned home and, their father was rich due to them wishing this upon him, but he gets mad at them again and says the next guys the pass will be their husbands.
• Isani was married and no longer worshiped the god, Itu Thakur, so every town they passes would go up in flames or an epidemic would break out

                 - People called her a witch 

• Rama continued to worship Itu Thakur on the daily. The towns she passed would flourish along with their crops. Even brought a dead girl back to life with her holy water. 
• **I could write about the fortune of the girls but in modern day** Maybe they won the lottery and one lost her money trying to play the lottery again or she is just flat out unlucky.**
• A lot of banishing going on in this story. 
• Itu has lots of power. 

Bibliography: Scared Tales of India by D.N. Neon. Illustrated by P. Ghose. 1916. 

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part B

I know I said in my Famous Last Words post that I was going to try and read something else besides fairy tales but I could not help myself! I absolutely hate not finishing a book or article or story. I had only completed part A so I have to complete part B now!!

The Wise and Foolish Merchant

(Conestoga Wagon)

• A wise merchant and a stupid young merchant were traveling through the same city and bought a puppy of goods they were going to sell as they traveled the country
• The thrifty merchant did not want to travel together.
• The foolish young merchant decided he would go first
• I could write a story about the demon who tricked the young merchant but not the wise one.      

                   - in my story maybe the demon has dialogue with the merchants or maybe the wise one 

                     convinced the young one to go first because of the demon.

The Elephant Girly- face

• Girly- face is a super kind elephant that overheard some robbers talking about how to show no pity for people they are robbing. Girly-face overheard this and was convinced that is how he was suppose to treat people now
• They sent good people to talk her his stall to convince him to be kind and it worked!
• I think I could make a story up about bullying in school and how when people talk it is so easy to convince a little kid that is how one is suppose to act.

The Banyan Deer

• Deer the color of gold and eyes were like round jewels. 
• This deer reminds me of the one that Sita wanted Rama to catch for her, maybe I could write a story about the deer that Sita wanted!!!!

The Princess and the Water- Sprite

• Story about Prince of the Stars, the Moon Prince and the Sun Prince.

The King's White Elephant

• Kind of  a sad story but the white elephant was always well taken care of. 

The Ox Who Never Envied the Pig

• Ox named Big Red
• Young brother named  Little Red
• Do not be envious of people for what they have because you do not know what will become of them. 

Grannie's Blackie

• I could write a story about the encounter black, the elephant, had with the man trying to pass the river with his wagons. 
• Blackie was a smart elephant and would not leave until the merchant gave him what he promised him. 

The Crab and the Crane

• The story about the crane tricking the fish in a shallow pond to be carried to a big pond to only be eaten by the crane
• The crab did not fall for it though!

Why the Owl is Not King of the Birds

• Apparently owls and crows do not get along which is why the owl is not king but the turtle dove is. 

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Illustrated by Ellsworth Young. 1912.

Famous Last Words: Riding the Struggle Bus

This week I am really regretting not doing the extra credit assignments before now. They are fun! Why is that no matter how many times we are told to do something or try something out we just don't.... or is that just me? Literally every day of the week in announcements, our class has been told to try out some of the extra credit and I have not until now! The tech tip, I mean it is so useful and not just for this class but for others as well.

This was the first week I did not write a story. It seems now that the semester is ending my creative side is struggling to keep up. I have been reading the Indian Fairy Tales, which is what I wanted to do since the class began. Now that I have read them though I just cannot seem to think of a story to write. I guess you could say they are not inspiring to me. This week I think I am going to switch it up and read something different. Maybe my creative juices will start to flow.
This week I also quit my job. As a full time student I was definitely being overworked. Staying up until at least 1:00 am in order to work on my online classes to wake up at 6:00 am on the daily to get to work and go to class is not my ideal schedule. So, hopefully, this week I will not be stressed about my time management and will actually get ahead in the class!

So here is my to-do list this week:

• Find a new story to read
• Try to get my readings done by Tuesday morning 
• Start writing my story on Tuesday, hopefully get done by Wednesday morning (the story writing seems to take me a few hours, creativity is not my forte). 
• Edit my Story for the Project
• Get my new story in my Portfolio by Wednesday night. 
• Start commenting on Thursday/Friday
• Extra Credit on Sunday. 

P.S. I am very good at making lists. I should have been doing this the whole semester!

