Portfolio Guide

Mainaka and Hanuman
Rama reveals his true character
The Shift of Power
The Pandavas Escape

Storytelling Week 5: Mainaka and Hanuman

The mountain Mainaka has been hiding for years underneath the waves of the ocean. Mainaka is the last remaining mountain with wings since Indra had been removing the wings of all the mountains. Mainaka knows that if it shows itself for too long it Indra will come and remove its wings. However, Mainaka has something that is more important than its wings to worry about: Mainaka cares more about helping Hnauman, great friend of Sita's love Rama, in search of Sita.

Everyone in the land seems to have Sita, soon to be queen, as their interest. Everybody is more than willing to help Hanuman not only find Sita but come up with a way to injure Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, and his power. Mainaka rises to the world and shows itself as it comes out of the sea, not worried about what Indra thinks but to give Hanuman a rest on his journey. He is on the great journey to save Sita and return her to her love Rama who is deeply concerned about her well-being. Hanuman, on his journey, settles before the great Mainaka. Mainaka informs Hanuman of the great task he has before him to find Sita and defeat Ravana. Mainaka tells Hanuman, "This is very brave of you but incredibly dangerous to challenge Ravana. You will need as much help as possible and I can be of great assistance if you will trust me." After a long conversation, with Mainaka explaining how much it would like to bring down Ravana due to the years of torture he has put the people through, they together devise a plan to save Sita and permanently injure Ravana and bring terror down on Lanka. 

Hanuman then takes his form as a cat and ventures into the village of Lanka. Hanuman spends many days in the village learning great things about Ravana and clues to where Sita is being held.  Hanuman is operating as a great spy would in a foreign land, and he was figuring out exactly what he could do to terrorize the lands of Lanka and give any advantages to Rama, Ravana's great enemy. 

Hanuman, before informing Sita that he was there to save her, returned to the shores to relay all of the information he had gathered over the past days to Mainaka. He then prepped Mainaka on what he was going to do on his return journey into the city of Lanka to find Sita. Mainaka agreed with his plan and immediately put the plan into action.

The next day both parties moved into place. Hanuman would head to Lanka to find Sita as Mainaka would move into position and then wait for Hanuman to send the signal that he retrieved Sita. Hanuman went into the city and knew exactly where Sita was located. He timed his moves precisely and attacked right when he knew no guards would be paying attention to Sita. Sita was shocked to see Hanuman, as she was not expecting anyone to come for her, but she knew he would explain later and that she should go with him now. They left quickly and quietly. However, as soon as they were out of reach, Hanuman began setting fire to the many trees around Lanka. Sita was very confused why this was happening but Hanuman informed her that this was a signal for the great mountain Mainaka.

Meanwhile, Mainaka was waiting to see the flames that Hanuman had told Mainaka he would send as soon as he had Sita. Mainaka saw the flames and moved into position. Mainaka knew that Hanuman would have not sent the signal without allowing himself time to get out of the city with Sita. Mainaka was correct. Hanuman and Sita headed straight for the shores and they turned back to the city. When they turned around everything in the city began rising, but the ground was crumbling as it rose. Then emerging from below the city was the great Mainaka forming a mountain from underneath Lanka. As Mainaka rose, the city was destroyed and the cultivated lands were ruined forever. Hanuman had emerged with Sita and left the lands of Lanka destroyed and ablaze.

Mainaka has helped Hanuman free Sita from the grasp of Ravana. Mainaka felt this mission was a test for him and he wanted to prove he could use his wings for good. Mainaka's intentions were good  and he did all of this knowing he would show himself to Indra and potentially would lose his wings. After the mission was completed, Indra paid a visit to Mainaka and informed Mainaka he would be able to keep his wings as long as he continued to use them for good and not for evil. If he did use them for evil, Indra would return to clip the wings off of Mainaka. 

