Week 7 Story Planning: The Mahabharata Epified Plans

Space:  Pixabay

Source:  Epified Mahabharata Link to Video

For my next story I want to focus on the rivalry between the five brothers and the one hundred brothers.  I think I want rewrite their backstories with a twist.  It is interesting to me that the 100 brothers were described as demonic and they have a father who is blind and a mother who gave up her sight.  I want to explore why they are presented in an evil way- was it because they were not watched very well as children?  Is it because their father was greedy in wanting to inherit the throne? 

Additionally I would like to explore the backstory of the five brothers.  Are they presented as good just because their fathers were all gods?  What kind of special powers do they have because they were born from gods. It would be fun to develop each character and find out what each one can specialize in. 

This story could be interesting from sci-fi perspective.  The two sets of brothers could be from different planets.  The five brothers could easily be human or they could be descendants of gods from five other planets.  The 100 brothers could all be from the same planet and it could be a dark moon or it could be a planet with an evil god ruling it. 

The family tree in this version of the Mahabharata is much easier to understand, and now that I am following the storyline a little bit better I would like to incorporate this into my story.  I could also incorporate the mothers in the story and they could be from different planets or they could be from some of the same ones.  It would be easy to line up the different heirs to the throne and their families as rulers of different planets in an intergalactic space battle.  I mostly want to focus on the 100 brothers but I think this could be a cool twist. 

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified part B

The Mahabharata Family Chaos:  Wikimedia

Pandu- cursed by a hermit
Kunti- summons gods to have children
Madri- Pandu's second wife

1st son: Udishtil- stays calm always even in battle
2nd son:  Bheen- is strong and fast like the wind- was tied and pushed into the lake and attacked my snakes
3rd son:  Arjun- will become a great archer

Madri has 4th and 5th sons.  Nahkul and Zeedhev

100 sons born to the blind brother and his wife- they came from a lump of flesh put into vats of oil and they are demonic.  There are bad omens. 

This section of the story helped me to understand the family tree of the Mahabharata much better.  I have made some notes here- although the names are probably spelled badly.  I think it could be interesting to talk about the 100 sons.  That was part of the story that I did not understand when I read the book but it is intriguing.  The birth story of these sons could be twisted in many different ways.  One idea I had while watching the video is that they could be similar to aliens.  This would  make the battle interesting between all of the cousins at the end of the book. 

I think there could be a good moral in the story as well because the parents are blind.  The story could say something about how you act when nobody is watching or it could represent that the love of a mother and father is blind in many cases.  The 100 sons could have easily gotten away with anything they wanted to if they were quiet about it because their father was blind and their mother gave up her sight.  Would it have been better if she had not tried to be honorable and given up her sight?  Would her sons be more honorable if she had kept her sight and held them accountable for their actions?  Is the pride and greed of their blind father  to blame for their demonic actions? 

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified:  Link to Videos

Reading notes: The Mahabharata Epic Video Part A

The King in the River:  Wikimedia

This week, I chose to watch the Epified version of the Mahabharata.  So far I have found it much easier to understand the story because the animations help me to remember names a little bit better.  The family tree in this book is really long and complicated, nonetheless. 

I noticed more specific details about the family in the beginning.  There are a lot of similarities between Rama and Devavrata because they both just want to honor their fathers and make sure that they are happy.  Devavrata is an interesting character because he holds his vow of celibacy even after the fisherman's daughter's sons have a chance to inherit the throne.  It would make sense to me that he would go back on his vow after they all had a chance to be heirs, but he is an honorable character. 

I like the switch that they did with Devavrata and his half brother so that there could be a new heir to the throne.  It is interesting that everyone- the queens and mothers and all the people in the castle- went along with this idea. 

It could be interesting to do a story around Devavrata and his father Shantanu and his mother Ganga.  I find her story intriguing that she is a river goddess who came to earth just to have eight children.  Why did she let the last one (Devavrata) live?  I could open up this idea to make a unique story as well. 

Source:  Epified Mahabharata Videos:  Link to Videos

Week 6 Story: The Woman With 5 Husbands

We Can Do It:  Wikipedia

Seriously all of my husbands in this life and my past lives have taken me for granted.  They think every woman is weak and absolutely "needs" to be rescued on a regular basis.  In reality, none of them would know what to do without me. I make sure everything works out smoothly for them and they never have a clue.  I've been pretty challenged lately- trying to keep up after five husbands.  Let me explain how I got into this predicament. 