(Making a to-do list)

Growth Mindset: Perfectionism

Wow. Was this an eye opening article to perfectionism. I think most people have at least a hint of perfectionism in them. Maybe some more than others, I will be the first to admit I am a perfectionist most of the time. I am much more aware of my perfectionist attitude now that I am out of high school and got slapped in the face with the real world pretty quickly.
I do not want to blame social media, simply because I enjoy social media outlets, but people get to pick and choose what to post about their lives. This means most things are only happy (guilty as charged) and people only get to see in your one window; that one widow being the perfect window.

Social media is not all bad. I am going to share this Huffington post on my Facebook and encourage my friends to read it. I think the more people we have aware of their perfectionist attitude the more they realize how sad it is to go on carrying this point of view. Once aware, we can grow from it and learn from our mistakes. Maybe what we learn today about growth mindsets will benefit our children the most.

The perfectionist Cycle 

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

I officially regret not completing more of the tech tip extra credit assignments. As I scrolled through all the options I thought how helpful some of these tips will be and how too bad I have not learned about them earlier.

This is my only class this semester using canvas and from my understanding all courses will be on canvas starting next semester. The university is going to drag some of the professors kicking and screaming it seems too. Once we finally learn and understand how to use a program it seems like another one comes out and we are forced to learn all over again just in time for another to come out. Funny enough, I remember distinctly feeling this way when Facebook went public. I was so reluctant to join because I had literally just got the hang of Myspace. I finally had to make the switch though and.... turns out Facebook was a ton better than Myspace!

I watched the introduction video for the calendar tool on canvas. I personally have never kept a digitized calendar, even on my iPhone. I prefer to buy an Agenda and write everything down... color coordinated by class. This system has worked for me since middle school and it has not let me down yet. I do have an on campus job, however, and I would not be able to schedule and organize my work life without the outlook calendar. It is a very convenient tool when scheduling meetings and such.
I have enrolled in next semester and those classes have already shown up on my calendar which makes it a little confusing. Of course when the assignments are due are not on there but they are listed under my courses (not by title but by course number too).

I am just a little worried about the professors who are reluctant to switch to canvas. They only make it harder on the student trying to figure out the new system when they do not attempt to learn it as well. This course has been amazing! I do not know what I would have done if not for the extension you have added on to our assignments. I wish some of my professors could complete some of your canvas tech tips. It would make the students live's so much easier if they had a professor willing to learn.

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part A

The Monkey and the Crocodile

(Wild Crocodile) 

• Monkey lived in a tree next to a river full of croccodiles
• The mama croc wanted a monkey's heart, she asked her son to get her one
• The young crocodile thought he would trick the monkey into going to the middle of the lake to an island full of fruit
• The greedy monkey jumped on the tricky crocs back
• The crocodile tried to kill the money  by drowning him
• The monkey said he left his heart on the shore. The crocodile was stupid. 
• The crocodile wanted the heart so he took the monkey back to the bank of the shore
• The monkey of course took off left down the river to live another tree but the crocodile found him and tried to trick him again but it did not work!

How the Turtle Saved His Own Life

• A turtle tricked men who were afraid of him to throw him into the water bc they thought it would kill the turtle. 

I'm thinking about combining a few stories into one. Like a  couple of animals with some good dialogue. 

The Merchant of Seri

(Ancient Gold Bowl)

• Basically a story about greed.
• An old poor lady and her golden bowl and the 2 merchants

The Turtle Who couldn't Stop Talking

• Two geese and a turtle became good friends. 
• The geese wanted to talk him with them so they said as long as you can keep your mouth shut and hold on to this stick you will make it
• The turtle did not and died

These stories are very similar to Giant Crabs and Other Tales. which I just read but it is fun to see the different styles and how some of the gory ones could be turned into nice ones. 

The Ox Who Won the Forfeit

• This is a story about being nice
• The man made a bet but was mean to the ox so the ox did not cooperate until the man said he was sorry

The Sandy Road

• wow. This story was about a desert and how they found/ dug a well.
• I think I like the grim stories better than the happy ones. 

The Quarrel of the Quails

• Tale about the quails that learned to get away from the hunter but quarreled and got caught anyway. 
• Maybe I could make a tale about two children who gets caught stealing candy or something like that. 

The Measure of Rice

• There was a dishonest king
• Maybe I could write a story about the one king who was too kind and this king. They would not get along very well I have a feeling. 
• The valuer on his court was very honest and set the price of things
• Obviously the King wanted to cheat so he found a random person to become his new valuer but he made a laughing stock of himself bc of course he new the value of nothing!
• I hope the king learned his lesson

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit

• There was a rabbit who thought the world was breaking up and stated to run when he heard a loud noise. 
• Rabbits began to follow him then deer then a fox then an elephant
• The lion stopped them and made the original rabbit go back to the tree and see what has happened, that is when they saw a coconut and knew that is what scared him.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales. Ellen C. Babbit. Illustrated by Ellsworth Young. 1912. 