Hanuman leaving Lanka ablaze 

Source: Wikipedia

Author’s Note: I have been focusing a lot of my stories on Rama and Ravana. As much as I have enjoyed developing that relationship and rivalry, I felt like doing something new. As important as Rama and Ravana are I wanted to really focus on a character who puts in good efforts throughout the story. That is why I focused on Hanuman who we learn a lot about from Buck during his journey to find Sita. With Mainaka, I just felt that the character of a mountain allowed for me to get very creative. That is why I chose to go with the idea of Mainaka leaving the land in shambles as Mainaka went from resting under the seas to resting under Lanka. Mainaka would still be able to hide from Indra but was forced to sacrifice its lifestyle to help Rama, Sita, and Hanuman. The idea of everyone coming together in favor of providing help to Rama as they form a coalition to combat Ravana is an important aspect of the rivalry between Ravana and Rama. 

Source:

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

Online Education Review

I have take roughly 7 or 8 online courses over the last four years. I have enjoyed some and dreaded some. I was glad this was one i enjoyed. I liked the structure of having assignments due on a daily basis and that the grading system is very fair. I have never been a fan of online classes where the teacher grades extremely hard because I believe the student is at a disadvantage. I prefer the classroom as opposed to being online. However, with a busy schedule I do believe the online learning can be very effective. I would easily take some of my online courses again, but at the same time there are some I would easily not take again. 

I prefer the college classroom 

Source: Wikipedia

Gen. Ed. Review

I think the gen. ed. program does need a big overhaul. I am glad to hear OU is considering that. Although, I do not know what direction they are going I know what I would like it to look like as a student. Personally, if you are not a major that requires science I believe there is no reason to take a science class. Many people who will never need science or have interest in science struggle in those classes a lot and it provides no help to them later in life. Going to law school and hoping to be a corporate attorney I am not sure when I will ever use geology, meteorology, or nutrition in my life. I learned more about meteorology by watching the weather growing up as a kid in Oklahoma than I did from my professor. Also, my geology TA was fired after my semester for failing too many kids as they had to correct the grades for our lab section just so we would all get Bs and Cs while all the other sections got As. English requirements are fine I believe along with math and history. However, the arts is another section that is troublesome. Understanding Music is one of the biggest jokes of a class I have ever been in. Glad to hear Boren is finally considering a change to the curriculum instead of just worrying how many national merits we can get to come to OU.

Speaking of Meteorology: Moore, OK

Source: Wikipedia 

College Writing Review

Coming out of high school I considered myself a pretty good writer. I took AP English my senior year and my teacher made it his goal to have us prepared to start writing at the college level.  English Comp 1 and 2 were helpful classes but I also felt like I was doing a lot of busy work in those classes instead of working on how to write. However, I am a Letters major with a Constitutional Studies minor so most of my classes are writing based. I have mastered the ability to write a very long paper in a short amount of time and get a B on it. Although that is a terrible skill when I do put a lot of time in papers I seem to get As pretty easily. College has made me a better writer and I do attribute a lot of my writing skills to my high school, but overall there are still many little things I need to work on as I move forward into law school. Some things I feel like are just inherent to a person as habitual and very hard to overcome. For example, I struggle greatly with proof reading my own work because I know what I want it to say and read it that way instead of what it actually says, therefore, I misread almost all of my work when proofreading.

One of the more interesting stories from this half of the class

Source: Wikipedia

Week 14 Reading Diary B

For the part B of the week 14 reading we picked up where Buck had left us. Shaunaka is listening to Sauti tell the story of the Mahabharata he had heard recited by Vaishampayana in Hastinapura. Anyways, after the battle Bhisma is still alive. He will control his own death and must choose the perfect moment for when to pass. As in Narayan's version, Bhisma chooses to pass at the exact moment of the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. They took the body of Bhishma and burn it into ashes. They take the ashes and pour them into the Ganges. Meanwhile, Yudhisthira is in such great despair due to bringing so many people to death over the course of the battle, no one can seem to bring him back to higher spirits. He then has the dream. This dream is himself on a journey with his brothers and Draupadi. The only other accompaniment is that of a dog. However, along the way everyone dies except for him and the dog. They continue along their journey together. However, the dog was simply a test in the dream so he could get to heaven but all the sudden he realizes his brothers are not there, instead they are all in hell. He then awakens and finds Draupadi beside him and he is restored in his spirits. He then declares the war as officially over and is made king. They then have a great festival following the coronation. The very end of the Mahabharata is with Takshaka taking Askita to the naga kingdoms under the world.