My name is Holly and I have lived a few different lives- though I can only tell you about this one and my most recent past life because that's all I remember.  Basically in my last life, I was promised in marriage to this really gross ugly old lazy man who didn't even make sure I had enough food or clothes.  I was a respectable girl though and I didn't want to bring shame on my family, so I lived with it.  I put up with all of the filth and lack of food and pretty much anything you would want for a decent life.  So anyway at the end of this life, right when the old guy is about to kick the bucket he turns to me and completely transforms into this really attractive rich young guy.  I was like "seriously???".  He told me that this was his true form all along but that for some reason he had to test my honor and whatnot.  He asked what I wanted now that I knew he was an honorable man.  I told him I wanted to be loved by him as if he were five men.  Well- that was a bad choice of words on my part- this stupid guy took what I said literally and now here I am in my next life- literally married to five men. 

It's not all bad- they can be pretty endearing sometimes and all the attention I get is great- but they make SO. MANY. MESSES.  Literally and figuratively.  I have to clean up their messes in the house all the time- but they are also always getting into battles with their weird family members and then I have to go make sure they succeed or else we all look bad.  The latest one had to do with their cousin who is actually a king.  They started a big battle with him about something or other and then I had to go to work.  I went to their castle and met with the queen- she really enjoys having another girl around to talk to so she totally trusted me.  I started setting little things off around the castle generally making people have small quarrels, getting a little bit sick from something I slipped into their food- etc.  I even tried to get some secrets out of the king but he was a really creepy guy and tried to take my clothes.  I'm pretty close with the gods though so they had my back- as much as he pulled on my clothes, more and more material just kept appearing.  Eventually the queen figured out what happened and she got super mad at him but she agreed to let me stay another 13 days.  At the end of that period, my guys all came to attack at the same time.  They did pretty well in the battle since I had started problems in the castle before they got there. 

It can be a bit exhausting trying to keep up with everything but they're my husbands and I love them.  I can't say I want this reincarnation to go on forever but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.  And hey- someone has got to be around to take care of these five crazy guys. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  I was inspired to write this story by Nayaran's Mahabharata.  The story was based on a huge family and the five brothers were exiled to the forest.  I thought the parts about the woman they were all married to was interesting and I wanted to write a story that revolved around her and some of her parts in the story.  She did not have a lot of parts in the original book, but I used the basic plot of her life, her backstory, and the miracle with the cloth form the book, and I modified them. 

Source:  Narayan's Mahabharata:  Link to Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata part D

Source:  Narayan's Mahabharata Link to Reading Guide

Arrow:  Pixabay

The last section of the Mahabharata was mostly focused on a big battle.  I liked some specific parts of this section of the book for my story, but I think I will use the battle scene as a whole in my version of the story. 

One specific detail I thought was interesting was the man who was a god incarnated who could choose when he died.  He chose to die on a bed of arrows and one arrow was shot into the ground to give him a spring of water when he said he was thirsty.  He said that when he died, the battle should end then and there. 

I think I have decided what I will make my story like from this week's readings.  I want to make the role of the woman with 5 husbands larger.  My story will tell about her past life, how she got into this predicament in this life, and what she does now.  I think that she should be a strong character.  I want her to be a character that can and does take care of herself, even though her five husbands always insist on rescuing her.  I think she will secretly be the reason that they succeed in their battles, because she is working behind the scenes to make sure they succeed. 

I am not sure yet what theme I will go with for this story, but this plot seems like it will work well.  I will use several of the small details from the other sections of the book and I will try to incorporate them all into a story narrated by her. 

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata Part C

Water in the desert:  Pexels

While reading part C of Nayaran's Mahabharata, I came across a few more interesting details that could work well in my story.  I am not sure which ones I will use or how I will fit them together yet but here is what interested me from this section:

I liked the part about the five brothers being exiled to a forest life.  When they were very thirsty and they came across the small pond, four out of the five were too impatient to treat it with respect.  The spirit that was overseeing the pond killed them instantly from drinking the water, but when the fifth brother came along the story took a twist.  He talked to the owner of the lake and he answered all of his questions.  It was a trying task, but from the respect that he showed for the lake, he was able to revive one brother- then when he chose his half-brother to honor his second mother, he was rewarded with the lives of all of his brothers being returned.  This part of the story seems to have a strong moral message and it could be interesting to use in a story. 

Another part that was interesting in the story was when the wife of the five brothers was staying in a castle with other royals.  She was supposedly very beautiful and the queen was worried that she would cause the men to go astray.  She told the queen that her five husbands would come after anyone who wronged her.  I am curious to see why she needed to stay at the castle another 13 days longer.  Perhaps this will help my story. 

Source:  Narayan's Mahabharata:  Link to Reading Guide

Story Planning week 5: The Mahabharata with a Twist

Five Brothers as Superheroes:  Flickr

This week I decided to go with story planning because I am having a harder time following the Mahabharata.  I have had a few ideas from my notes that I want to expand upon.  I want to focus on a small part of the story and turn it into a larger story. 