Reading Notes: The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India, Part B

Birds of a Feather

• Horse named Chestnut was kind of restless and always hurt other people and horses. 
• The King wanted to buy some horses but was cheap so he had Chestnut let out so he would hurt the other horses and lower the price. 
• The next time the dealer went to sale the King horses he made sure to bring another wild one to occupy Chestnut, turns out they like each other
• Long story short, the King felt bad and gave the dealer double the money. 

Spend a Pound to Win a Penny

• A strange story about a monkey and some peas
• Basically don't be greedy.

The Cunning Crane and the Crab

• Crane wanted to eat the fish in a drying up pond so he thought he would trick them
• Fish did not fall for his trick at first bc they knew he wanted to eat them
• The crane convinced them that he would take them to a beautiful cool lake

             - They fell for it, and the crane ate all the fish

• The crane tried to trick a crab after he ate all the fish but the crab knew better
• he had him carry him but only if he let him secure himself with his claw around his neck
• The crane took him to the lake with the intent to eat him but the crane clipped his head off
• Revenge

Union is Strength

• There was a quail hunter and he would catch many quails in a net every day
• One smart quail said when he catches us we will all fly together and lift the net
• This worked for a while until the quail started to quarrel then they fought so much the quail hunter caught them all one day when they were too busy arguing with each other

Silence is Golden

• This story is kind of sad bc it is about a lion who sounded like a jackal so all the other lions made fun of him. Reminds me of Rudolf the Red nose reindeer. 

The Quail and the Falcon

• There was a quail and he lived on the land of a farmer with a plough 
• One day he decided to venture out but while he was out a Falcon saw him and swooped down do grab him
• The quail convinced him to take him back to his own farm so the falcon could see it but when they landed the falcon stumbled and died

The Bold Beggar

• Story about a King who ate his fine meal in front of everyone
• One day a beggar came running and pretended to faint so the king let him eat some of his food
• When he was done and asked what the news was he said I was hungry and now I am not
• The king laughed

The Jackal Would A- Wooing Go

• A jackal fell in love with a lioness with 3 brothers
• he waited to propose to her until her brothers went off hunting
• The lioness was surprised and wanted nothing to do with the jackal, in fact she was disgusted. 
• He left all sad with his tail bw his legs
• When the brothers came home she told them this outrageous story and they one went to kill the jackal but he was behind a crystal wall and the two eldest cracked their skulls
• The youngest roared so loud it gave the jackal a heart attack and he died
• The sister wasn't even sad her two eldest brothers died. 
• Geez, kind of reminds me of Varuka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Lion and the Boar

(Lion)

• Boar and Lion at water hole drinking
• Boar challenges lion to a fight
• Lion agrees to fight in a week bc he was full
• Boar goes back home and tells everyone what is going to happen, they freak out

“Dirty Boar, I want no more,

You’re saved from being eaten;

If you would fight, I yield me quite,

And own that I am beaten!”

• The boar rolled in mud so the lion would refuse to fight him.. it worked.

The Goblin City

• story about female goblins
• Maybe my story could be about this for Halloween
• Ship wreck

“Man’s meat, man’s meat,

That’s what Goblins like to eat!”

• The women goblin tricked the ship wrecked men into marrying them like they had others
• The captain found out they married goblins though 
• A magic horse saved them 

Lacknose

• Basically a story about a go with no nose but these kids who want a flower from his garden do not have a filter and offend him with their poems so he does not give them a flower
• The last little boy tells the gardner how it is and he gets a posy.
• Maybe I could make a rhyme about a posy

The King's Lesson

• A wise, good king named Godfrey.. this is ironic bc it reminds me of King Geoffrey from Game of Thrones... & he is not nice.
• This is a strange story about two kings who basically fight bc they are both too nice

Bibliography: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India. W.H.D. Rouse. Illustrated by W. Robinson. 1897. 

Story: The Beautiful Maiden

There once was a beautiful maiden who lived deep in a forest. 

She was often very lonely and would long for company.

One night while dusting her cabin, the young beautiful maiden could not help but sneeze.

"Ah..Ah..AHH Choo..!"

A goblin, who lived near by, heard the sneeze and went

 to go investigate the loud noise in the quiet forest. 

"Is anyone there?!" yelled the goblin. "Helloooo! I have not met or seen anyone for many moons in this forest."

The maiden became very afraid when she heard the harsh voice of what she knew must be a goblin. She had remembered the tales her father used to tell her as a child about goblins eating people up when sneezing and not saying, "God bless you."