Yudhisthira and the Dog

Source: Wikipedia 

Week 14: Reading Diary A

In week 14 we picked up where we left off in week 13 with the incident at the lake. Duryodhana's next step was to make the entire lake impenetrable. Yudhisthira then proposes that Druyodhana fights on of the Pandavas, so he fights Bhima. The fight takes place at the lake and brim defeats him. Druyodhana is then found in agony after Bhima smashed his thighs. However, Duryodhana is proud to have fallen in battle and proud to die that way. Ashwatthaman becomes the leading general andpreares for the night raid on the Pandavas camp. However, the Pandavas are sleeping outside the normal camp that night. The camp is guarded by a manifestation of Shiva in the form of a three eyed giant dressed in tiger skin. Ashwatthaman at first attacks the giant but then offers himself as a sacrifice to Shiva and earns his way inside the camp. He, once inside, kills many of the people inside. As soon as the news is given to Druyodhana, he passes away. After the late night raid of the camp there are not many survivors left on either side of the battle. Vyasa then takes the gift of sight away from Sanjaya. He composed the Mahahharata for the benefit of humanity. Eventually Dhritarashtra is able to embrace the Pandavas. Vyasa enters the Ganges and an army rises up until eventually the Drona leads the ghost army back into the lake. 

Duryodhana in the lake

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary B Week 13: The Battle

For part B of week 13 I continue with the reading of Buck's Mahabharata. This part of the diary will cover from page 247 to page 305. This week picked up with the looming battle . Vyasa goes to Hastinapura to warn Dhritarashtra of the preparations being taken. We then see Dhritarashtra admit to Vyasa that he has now ability to control his sons and they will do as they please even if he disagrees with them. Sanjay, who had been bestowed with great vision in order to see the entire battle, narrates the entire battle to Dhritarashtra. Duryodhana has a much larger army than that of Yudhishthira. The major event that happens next is when Bhishma is struck with so many arrows he falls from his chariot. The battle immediately comes to a halt as flowers begin to fall from heaven. Bhishma has the ability to choose the exact moment of his death and decides to wait until the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year. Krishna places Bhishma into a peaceful sleep so that he feels no pain. Duryodhana promotes Drona to take Bhishma's place and orders him to capture Yudhishthira alive. Arjuna's young friend Uttara asthenia trapped behind enemy lines and killed by the Kauravas. Arjuna in return slaughters Jayadartha and causes Jayadartha's fathers head to explode due to his very own curse. Dona kills Drupada during battle but then finds out his very own son has been killed. Although it is not actually his son that his dead, he believes it is and falls into despair leading to his very own death. Karna and Arjuna then battle each other. Arjuna is able to kill Karna who is attempting to kill all of the Pandavas. The lone survivors on the side of Duryodhana go to find him hiding in a lake. However, the Pandavas hear of this and go to the lake forcing all of the survivors to hide while they confront Duryodhana.

Arjuna and Karna

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A Week 13: Yudhisthira's conflict

This week I chose to continue reading Buck's Mahabharata. We picked up in week 13 with pages 191 to 246. The beginning of the section is the story of the Pandavas at the lake. Yudhishthira is sending his brothers one after another to retrieve water from the nearby lake. However, none of them return. After a while he himself goes to look for the rest of his Pandava brothers. When Yudhishthira arrives at the lake he finds the bodies of all of his brothers laying by the lake. Eventually, Yudhishthira discovers that this is a test from his divine father, Dharma. He must answer questions before he is allowed to drink any water. Yama the Dharman King, then revives all of the bodies of the Pandava brothers. Next the Pandavas are deciding where to spend the thirteenth year of exile and they decide to do so in the court of King Virata in the Matsya kingdom. All of the Pandavas take on certain roles within the kingdom in order to disguise themselves. We then meet Kichaka, one of Virata's generals, who has a desire for Draupadi. This causes quite the commotion when he assaults Draupadi. However, she gets even with him when she has Bhima crush Kichaka into a ball of flesh. Sanjay then comes to visit the Pandavas by way of Dhritarashtra. It is an attempt to settle the issues between the Pandavas and Duryodhana.

