Week 6: Reading Diary B (The Battle)

Buck's Ramayana
Pages 270-324

• Sumadra and Rama talk it out about crossing the ocean where Rama uses tactics like threatening him to get him to part the seas. Sumadra tells him that he is unable to do so and he is only his friend, not his enemy so he need not provoke him in such ways. Sumadra lets Rama know of the monkey Nala who can help build a bridge to cross instead.
• Ravana calls for a council. Vibhishana tells him to return Sita back to Rama because Rama will pardon them. 
• "Are you trying to anger me?"
• "Well, to tell the truth I don't have to; it's an angry mind that won't understand all this."
• Vibhishana calls out Ravana for his evil deeds and loving to do evil things but Ravana is self-absorbed.** This is how people bring about their own destruction.
• Ravana tries to confuse Sita and say that Rama has died trying to save her. This is when Prahasta comes in and announces Rama's arrival in the city. Sita still does not realize that Rama is not dead till Rakshasi Trijata tells her. 
• Ravana is all for war and says "may this war increase your pain an during joy to the demons!" 
• This story of this war shows how good eventually conquers evil.
• Even the giant Ravana awakens tells Ravana to give Sita back to Rama.
• Ravana keeps going from one person to the next for help. 
• Next he asks his son Indrajit for help. 
• Indrajit pierced many arrows into Rama and killed him. Lakshmana died next with tears in his eyes because he couldn't believe what he saw.
• Rama and everyone else is revived through medicine by Vibhishana. 
• Sita meanwhile finds out that Rama has died, once again, but Trijata tells her this is most likely not the case.
• This time Indrajit creates an illusion of Sita dying. This does not do anything though.
• It is only after Indrajit's death that Ravana finally goes to war himself. 

Vibhishana accusing Ravana

Source: Kidsgen

Week 6: Reading Diary A (The Rescue of Sita Continues)

Buck's Ramayana
Pages 219-270

• News of Jatayu's death by Ravana is told to his brother Sampati. How does he feel at this time? What could be going on in his mind?
• Hanuman's thought process about being the one chosen to make the leap.
• Hanuman's journey inside the rakshasha and at the same time, what about the rakshasha?
• Hanuman's journey as a cat.
• This curse that Lanka speaks of, explain it. What Lanka is doing prior to Hanuman's entrance in the city?
• What does Ravana's wife think of all this that is going on?
• Vayu leads Hanuman towards where Ashoka is but prior to that how is Hanuman doing? What is going on with him?
• Sita's dream with Rama in it - possible story.
• Sita and Ravana's interaction when Ravana comes to seduce her but she doesn't encourage anything and Ravana gets annoyed and leaves. When the guards start scaring Sita, she is starting to despair. What is this time like?
• Hanuman bringing chaos in Lanka, how does this look to everyone else? How did he feel when he was captured? - Possible story
• What about his escape and when he returns with good news that he has found Sita?

Hanuman jumping across the ocean

Source: Wordpress

Week 5: Reading Diary A (Rama's exile)

Buck's Ramayana
Pages 110-161

• Messengers were sent out to tell Bharata to come back to Ayodhya immediately. They travelled past Panchala and the Elephant city, never stopping, for four days, finally reaching Kekaya City. 
• Bharata was asleep but he was having a nightmare where he saw the ocean dry, the moon fall on to the Earth, the tusks of his father's elephants shatter, the fire in Ayodhya burn out, and smoke coming from the hills of Kosala. **story**
• Finally the messengers came and told him that he needs to immediately return to Ayodhya without specifying the reason, and his grandfather, King Aswapati, gave him horses to ride back on.
• Bharata asks Kaikeyi why Rama is banished when she tells him that the King banished him into exile for fourteen years. Finding out that it was Kaikeyi, he runs off to Kausalya.
• Bharata forgives his mother and goes with the four queens to Rama to take his place in the forest.
• Rama explains to Bharata that a man's word is very important and it cannot be broken and Bharata eventually agrees to let Rama go. Rama asks Bharata to wait for him, for his return after fourteen years. 
• Rama tells Sita the story of the Valakhilyas and about how Indra wasn't very nice to them. 
• The demon Viradha abducts Sita while Rama is telling a story to Sita, but later he finds out that the only way to free him is to end his demon life (by Rama).
• Lakshmana, Rama, and Sita live in Panchavati where Ravana's sister proposes to him.

Bharata and Kaikeyi

Source: Boloji

Week 3: Styles

TOPIC: The storybook topic I am choosing is "Indra." The God Indra has several stories, especially in the Ramayana as well in which he plays a large role. I don't think there are too many stories or two few that will make it hard to decide, but a good amount. I want to pick four different stories of Indra that show how he is both mischievous as well as great and powerful. One of these stories is the one from Buck's Ramayana where Indra and Ravana battle each other. The other story is from Narayan's Ramayana where Indra interferes between the love of Ahalya and Gautama, his more mischievous side.

Bibliography:
1) Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 
2) Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.


Styles:

Postscripts and Prequels
I really like this idea since I usually tend to write about things that aren't really mentioned in the actual story, so the idea of having a prequel to Indra's stories, showing what he was doing prior to the event or perhaps after it. Or maybe even both.

Courtroom Style
This is a style that really appealing to me especially because I can bring in other gods into my story as the judges and jury and so on in my courtroom but still have it seen from the perspective of Indra. This would be cool to do with the battle against Ravana that Indra had, but have it in a courtroom instead. Even the story of Gautama and Ahalya can be put in a courtroom setting. Either way, this idea is something I might actually pursue.