The young, beautiful maiden did not want to be gobbled up by a goblin, so with no one around to bless her she said, "God bless me!"

The goblin heard this proclamation from the east of him so he headed that direction until he ran into a cabin he had never noticed before because it was so well hidden in the brush. 

"Hellooo!" said the goblin again, hoping he had found the source of the noise. 

The maiden, inside the cabin, was frozen still. She had not intended for the goblin to come closer to her after saying, "God bless me" but for him to go away!

Unsure of what to do, the maiden said, "Okay, Mr. Goblin, you have found me because of my sneeze but please do not eat me. I have said, "God bless me!"

"Silly girl. I'm not here to eat you! I am just a lonely goblin cast here to the forest because people in the town were too afraid of my appearance. I have not had a friend or even a traveler pass by in many moons and I am very lonely, ma'am. Please keep me company for a while."

Breaking her trance, the maiden finally moved toward a window to look out at the goblin. 

He was indeed not very nice-looking but the maiden, longing for someone to talk to too, took a chance and invited the goblin in her cabin for tea. 

"Okay, goblin. I will make some tea for us while we have a nice chat, but if you eat me up the Gods will not be very pleased with you because I have said God bless me as I am supposed to when one sneezes."

"I wish no harm on you ,fair maiden. Thank you for your kindness."

The goblin walked in the cabin and sat at the maiden's table while she prepared a pot of tea. 

"Fair maiden, please if I may ask, what is a young, beautiful and kind maiden like yourself doing in such a dreary and lonely forest?"

"Well, sir, I was living with my stepmother and half-sister in town while my father was away at war. Every day when my stepmother, half-sister, and I would walk through the market the townspeople would sing their praises of my beauty and kind heart. My stepmother grew very jealous because she wanted her own daughter to be the most beautiful girl in town, so one day in a jealous fit she bade me off to the forest in hopes the townspeople would forget of me and my beauty."

For years after that day, the goblin would visit the beautiful, young maiden at her cabin and they would have wonderful conversations over tea. 

One day, out of the blue, the maiden suggested to the goblin, "Let's get married!"

The goblin taken aback by what she said sputtered over his tea, "Wh.. wha.. What did you just say?! Ma'am, you do not want to marry an ugly ol' goblin like me. What would the townspeople think?"

"Oh, goblin. Who cares what the townspeople think? They have cast us aside and have forgotten about us by now for no one comes to visit.  You are the kindest heart I know and I wish to marry you." 

The goblin finally agreed to wed the beautiful maiden and on their wedding day, upon the first kiss, the goblin turned into a handsome young man.

They were both surprised at this revelation but continued to live happily in the cabin in the woods for a few years until one day they decided they had been cast aside from the townspeople for long enough. They packed up their most prized possessions and walked into town after a day and half journey. 

Upon their entrance into town, the townspeople were stunned by their beauty and instantly remembered her as the beautiful young girl who stunned them when she was small. 

The townspeople rejoiced she was back and the couple lived happily ever after in the town. 

Author's Note: In my story this week I decided to combine multiple tales from old India into one story line along with a little hint of the American version of Cinderella. In the Indian tale, "The Goblin and the Sneeze" a goblin haunted a house just outside of the city and would gobble up anyone that would sneeze outside of the city unless someone else said, "God bless you" and the other person must answer back, "the same to you." The ending of this particular story probably had the happiest ending, in that the boy persuaded the goblin to turn vegetarian so he no longer ate people who sneezed.  Most of the other Indian tales did not have such happy endings and someone typically ended up dying or being fooled. With the Walking Dead (spoiler alert! Do NOT click on the link unless you watched the latest episode or simply just do not care) being on this week and a lot of the other stories I have been reading I felt like it would be a nice break to have a happy ending for once. Since I wanted a happy ending, what better to turn to for inspiration than a Disney-fied princess story. That is where I got the inspiration for the beautiful maiden and her evil stepmother.

P.S. If you would like to listen to some music while reading I've embedded Hans Zimmer "Time" from the Inception sound track into my post for your listening pleasure. If you have never heard of him I suggest you look him up! I enjoy studying while listening to the Hans Zimmer radio station. No words to distract me but often soothing. 

Bibliography: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India. W. H. D. Rouse. Illustrated by W. Robinson. 1897. 

Picture: Cabin in the Woods. Sheila Sund. flickr.

Reading Notes: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India, Part A

The Giant Crab

• I could write a story on the base of the giant crab but make it humans instead of animals. 
• Maybe a story about greed, we'll see.

