Reading Diary A (Beginning of Mahabharata)

Buck's Mahabharata 

Pages  #1-47

• The sage Sauti recited the Mahabharata to another sage, Shaunaka.
• Ganesha has an elephant head because Shiva tore his head off and replaced the empty head with that of an elephant.
• Before it turned to salt, the ocean was milk. Vishnu proposed to the gods and asuras that they should churn the ocean in order to get "amrita" or the nectar of immortality. Poison also came from the churning and it turned Shiva's throat blue.
• Vyasa asks his young companion, Vaishampayana, to recite the Mahabharata. This is the snake sacrifice of Janamejaya where Sauti heard the Mahabharata recited. 
• Mahabharata begins: 
• There is a king in heaven who looks down at Ganga and falls in love with her. He reincarnates himself as a human being named Shantanu.
• Ganga tells Shantanu's father that she is in love with him.
• Ganga lets all but one child die, his name is Bhishma.

Churning of Sea

Source: DrewLawrence

Famous Last Words

This past week went by pretty smoothly and I didn't have that many things to do so it was good. However, because it was one of the better weeks I had (since I didn't have as many things to do), I was a bit lazy with other assignments. On top of it being a nice week with homework and assignments, it was also a beautiful week with weather so just relaxing outside on a bench was pushed to the top of my list of priorities. The other big thing that happened this past week was the Medieval Fair! For all of you who go to OU, you should definitely know what this is since they have it every year at the end of March and it is pretty much right in your face. They start set up about a week prior to the event and the event itself lasts three days. Even if you don't like these kind of things, you should go just to see all that they are selling because everything is so cool. It's even more cool how they all dress up and talk as if you were in the medieval times. The absolutely BEST part though, is the jousting! That is one of the main reasons I go. I always had a love for "medieval-ish" kind of things, being a Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fan, I immerse myself into these things completely.

That was all in terms of my life outside school. For this class in specific though, I enjoyed this past week's reading assignments. They were definitely some of the more fascinating reads and also, because I love the Pandavas, I enjoyed it even more. I was a bit sad at the ending though. I didn't really like how everyone just one by one died. It made things appear a bit depressing, but still, I did love the whole story!

Mine is definitely the latter... or is it?

Source: Becuo

Storytelling

Reading Diary B (Kurukshetra War)

Narayan's Mahabharata
Pages: 133-179

• Yudhishthira tries for peace one last time and is sending Krisha to do so at Hastinpura. Over there, Dhritarashtra is eager to see Krishna. Duryodhana, though, is ready to capture Krishna. Always making trouble, that kid. Tsk, tsk.
• Before leaving, Krishna spoke to Karna and tried to convince him to leave Duryodhana but Karna didn't budge. 
• He promises his mother, Kunti, that the only one he will hurt in the battle is Arjuna (her son from Pandu).
• At Krishna's urging, Yudhishthira makes Dhrishtadyumna, Draupadi's brother, the supreme commander of his troops. 
• The old warrior Bhishma is the supreme commander of Duryodhana's troops. 
• The battle is to take place on the field of Kurukshetra.
• Arjuna is having a hard time with this war, not wanting to fight his family. Krishna helps him here and gives him a bit of a pep-talk and afterwards Arjuna is ready to fight.
• Arjuna shoots Bhishma from behind and he falls.
• Drona is now made the commanding general of Duryodhana's armies. At Duryodhana's urging, Drona attempts to capture Yudhishthira alive and sets up a diversion to lead Arjuna away from the main battle.
• Karna uses the invincible weapon that he was to use on Arjuna to kill Ghatokacha. 
• Drona gets killed by Dhristadyumna.
• Karna, in the fight against Arjuna, gets killed by Arjuna.
• Duryodhana is finally the last one left and is still defiant up until the end where he calls out Krishna for being deceitful.
• The Pandavas return to Hastinpura but no one is happy with the deaths. 
• Yushishthira becomes king.
• The Pandavas die slowly one by one, until Yudhishthira is left who goes to heaven in his bodily form. The son of Arjuna's son becomes king and continues the Pandava line. 
• Kind of a sad ending...

Kurukshetra War

Source: Elatrip

Reading Diary A (Pandavas exile continued)

Narayan's Mahabharata
Pages: 85 - 131

• Dhritarashtra has people here and there watching the Pandavas to keep check on where they are and what they are doing. Meanwhile, Duryodhana is still plotting against the Pandavas. He really doesn't know how to let go...
• He comes up with a plan to humiliate the Pandavas though that completely backfires when he gets captures. 
• In the end, the Pandavas are the one freeing Duryodhana from captivity.
• *Storytelling* Pandavas vs Kauravas? 
•  The Pandavas are currently living in the forest.
• Nakula goes to a stream while in search of the deer the brahmin sent the princes out to capture. Being so thirsty, he drank the water and ignored the message of the voice saying not to because the water is poisonous. The rest of his brothers do the same except for Yudhishthira who answered the questions and the brothers were brought back to life.
• Thus began their thirteenth year of exile in disguise at the court of King Virata.
• **Possible Story**
• Yudhishthira is the King's companion.
• Sahadeva is a cow herder.
• Nakula is a stable boy.
• Arjuna lives as "Brihannala" and lives as a eunuch with the women.
• Draupadi is Sairandhri, the hairdresser of Virata's queen (Sudeshna).
• She is raped though by the general and the queen's brother Kichaka.
• Bhima avenges her by squeezing the man to death.
• Susharman proposes to steal Kichaka's cattle... along with Duryodhana. They go on a cattle raid and end up capturing the King Virata and stealing his cattle. Bhima rescues him though and captures Susharman. 
• Now Krishna proposes that half the kingdom be given to the Pandavas, though war is urged for amongst both sides. One side (Duryodhana) gets Krishna's million soldiers while the Pandavas get Krishna himself (since Anjuma chose him).