Kichaka and Draupadi

Source: Wikipedia

Week 12 Reading Diary B:

In part B of the week 12 reading we pick up with Arjuna and Urbashi. Urvashi is trying to woo Arjuna, however, he does not fall for her tap and she forces him to live for a year as a eunuch. Indra along with Chitraratha teach Arjuna music and dancing along with the use of divine weapons. Next we return to Yudhisthira and the Pandavas. Yudhisthira has a dream where the Pandavas are ased to leave the forest soon because they are scaring all the deer away. We then learn the story of Mankanaka and Shiva having to end his dancing to save the world. We then learn of Rishyashringa who was the son of Vibhandaka and the deer who had drank the sperm of Vibhandaka. Rishyashringa was growing antlers from his head. The Pandavas, meanwhile, left the forest and went on a journey to Mount Kailasa. However, they were attacked by the mountain when Yudhisthira disrupted the silence. Later on in the same place we see the Gandharvas attack. Duryodhana has to be reduced by Bhima and Arjuna. He is so embarrassed by this that he resolves to die until Kali encourages him to live. While in the woods the Pandavas are visited by Krishna and Vyasa. They tell them the love story of Savitri to please Draupadi.

Savitri 

Source: Wikipedia

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Gambling & The Fallout

In the reading diary of part A for week 12 we are reading pages 93 through 138. It picks up rather quickly with the game of dice set to take place. They begin the match with Yudhisthira representing the Pandavas and Shakuni representing Duryodhana. Shakuni is now to be a skilled dice thrower. They begin to bet many things that you would imagine such as gold and other valuables. However, when he starts losing Yudhisthira gambles away all of his brothers, himself, and eventually Draupadi. Draped is set to work in the kitchen. Then she is summoned to Assembly Hall with Dushashana who strips her dress off, however, thanks to Krishna overtime a dress is removed another one appears. Dhritarashtra intervenes freeing everyone and restoring them of their riches. Then after the final throw of the dice, the Pandavas and Draupadi agree to go into exile. Vyasa then reappears in the forest to tell Yudhisthira the story of King Nala, the king of the Nidasha people. Nala was chosen by Damayanti, as they were madly in love with each other, to be her husband. The evil spirit Kali was also in love with her and vowed to ruin their happiness. Kali eventually found a wy to take everything from Nala and eventually forced him to try and get Damayanti to return to her father's house instead of stay with Nala. However, instead she decided to search for Nala against all advice received until she was attacked. Only then did she return to ask her father for assistance in the search for Nala. Eventually the two were reunited and Nala won back his kingdom and wealth in a game of dice. Visa then taught Yudhisthira the science of gambling with dice.

Nala and Damayanti

Source: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 11: The Pandavas Escape

Dhriarashtra, the blind king, knew he had to get the Pandavas, who were the sons of his brother Pandu. He wanted to get rid of them so he forced them out of the kingdom. However, he put in charge of tracking the Pandavas his sons Duryodhana and Dushasana. These two sons had a very strong dislike for the Pandavas so they decided they would figure out a way to get rid of the Pandavas for once and for all. Duryodhana approached his brother, Dushasana, and presented him with a plan to kill off the Pandavas. His brother thought the plan was outstanding and decided they needed to present the plan to Purochana, the man they had chosen to keep guard of the Pandavas house, to see how he felt about executing their plan.

The brothers told Purochana, "Purochana, we must get rid of these Pandavas and we have devised a great plan. When we put the Pandavas into their new house of exile we will need you to set it ablaze. Is there any way you will be able to execute this without people knowing we are responsible?" 

Purochana acknowledged their plan and assured them he would take care of it. "Trust me, I am the smartest man in the land when it comes to trickery. I will design the house so that when it is set to fire there will be no way to get outside if the Pandavas are inside." 

The brothers were pleased as they returned to their father and informed him that everything was ready for the Pandavas. They then took the Pandavas to their new home. The brothers informed the Pandavas that this would be where the Pandavas would stay until they could come up with a more severe punishment for the Pandavas. The Pandavas were in good spirits. They did not seem fazed by the new home at all and instead they were excited. This reaction made the brothers question if something was going on they did not know about but instead they let it go as they knew their plan would be executed that night. 