The Hypocritical Cat

• Well this was a surprisingly scary story. Maybe with Halloween coming up I can make a story about a cat and mouse

The Crocodile and the Monkey

• This story ends up having a happy ending but mine could end badly. Maybe the monkey is the one that gets fooled by the croc wife

The Wise Parrot and the Foolish Parrot

• I didn't like this story bc she plucked the birds feathers! I had a pet bird, so this made me sad.
• I could write a story about to parrots though, that could be fun. 
• Maybe some kind of rhyme. 

The Dishonest Friend

• I like this story. I could go a few different directions with this story. 
• There is a lot of trickery in these stories, I need to think of something clever.
• Maybe modern day, borrowed a mower or something like that.
• Honesty is the Best Policy.. or maybe not
• maybe I could tell a story how one lie just rolls into a bigger one and a bigger one

The Mouse and the Farmer

• This is kind of another mouse and cat game story
• It reminded me of the latest Walking Dead Episode
• I could make it where the mouse makes an entire village of mice bring him food in exchange for their lives.

The Talkative Tortoise

• Wow. 
• I could write a story about how sometimes talking can get you into trouble, kind of the same with lying. 

The Monkeys and the Gardener

• This story kind of reminded me of the monkey on the Night at the Museum for some reason.
• my creative juices are not flowing.

The Goblin and the Sneeze

• I could write a story about a goblin for Halloween. 
• It could be a nice goblin but no one knows he's nice bc everyone is afraid of him.

The Goblin in the Pool

• Another story about a Goblin but this one lived in the water
• Maybe I can combine the Goblin stories

(Goblin in the Pool)

The Foolish Farmer and the King

• This reminded me of Game of Thrones
• Except this King was nice... I could make him not nice.

The Pious Wolf

• The fairy taught the wolf a lesson

Bibliography: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India. W. H. D. Rouse. Illustrated by W. Robinson. 1897.

Reading Notes: Tales of the Indian Epics, Part B (stories I missed)

I somehow messed my reading up last week and read a story that was not in the reading guide, part B for Tales of the Indian Epics by Kincaid. I really wanted to read those stories too but by the time I realized what I had done I had already read a rather lengthy story from the same book. Anyway so here are the notes from the stories I missed in Tales of the Indian Epics by Kincaid, Part B. 

The Front King's Daughter

• King Parikshit ruled Ayodhya
• While hunting one day met a beautiful maiden, fell in love, wanted to marry

              -She said yes under one condition; he can never let her look in water on the ground

• Of course he agreed and they got married
• The Kings minister found out about the condition under which the maiden married the King

            - he made a beautiful garden and put a pond in the far corner
            - The minister made it look like a gift and sent the king and his new wife there,
            - He tricked the king by telling him there was no water to be found there

• While in the garden the King and Queen stumbled unto the pond and the King forgetting his promise on the hot day went swimming and invited the queen in

               - She jumped in but never came up for air
               - the king had the pond drained to look for her
               - all that was there was a big frog and he swore the frog ate her
               - he orders all the frogs to be killed

• The frog king, Ayusha disguised himself as a brahman to demand the stop of frog killing

          - Turns out the maiden the King married was the frog kings daughter, Ayusha
          - She deceived him into believing she was a maiden

• It would be fun to write a story about a deceptive woman, maybe so she could get money from a rich guy (thinking modern times) or maybe like a Maid in Manhattan kind of a theme!
• Turns out the King did not care and took her back
• But the frog King was mad so he cursed his daughters children saying they would hate all Brahman. 
• They had 3 kids; Sala, Dala, and Vala
• Sala became King after his fathers death but made a rich angry so he died
• Daly gave the rishi his Vami horses back so the rishi lifted the curse that was put on the brothers by the frog queens dad.

The Descent of the Ganges

• I did not like this story as much as I thought I would have. The Ganges River  is a very interesting topic to me.
• This story is about before the Ganges River flowed on earth.
• Sagar the King of Ayodhya had an elderly wife, Keshini and a new wife, Sumati
• They went to the Himalayas to get a boon from the holy sage

            - they both asked for sons b/c neither of them had born one yet.