I really liked the part of the book that described the five brothers.  I could start a story that revolves around them and their adventures.  I found the part where they all married the same girl interesting because in the Ramayana, the men had multiple wives but not vice-versa.  This was an interesting twist, and I thought it could be interesting to highlight that in my story. 

When I googled "five brothers" for my image on this post, this superhero image came up.  I thought it could be an interesting twist if all of the five brothers were superheroes and they were all fighting to save the same damsel in distress.  This could also incorporate the part about the miracle where someone was trying to take her clothes, but they just kept reappearing. 

Perhaps in this idea some of the brothers are heroes and some are villains.  It could be funny to see them fighting back and forth over her, and maybe I could give her a really sassy attitude to where she doesn't even want to be saved in the first place. 

I may not go with the superhero idea, but instead just a modern day idea that focuses on the dress miracle.  Maybe this girl was a nerd and she went to prom and someone pulled the stereotypical drop-a-bucket-of-something-gross-on-the-nerd-girl move.  This girl could find out that she has a secret talent for making magic dresses that always appear when you need them.  She could open a store and help lots of other girls who are picked on and nobody would know what was going on. 

These are a few of my ideas so far, but hopefully the second half of the book will add to them.  I hope I can get a good story out of the Mahabharata.  I was pretty proud of some of my stories from the Ramayana, so hopefully this one will turn out good too!

Source:  Nayaran's Mahabharata:  Link to Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata Part B

Source:  Nayaran's Mahabharata: Link to Reading Guide

Colorful Material:  Wikimedia

For part B of the reading, I again had a hard time following the family tree of the Mahabharata.  There are so many different characters in this book in comparison to the Ramayana.  For this reason, I still think that my story will be focused on a smaller part of the large story and I will omit names this time.  I will probably story plan this week and write my story after I finish the entire book. 

In this second of the book, I enjoyed reading about the girl that experienced a miracle when people were trying to take her clothing.  I think it is interesting that the clothes stayed on her and more material just kept coming off.  This could be a really interesting beginning to a story. 

From this section, I was also intrigued by how the five brothers treated their shared wife.  In the beginning it seemed like it was all going to be okay, but now they are questioning her honor and people are treating her badly.  This whole situation could make for an interesting story as well with the right twists. 

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata part A

River Rocks:  Pexels

So far I have found it difficult to read the Mahabharata (and spell it correctly!).  I am having a hard time getting confused with all of the names involved, so I think I will do in a different direction for my story posts than I did with the Ramayana.  In those stories, I used the names and the plot and I changed the story and time and place up to make it interesting. 

For this book, I think I will focus on smaller pieces of the story that interest me.  I really liked the first part of the book, where the man is married to the woman who demands to do as she wishes.  I found it interesting that he let her drown seven of their children before he spoke up.  I also liked the aspect of trickery in this part of the story, because she was actually a god all along and she was fulfilling what she was meant to do. 

The part of the story with the five brothers also interests me.  It is weird that they all won the same princess as a wife, but I like the backstory that she was treated badly in another life and the man said that she would be loved as if by five men.  I think it could be used in a story with some sort of romantic plot very easily. 

Source:  Nayaran's Mahabharata Reading Guide

Feedback Focus: Tactics That Help Me

Note-taking:  Pixabay

During class this week, we tried several different ways of taking notes to give good feedback.  I was able to experience each new type of note taking and learn new ways to focus.  In order of helpfulness to me, these tactics were setting a time, copy-and-delete, and reading out loud. 

I started with the reading out loud strategy.  This strategy did not really help me because I have always had a problem with comprehending what I am reading when I read aloud.  I understood the stories better when I was reading them in my head, because instead of focusing on pronouncing the words, I could visualize the story in my head.  I did not care for this strategy, and I will probably not use it to give feedback to my classmates.  I also found it a little awkward to read out loud to nobody. 

My second strategy was copy-and-delete.   I feel that this strategy would work well with longer stories or when I am trying to make a very substantial comment.  With this strategy, I had a hard time finding something to comment on in some paragraphs, and in others there was too much.  When I combined my notes from each paragraph, my comment appeared a little disjointed as well.  I like this strategy because it keeps me on track and makes me notice the little details.  I will probably use this strategy on longer stories that I am giving feedback on. 

Finally, my favorite strategy that I learned was to set a timer.  I really liked this strategy because it kept me focused for a full 20 minutes.  When I set a timer, I found that I did not get distracted as much by things going on around me or by my phone.  I like this strategy because I can read the story in my head, and then reread it, or just reread the interesting parts.  I will definitely use this strategy when I do the majority of my project feedback comments for my classmates. 

Week 4 Story: Rama's Regret

Sita in the 1920's Wiki

He was the stereotypical tall dark and handsome... and I fell in love with him.  It ended up being the stupidest choice of my entire life.  He turned out to be the biggest jerk you could ever imagine.  Wanna hear the story?  Here goes...