Twist the Ending
I always have these thoughts about how things would be with an alternate ending so this is also something I might do. I can have it to where the usual endings to Indra's story have a bit of plot twist, an example being that Ahalya actually ends up going with Indra rather than being turned into a rock after Gautama sees her.

News Reporting
What are the most fun news reports? The ones about scandals and war... of course, thats not actually good, but it would be fun to put Indra's stories into this format and have some of the other gods be the ones who are reporting the story and then maybe have Indra interviewed in the news report or something around those lines.

Interesting depiction of Indra

Source: Google

Tech Tip: Google Docs Dictionary

Here is a word that always seems to mess me up because of how we say it. When people say the word, it sounds like "be-serk" rather than "ber-serk." So, hopefully this image will help me remember because I can't think of another way to help me remember.

"Berserk"

Source: Taken by me

Week 4: Storytelling (The Pursuit of Happiness)

"Away with the worlds, where a little pleasure costs a lot of pain." --Valmiki

He travelled over the world and everywhere he saw sadness and grief. Those moments where he witnessed people with smiling faces and a sweet gleam in their eyes lasted only a brief time before vanishing into thin air.

Walking through the dark streets of the town, the rain poured down hard on the ground. He spotted an old man resting against a tree and people passed by him, rushing to get home. They did not offer him a home, they did not offer food, and they did not even bother to provide him with any bit of help. He simply sat there with sorrow in his eyes, his hands quivering from the cold as he squeezed his arms to warm himself. How could one simply stroll on by when someone is lying helpless under the great skies, having nothing in this world but the clothes on his back? It worried the sage greatly.

It wasn’t shortly after he noticed a man giving the poor old soul on the ground some bread to eat before continuing on his way. Feeling a little optimistic, the sage followed this man to his home where he spent some time with his family. He watched the man till morning, where he saw how the man leaving for his usually day of work. But the sky was still dark and there was no one out on the streets. Curious, the sage quietly followed the man once again to see where he was going at such an early hour where the sun hadn’t even lit the horizon. And shortly after, his optimism died and the sorrow came back. The man had entered a whorehouse.

What is this world? Where men and women live in lies and sorrows and there is pain everywhere. Where one can’t trust another’s promises anymore? Where there is no trust. Where there is war. Where people are selfish and greedy and think only of themselves. What is this world where there is no happiness?

The sage grew more sad by the minute and soon enough was tired of seeing the same things over and over again. He walked away into the forest, forgetting everything else and isolating himself for years.

"Away with the worlds, where a little pleasure costs a lot of pain." --Valmiki

 Valmiki

Source: Google

Author's Note: For this story, Valmiki, the sage presented at the beginning of Buck's Ramayana, was traveling the world and everywhere he went he experienced sadness and sort of lost faith in people. It wasn't really told where he went or what he did, just gave a brief understanding that he went many places but didn't find the happiness he was looking for. So for this moment, I wanted to expand on what was going on during this time when we went around traveling. I wanted to explain in detail what he saw, just a snippet of his travels, but it kind of gave an idea of why he was sad and what lead him to isolate himself into the forest.
I chose to write this story because I can sympathize with Valmiki and I can understand his sorrows because I too travel a lot, especially overseas to third-world countries and I see a lot, lot, lot of people who are homeless, on the streets, beggars, just people who have no one in this life and are helpless and there are people who are just walking right on by without doing anything or caring at all. And it is really sad to see that, sometimes sad enough to make you depressed and just want to shut yourself away from such people and such a world. So my story came out of how much I could relate to this sage and hopefully you all felt what I and sage felt through my story.

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

Week 4: Reading Diary B (Events Occurring During Rama's Exile)

Buck's Ramayana

Pages 60-109

• King Aswapati calls for Bharata for which Dasaratha gives permission. And not soon after, he begins to think of Rama's coronation. 
• Dasaratha tells Rama about his taking over as King and Rama's mother and the other three as well come up to congratulate him happily. 
• Manthara is a hunchback... Rama had once shot a play-arrow at her hump. Story?
• She was a cruel, sin-seeking hag.
• She told Keikeyi that Rama's mother would soon be walking around on a high-horse once Rama became king and not care for any of the other wives. 
• She was the one who put the idea in innocent Keikeyi's head about sending Rama away for fourteen years so the people would not love him anymore and he wouldn't kill Bharata either.
• Keikeyi went in a rage soon after this, like the youngest sibling would throw a fit, she was acting similarly as the youngest wife.
• Rama humbly accepted her two requests.
• Lakshmana insists that he will kill the King if this is what he is going to do, but Rama tells him to stop and sit still.
• Sita explains to Rama how husband and wife are one and that she will go with him.
• Rama's path is blocked by the people as he tries to depart for his exile so he has to spend one night there still.
• At the Kingdom of the Far Forest, Guha, the Hunter King, welcomed Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana.
• Guha explains how he was angry at Shiva, believed in "one God" which was a tree and he kicked Shiva's statue whenever he got the chance—which was often. Yama's messengers came to get Guha and tore his soul from his body. Then a dwarf came and told them by Shiva's command to let him go, it was not time for him to go and that they were just thieves. It was not time for Guha to die just yet. However, Shiva (Nandin) carried Guha away and then when Yama showed up, he told him that Guha may have sinned but he took care of him when he came into his forest. He made those men who pretended to love him leave the forest, so his soul was for Shiva to take. 

Kaikeyi and Manthara

Source: Google