            - Keshini got one son who became king

            - Sumati got 60,000 sons but none of them ruled

             --> eldest of her 60,000 sons named Prince Asamanja but tormented his brothers and was

                        banished, hi son, Aswanedha stayed though and was given a quest to travel the world

                         with a horse

• The god Vishnu disguised himself as an old lady and stole the horse
• King Sagar sent his 60,000 sons after it
• They all died when Vishnu killed them with fire from his eyes
• The king sent his grandson, Aswanedha after his uncles
• Aswanedha found the horse but Vishnu was nowhere to be seen
• On his way back he runs into god Garuda and said if they pray long enough that maybe Vishnu would bring down the Ganges so that they can honor his 60,000 sons properly. 
• it took 3 kings but they finally prayed enough
• The river flowed but it was going to wash over a rishi's house so he stopped it, so Lord Brahmadeva told the rishi that the Ganges could be his daughter so he let if flow

Tales of the Pole Star

• King Uttanpad had two wives:

                  - Suniti, had a beautiful nature --> boy named Dhruv

                  - Suruchi, had a beautiful face --> boy named Uttam

• The king of course spent most of his time with Suruchi with a beautiful face
• The king was careful not to show Dhruv much attention though because Suruchi was jealous and one day Dhruv was sitting on his dads lap and Suruchi pushed him off
• Dhruv went to the forest to pray to Krishna and never returned 

              - Krishna came to Dhruv one day to grant him wish and Dhruv wanted to go with Krishna

                   but he said he had to go back to his father to rule

• Everyone was happy about his return except Suruchi and Uttam of course bc they are jealous
• Prince utter wanted to go with an army and attack a forest tribe, the King let him bc he was making the king angry anyway. He of course made a bad decision and was killed during the first battle
• Dhurv went with a new army to seek revenge and did
• Suruchi was driven crazy with sadness and ran into the woods and never came back
• Uttanpad gave the throne to Dhurv
• After years of ruling he wanted to return back to the forest so he gave the throne to his son and did just that, but this time he climbed up a mountain and went past the sun and moon god and past the 7 rishis and sat at the end of the trail.
• Krishna turned Dhurv and the 7 rishis into stars

                - Sauce pan like constellation that Indians call the "seven rishis silently point is Dhruv"

(The Seven Rishis Silently Point is Dhruv)

Bibliography: Tales of the Indian Epic by C.A. Kincaid. 1918. 

Story: The Prom Barter

"You knew I was going to wear those shoes tonight, Vinata!" shouted Kadru, her sister, from the other room.

Kadru, the eldest by only a few minutes, flung her sister's door open and stormed in the room. "Give them here," she shouted, motioning with her hand to hand them over. "I told you, they look better with my dress; besides you'll be taller than Kash if you wear them."

Kadru knew her sister was right about her being taller than Kash, her prom date, if she wore them but the last thing she wanted to do was admit that she was right.

"Fine, wear them for all I care.... I'll...just wear..." Kadru slowly inched towards Vinata's closet where she kept her shoes, "your Jimmy Choo's!" She grabbed the shoes quickly and rounded the corner of her door before Vinata even registered what happened.

"Hey! I was going to we.." Vinata stopped mid- sentence because she knew she could not wear two pairs of shoes and she had already taken her sister's. She had intended to wear her favorite Jimmy Choo high heels to prom but when she saw Kadru's she became jealous and wanted hers instead. Now Kadru not only had the prom date Vinata wanted but she had her favorite high heels too.

Vinata had always been jealous of her older sister. Even when they were children and people would tell Kadru how pretty and proper she was. Then all through grade school and into high school Kadru had always gotten better grades than Vinata and was praised by the teachers. Their senior year of high school, Vinata thought, "This is going to be my year." She had had a crush on Kash since freshman year and she had a plan to get him to ask her to prom. Then, just weeks before prom when Vinata was getting nervous about whether Kash was going to ask her or not, Kadru went running up to her and shouted with excitement, "Kash asked me me prom!!Ahhh!!"
Vinata couldn't help but show the disappointment on her face. Turns out Kash had taken advantage of his friendship with her to only get closer to the beautiful Kadru.
Of course Kash's friend Bobby asked her to prom the next day and when nominations for prom king and queen were announced the couples were to face off.

"The boys are here, Kadru!" Vinata shouted. As Kadru walked down the stairs she said to her sister, "How about we make a wager? Whoever loses prom queen tonight has to do the other's chores for the rest of the year."
Knowing the one thing she had more than Kadru was friends, Vinata said, "You have yourself a deal."

Once they reached the prom destination with their dates, Vinata started to dance and encourage her friends to vote for her for prom queen.

Kadru knew Vinata had more friends than her but being the more cunning sister she visited the voting station where a lower classman transfixed by Kadru sat. Without hesitation, the young boy let Kadru cast multiple votes for herself and she had him destroy the rest of the votes cast.

When the results were read at the end of the night and they announced Kadru and Kash as prom queen and king, Vinata could not believe her ears.

Now she must do double the chores for the rest of the year but Vinata knew one day things would fall in her favor.