Draupadi and the Pandavas <3

Source: Photobucket

Famous Last Words

This week is starting out hectic, especially because its the week right after Spring Break and I have so much on my plate. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's even more stressful that I have to prepare for the MCAT that I'm taking in about two months while I have to keep up with all my classes. At the start of this semester, taking only fourteen hours I didn't think I would have too much of a load but that turned out to be completely wrong. I have been sleeping very late and for very few hours. This makes me end up sleeping long hours and waking up late on the weekends to where I have even less time to study for the MCAT—weekends being the time I keep to study for that huge test. That test is eating my soul—no joke. The stress it is causing is becoming too much, but hopefully it will be over soon!

Aside from that part of my life, I can say that this class has its good and bad moments. Sometimes it seems like a lot to do but other times its really nice because it is a lot of writing, and writing is something that is a passion of mine. When I realized that this class was mostly writing stories, I was thrilled. If I could have another chance at college, I would have writing as a profession though write now it's just a hobby and I'm totally okay with that. My favorite story I would have to say is "I See Fire." That was a story that came to my mind like a lightbulb and I wrote it so fast and I absolutely loved it too. I've found that stories that come to me in a flash like that tend to actually end up really good. And judging from all the comments, I can see others love it too for which I'm glad!

Comment Wall

Reading Diary A (Shantanu, his wives, and their children)

Narayan's Mahabharata
Pages: 1 - 39

• The woman that Shantanu, king of Hastinapura, married was the human incarnation of the Ganges river. *Possible story: his thoughts when she drowned the babies without telling him the reason why.
• The babies, who are incarnations of the eight gods, are being drowned because they stole the divine cow of the sage Vashistha. *Possible story
• Bhishma is the eighth child that she took into the river with her and brought back later, back to the king.
• Shantanu falls in love again. *Possible story: him falling for these women (comedic)
• He falls in love with a woman named Satyavati. She is a fisherman's daughter.
• She has two sons with him: Chitrangada and Vichitravirya
• The first son dies soon after his reign but the second son is still alive. 
• Bhishma then rules for a while and seizes the three daughters of the neighboring kingdom when they were having their ceremony for obtaining a husband. 
• One of them, Amba, is let go because she told Bhishma that she promised herself to another king. 
• He however rejects her because she was in another man's home and now Bhishma is basically on her hit-list. *Possible story
• Vichitravirya dies too, though. 
• Satyavati's son that she had with Parashara, named Vyasa, is then asked to bear children with the widows of Vichitravirya since Bhishma won't due to his circumstances. 
• Three children are born, two with flaws (blind Dhritarashatra and pale Pandu) and one without (the one that came from the maid, Vidura).
• Pandu dies while making love with Madri because he was cursed. Madri climbs on to the funeral pyre with him too. *Possible story
• Pandu has five sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva (the Pandavas) and his brother Dhritarashtra has one hundred (the Kauravas).
• Dhritashatra makes Yudhisthira his heir. 
• The Pandavas are much more popular with the people.

Interesting depiction of the Pandavas

Source: DeviantArt

Commenting Review Week

I think the commenting is a really good way of connecting with other students. Commenting on the "Introduction" posts, especially, I feel are great way to learn more about others in this class and commenting on the storytelling posts keep us connected with those people.

In shorter comments, I generally give a broad opinion of the post with a few things about specifics. With longer comments its the opposite: a few general sentences about the whole post and then more things that cover the minor details of the post.

I myself like the comments that point out specifics of my stories that people either liked or think I should fix as opposed to a comment that just gives their general idea of the post. Those are really helpful in that it shows me what I should work on or what about my story people think is good and I can then use that sort of writing technique in my stories in the future.

 Source: Pinterest

Source: PixShark

Source: imgur

Reading Review Week

The readings I've enjoyed in this class the most are the ones that show the love of Rama and Lakshmana and also the fights/conversations between the Gods. One of my favorite stories was the one about Indra and how mischievous he was when he tried to take away the wife of Gautama. Another one of my favorite scenes was the scene where Lakshmana so Rama die through the hands of Ravana's son. I felt that was a very emotional scene, one I would have written about though didn't get the chance to.

The reading diary posts are very helpful to me when it comes to the storytelling post. I tend to write down (in the reading diary posts) my favorite scenes as well as the ones I want to write a story about. Usually these scenes are specific, small moments that give me a chance to use my imagination and expand on how I like while still sticking to the original story. In my reading diary posts, I mark the scenes that I want to write a story about by putting an asterisk by it to remember it later on.

Rama and Lakshmana

Source: Krishnasmercy