I was living in a big city, pursuing my dreams as a flapper girl dancer at the local Speakeasy.  It wasn't the most honorable life, but I kept my values and I loved the glamour of the lifestyle... and hey it was an easy job that was new and empowering to women my age.  I met a lot of guys... but Rama... he was different from the first time I met him.  I fell madly in love with him, following him everywhere, and slowly losing myself.  I always considered myself a strong and independent woman, but when I was with Rama I found myself depending on him for everything.  I was so in love with him that my life starting revolving around whatever he wanted. 

We were together for quite a while, but he never talked about us getting married.  I didn't want to give up my glamorous lifestyle and he disapproved of it secretly.  I found this out the day that I told him I was pregnant with his child.  He didn't believe me.  He told me he loved me but we could never be together because he didn't trust me because of my job.  He was quite an affluent man, and he didn't want to ruin his reputation by marrying me.  So he told me to leave. 

I had nowhere to go because I had become so dependent on Rama.  I would soon lose my job due to my pregnancy, and it was definitely frowned upon to be in my situation during this time.  I took all the money I had and bought a small apartment in a sketchy part of town.  I kept my job for as long as I could, and saved everything up in my apartment, because it wasn't much and I didn't care for banks. 

I had the babies... twins and moved on with my life.  I started out as a secretary for an up and coming business and my life slowly started to turn around.  I worked my way up the chain and now I am making more money than Rama ever did, I fell in love even harder than before, got married, and I have been raising my boys happily with my new husband...but that's not the end of the story just yet. 

The other day Rama decided to try to find me.  As it turns out, he lost all of his fortune in the great depression.  He has been miserable ever since, never being able to regain his money or status even when the economy recovered.  He contacted me to try to convince me that he had made a mistake and wanted me back.  When I said no, he went for custody of the boys... which was obviously shot down immediately by the courts since I have a stable family, have raised the boys since the beginning, and I make more money than he ever will again. 

Maybe I should feel bad for this miserable man, but I don't.  He had no compassion for me when I was carrying his children, so he can go enjoy what's left of his unhappy life.  As for me, I'm the happiest woman in the world.  I'm Sita, the queen of the big city, the girl who overcame the selfishness of Rama, and the woman who regained her strength and independence. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE:  This story was based upon Nina Paley's version of the Ramayana: Sita Sings the Blues, which can be found here.  I twisted the story to be about the relationship between Rama and Sita, and I made Sita into a stronger character.  I wanted her to have the victory in the end since Rama treated her so badly.  The setting and time were changed from India in BC times to the 1920s in the United States. 

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part B

Rama turns his back on Sita Flickr

In part B of Sita sings the blues, a new part of the Ramayana was presented to me, which I did not read in Narayan's Ramayana.  In this part of the story, Sita and Rama return to the castle and Rama becomes king.  Shortly after, Sita tells Rama that she is pregnant and Rama again begins to doubt her character.  He tells his servant to take her to the forest and leave her there.  She has twins in the forest and they are raised to love, worship, and respect Rama.  Rama returns years later and wants to take the boys back to his castle as his sons to rule, but he makes Sita prove her faithfulness to him yet again.  This results in Sita's death (at least it is implied in this movie) and Rama feels some guilt. 

I have enjoyed reading the Ramayana and experiencing it through film, until this last section.  I want to believe that Sita is a strong woman and she is not dependent on Rama's love.  The move ends with Rama rubbing Sita's feet and Sita winking, so I think that Nina wanted the story to end with the woman in power as well, but I want it to be less implied in my version of the story. 

For my storytelling this week, I will write about Rama and Sita's love story in the 1920s.  Sita will be a flapper girl and the story will unfold so that Rama again questions Sita's character, but this time, Sita will control the power and Rama will realize his mistakes in treating Sita badly. 

Source:  Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues:  Video and Viewing Guide

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part A

 

Sita Sings the Blues Flickr

This week, instead of reading, I watched the movie Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley: here is a link to the reading guide and YouTube Video. 

This story follows really closely with Nayaran's Ramayana, but it is a lot more artistic.  The music that Sita sings reminds me a lot of the 1920's and I think I may want to use that as a theme for my writing.  I also like that the story focuses more on the love between Rama and Sita rather than the fighting and battle like in the other Ramayana I read.  It is also interesting how Nina intertwined the story of her personal relationship with the story of Rama and Sita and with India.  I am curious about how that part of this movie will end and I am looking forward to watching part two. 

My story this week will most likely focus on the relationship between Rama and Sita, but I will move the time to the 1920s and maybe Sita can be a flapper girl or some kind of show girl.  I am not yet sure of the setting for my story, but I am pretty sure I want to write about Rama and Sita's relationship this time and cut out the battle parts.  Hopefully I will inspired with a good setting and more parts to the story in the second half of the movie!