(Banquet Hall)

Author's Note: In the original tale of King Janamejaya's Snake Sacrifice, King Kashyapa married two sisters by the names of Queen Kadru and Queen Vinata. They both took such good care of him, he granted both of them a wish. Kandru, the eldest, wished to be the mother of a thousand snakes and the younger sister, Vinata, wished to be the mother of two sons who were equal in strength to the thousand snakes. They both laid eggs and waited for them to hatch. When Kandru's eggs hatched, Vinata grew jealous and impatient because her eggs had not hatched yet. In haste she broke one of her eggs open and the boy inside was not ready to be born so he cursed his mother Vinata for being impatient.
Kadru then made a bet with Vinata that the horse's tail that rose from the sea foam when the gods were granted immortality was black. Vinata knew the tail was white for a fact so she agreed to the bet. When they went to see for themselves though, the tail was black and Vinata was enslaved to her older sister for the next five hundred years. Turns out Kadru had her snakes sneak to the horse before the sisters and had them cover the white tail to make it look black.
I wanted to follow the same story line somewhat but set in the modern times. I chose to have two quarreling sisters over prom in my story instead of quarreling about the strength of their children.
I think prom is a little more relatable since most people take part in that high school tradition. Also, even if one does not have a sister (like myself) I could imagine how annoying it would be to have my mind set on an outfit and for it to not be there when I went to look.

Bibliography: Tales from the Indian Epics. C.A. Kincaid. 1918.

Reading Notes: Kincaid. Tales from the Indian epic, Part B

Notes: 

Ruru and Pramadvara

• Ruru is the grandson of Vrigu
• Dancing girl, Menaka, from god Indra's court fell in love with Visvavasu and they had a baby girl but hid her from the god Indra so she put her baby girl by a river.
• Sthulokesha, a rishi, took the the girl and raised her

            - He named her Pramadvara

• Ruru saw her and instantly wanted to marry her

           - before their wedding Pramadvara got bitten by a poisonous snake and died
           - Ruru agreed to give half the span of his life to Pramadvara to bring her back

• Story of the rock snake pg 51

Nala and Damayanti

• Bhima's daughter is named Damayanti after the rich who promised him 3 sons and a daughter. 
• King Nala of the Nishadas heard of Damayanti's beauty and longed for her. 

          - they're using a golden swan to talk back and forth

          - maybe I could make a story between 2 young kids who like each other but are talking by 

             dropping notes in each others lockers or something.  pg 56

• Bhima is hosting a Swayamvara of Damayanti so she can choose her husband
• All the princes and kings forgot to worship Indra
• I could write a story about how Narada, a sage, visited Indra and how he, Agni, Varuna, and Yama became infatuated with Damayanti like King Nala had. pg 57
• The gods even went as far to disguise themselves as King Nala to confuse Damayanti

               - I could have fun with his story.

• Nala and Damayanti lived happily for 12 yrs. and had a son named Indrasena and a daughter named Indrasena
• god Kali wanted Damayanti so badly he waited 12 yrs for Nala to slip up

           - I could also write a story about this 

          - Kali controlled Nala

            - I'm thinking Harry Potter imperious curse!!

(Nala leaving Damayanti)

• There's this whole story line about how Kali controlled Nala to lose everything he had besides Damayanti b/c of course kali wanted her. 

           - Kali got Nala to leave Damayanti and now she is wondering around and getting attacked by  

    snakes and men grabbing her for themselves. 

• I could make a story about Damayanti dreaming the whole thing.  pg 70

                - the tiger

                - the oasis

                - the old men

• Damayanti met some merchants and is traveling with them. 
• She ended up at a royal palace. 

• Meanwhile Nala is just wandering around until he runs into the snake king

         - Nala saves the snake King and the snake bites him to torture Kali out of him and tells him to 

             go to Ayodhya where the King Rituparna will befriend him. 

• There's this big ol' long story about how Nala and Damayanti find each other; not that interesting to me. 
• Now Nala is going to win back his kingdom b/c he knows the art of dice now. 
• He won! Now he rules Nashada again,

Bibliography: Tales from the Indian Epic. C.A. Kincaid. 1918. 

Reading Notes: Kincaid. Tales from the Indian epics, Part A

Notes:  

The Churning of the Ocean

• Could write a story about Mount Meru

             - Lesser gods met up there
             - They want to obtain the ambrosia which will make them immortal like the three supreme
                   gods, Vishnu, Brahmadeva, and Shiva.
            - but the ambrosia layed at the bottom of the ocean.

• Could write a story about Vishnu and how he told the lesser gods to churn the ocean with the demons aide. 
• Could write a story about Mount Mandara

           - They use this mountain to actually church the ocean.