The Pandavas were not down in their spirits for a very particular reason. They knew the house was going to get burned and they would be stuck inside. They knew because Vidura had come and warned Yudhisthira, the head of the Pandavas, what was going to happen. Once the Pandavas were inside their new home, they immediately began digging tunnels from the inside to the outside that were not visible from the exterior of the house. They also gathered corpses to place in the rubble in order to trick Purochana when he came to make sure they were dead. 

Purochana in the middle of the night set fire to the home of the Pandavas. The Pandavas immediately went to the tunnels and removed the dead corpses they had gathered to represent themselves. They then headed down the tunnel and out to the forest where they escaped into freedom. 

The next morning Purochana took the two brothers to the site of the Pandava's house and showed him the remains. They dug through the remains together and found the deceased remains of the Pandavas. The two brothers could now report to their father, the blind king, that they had accomplished their mission. 

Purochan and the Pandavas

Source: Wikipedia

Bibliography: Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata. 

Author's Note: This story comes from part B of the week 11 readings in Buck's Mahabharata. I chose this story because I thought it was a very interesting aspect and wanted to add some of my own dialogue and details to bring more of the story out. The Pandava's characters can obviously be portrayed as the "good guys" from the story. However, I also feel there is more of a "'bad guys" conflict with the brothers and their father, the king, that I wanted to present. Since he is the blind king, I wanted this to be as if they were misleading their father in order to carry out their own desires of getting rid of the Pandavas. In doing so, we got a sense of karma as the brothers now realize not only are the Pandavas alive but their father will not be able to trust them to carry out any of his wishes in the future. Also, I intended to leave it open with the Pandavas as to create a sense of them drifting off into the future as "victorious." 

Reading Diary B: Pandavas Journey

Reading part B for week 11 picks up with the Pandavas and Kunti being sent away. When the Pandavas arrive at the house they are staying in there is a plan to kill all of the Pandavas. Fire will be set to the house and trap all of the Pandavas inside. However, the Pandavas are warned and escape through a tunnel leaving six decoy corpses behind. There is a boatman waiting for them as they flee disguised as Brahmins. They arrive in a other village and decide to live there with a family that offers to take them in. However, the family is charged with paying the yearly sacrifice to king Vaka. Instead, Kunti sends Bhima out to fight the king and he defeats him with no weapons. Visa then arrives and announces he will be taking the Pandavas to Draupadi. When they arrive there, Drupada has made an archery test that only Arjuna can pass. Therefore, Arjuna wins Draupadi. Draped then marries all five of the Pandava brothers. Arjuna next takes Subhadra as his wife, the sister of Krishna. Then Agni, the fire god,  comes to burn the forest of Khandava however, Indra, the storm god, continues to save the forest. Arjuna and Krishna help hold off the storm god as the forest burns. Maya, architect of the gods, was inside the forest though and needed protection from Agni. Therefore, Arjuna protects him. In return, Maya builds the Pandavas a great palace. The part B then ends with a game of dice being planned.

Arjuna and Subhadra

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Starting Buck's Mahabharata

For my reading diaries in week eleven I will be using Buck's version of Mahabharata. Buck immediately introduces many characters into his version of the story. From the beginning we see reference to Vishnu, Krishna, Arjuna, and Saraswati. Also, he introduces the origins of the Mahabharata with the composer, Vyasa, and his scribe, Ganesha. We learn that Vyasa composed the entire story in his head without writing it down. When he needed a way to write it down he recited the entire thing to Ganesha to put it on paper. Ganesha was the son of Shiva, he also had an elephant because when he was younger Shiva got mad at him and ripped it off. He then chose to replace his human head with one of an elephant. After the lesson of the origins Buck continues on to the Mahabharata. It begins with the ocean being milk before it turned to salt. Vishnu wanted the gods to churn the ocean to get out the nectar of immortality. While doing this they churned out many things including: Lakshmi, Rambha, Airavata, and the wish giving cow. However, there was also poison that came out and Shiva had to swallow it in order to save the world. Later on, Bhisma obtains three wives for Vichitravirya. The three women were Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Amba, however, has already vowed herself to a king. Vichitravirya unfortunately dies before being able to have children with the other two wives. Visa then goes to father children with the two women. This results in Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. Bhisma appoints Pandu as king. Panda then marries Kunti who had already obtained the ability to have a son with a god. This resulted in Karna but she sent him away down the river. The next big development is the introduction of the Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu.