• Could write a story about how Brahmadeva begged lord Vishnu to give the gods and demons greater strength to churn the ocean. 
• What if the immortal gods wanted to lesser gods to fail and not obtain the ambrosia. 
• I could write a story about everything that came out of the water. 
• I could tell a story about Vishnu

           - and how he drank the poisonous fluid which overlaid the ambrosia
          -the demons tried to steal the ambrosia but Vishnu took it back and only gave it to the gods
           and gave none to the demons who are still mortal to this day.
          - One demon disguised himself as a god and tricked Vishnu into giving him some
          - Vishnu cuts his head off before it passes his thoat
          - The Sun god is the one who warned Vishnu about this.

(The Churning of the Ocean)

Veda's Pupil

• A sage in India named Veda took on a Brahman boy named Uttanka as his pupil
• When the boy grew up he wanted to give Veda something kind in return

            - Veda's wife wanted King Paushyas wife's earrings.

• I could write a story about how Uttanka encounters a giant and eats a meal in haste.

            - At first he is afraid to eat the food but does anyway when he finds out Veda has eaten it
              before too.
            - My story he could turn into something or he passes out and winds up at the palace

• He has a strange altercation at the palace with the King. 

           - I could write a whole story on the dinner and how they cursed each other.
           - Maybe turn the characters into children at lunch in elementary school

• Of course Uttanka gets the earrings stolen by Takshaka, the snake prince, like the queen warned. 
• Indra saw him weeping by the snake burrow and sent a thunderbolt to the stick he was digging with.

           - turns out all his help was aided by gods.
           - the giant was Indra and the was his mighty elephant
           - the horse that gave him a ride home was Agni, the god of fire
          - god who burned the snake city down was Parjanya, the god of rain

King Janamejaya's Snake Sacrifice

• King Prajapati had 2 daughters
• Gave them to King Kashyapa to marry; the queens name's were Kadru & Vinata
• He granted them 2 wishes;

         - Kadru, the eldest, wished to be the mother of a thousand snakes
        - Vinata wished to be the mother of 2 sons who were = in strength to the thousand snakes
      * What if I made a story and they wished for different things like to be the mother of something
           else, maybe wolves or lizards or something like that.

• Instead of Vinata being jealous of Kadru maybe I can have Kadru being jealous of Vinata. Maybe over a boy instead of their children and the horse that rose from the ocean. 

            - Maybe Kadru took Vinata's clothes from her closet without asking; the typical sister fight.

• Vinata lost the bet to Kadru and now Vinata has to be her slave. 

        - But the only reason she won is b/c Kadru had her snake son's lie for her; she cursed them about
          being burned in a  fire.... like in Veda's Pupil!!!
          * I could make some kind of story out of this! More modern day though with 2 sisters fighting.
             Maybe the sisters always made bets to one another until one day it got our of hand.

• Garuda, Vinata's son was finally born but into slavery.

            - Kadru's snake sons told him that if he brought the ambrosia from Indra to give to them then
               they would set him & his mom free

• I could write a spin off story about the brothers Vivavasu and Supratika

          - Supratkia was being greedy and wanted to divide their wealth but Vivavasu wanted to share it
          - Supratika turned into an elephant; Vivavasu turned into a tortoise

• I could write a story about how the god Indra protected the ambrosia jar

          - Vayu, the wind god blew dust into the eyes of any oncoming foeman
          - ring of fire
          - 2 poisonous snakes

• god Vishnu stopped Garuda

            - granted him a boon; Garuda chose to drink some of the ambrosia

• Indra stopped Garuda after that and encouraged him to not give the snakes the ambrosia

           - Garuda gave them the ambrosia but Indra took it before they could drink it

• I don't want to write a story about all the snake drama and the Bharatas. 

        - Janamejaya ruled after Takshaka killed Parikshit the Bharata

• Could write a story bout how Aruna became the charioteer of the Sun pg. 44

Vrigu and Agni

• Vrigu was a mighty rishi
• Puloma was a lovely maiden and her father offered her in marriage to Vrigu
• Demon King Paulama was originally promised the beautiful Puloma but the promise was broke when she married Vrigu

            - Agni told Paulama that Puloma is not his since he never married her
           - Paulama did not care and took Puloma anyway

• This is a story about why Agni can tell if someone is pure or not and why people walk through his flames to prove their purity

             - Like when Sita walked through the fire to prove her purity to Rama.

• I could write a story about the time period of the absence of Agni

             Bibliography: Tales from the Indian Epics. C.A. Kincaid. 1918.