Pandu and Kunti 

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary B Week 10

Part B of this week's reading picks up with Yudhishthira attempting to make one last plea for peace. He sends Vidura to Hastinapura to speak with Dhritarashtra. However, he rejects the request for peace and justice. When the news of the rejected peace offering is circulated they all realize it is now time for war. The battle is to take place on the field of Kurukshetra. Arjuna originally does not want to fight because of the idea of fighting his family members, however, after the sermon delivering the song of the lord he is ready to fight. Bhisma plays a major role in the battle as he affects how different characters decide who and when to attack. Once he becomes fatally wounded it becomes okay for Karna to fight. They then lure Arjuna away from the battle while his son Abhimanyu is charged with breaking through the enemy lines. He knows how to do this but not how to escape and he gets captured and killed by Jayadratha. Arjuna then vows to kill him by the end of the day. When krishna uses a discus to make it seem like it is night time, Jayadratha comes out of hiding but does not realize it is a trap. It was all so Arjuna could kill him, which he did. After long days of battling the warriors are brought to their death by karma Krishna insists. Duryodhana does not believe this up until his own death. After the battle the Pandavas go to Hastinapura. They perform rituals for all of the dead along with others. Although Yudhisthira refuses to be king he is finally convinced by the other that he needs to be king. All of the Pandavas die off one by one until the only one left is Yudhisthira. He departs for heaven in his human form while the Pandava line is upheld as Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu takes the throne in Hastinapura.

Cosmic form of Krishna

Source: Wikipedia

Week 10 Reading Guide A:

This week while reading the Mahabharata we pick up after the fall out of the series of dice games between both sides. The Pandavas and Arjuna are still working with their newly acquired weapons. However, Dhritarashtra is aware of the moves they are making and the weapons because of the spies he has following them. Duryodhana then decides to humiliate the Pandavas until his plan backfires enormously. The gods draw them into a battle and the Pandavas end up having to free Duryodhana from captivity. The Pandavas then are drawn in by the deer who leads them astray and drives them to thirst. They then head to a lake to find water. Nacelle is the first to drink from the lake after ignoring the voice and dies. All of Yudhisthira's brothers follow in this trend until he discovers them all dead from the lake. Luckily, he recognizes the test and listens to the voice. After he is done at the lake all his brothers regain life. They were now in their thirteenth year of exile This thirteenth year would allow for them to live in disguise with the King Virata. They all live in disguise in various roles. Draupadi ends up being part of a big scandal and has to beg to avoid being sent away during their final days of exile. This leads to the cattle raid which resulted in Virata giving his daughter to Arjuna's son after he draws blood from Yudhisthira. Shortly after the wedding the preparations for the war begin. After appeals for peace both sides seem to realize that war ultimately looms.

Krishna and the Pandavas

Source: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 9: The Shift of Power

Duryodhana, the Prince of Hastinapura, had finally completed building the new palace he had been working so diligently on for the last couple of years. He felt it was one of his greatest contributions to Hastinapura, the great city he loved so much. He also believed that his palace was so great that it needed to be the host of a great event, one of high importance. If the first event was of great importance it would symbolize how great the palace was meant to be and set the tone for future events at the palace. From then on, people would know that only events of great importance were being hosted at the palace. 

Shakuni, Duryodhana's uncle, came to Duryodhana with a brilliant proposal. He felt he had the perfect event to inaugurate the new palace. Shakuni wanted to hold a game of dice between himself and the Pandavas, rivals to Shakuni and Duryodhana. The game would actually end up putting Shakuni, a great dice player, against Yudhisthira, head of the Pandavas and a not so great dice player. This put the odds in great favor of Shakuni. The game would have great stakes as well, Shakuni and Duryodhana planned to take full advantage of Shakuni's advantage and try to take as much as possible from the Pandavas.

Shakuni, Yudhisthira, and Duryodhana agreed to come together in Hastinapura beneath the roof of the great palace. Yudhisthira was forced to accept the challenge because of Dharma. He was not allowed to stand down from such a request. They began to play dice and it was very clear from the beginning that Shakuni was going to dominate the contest. The more they played, the more that Yudhisthira wagered and lost. Yudhisthira still continued to wage everything that he had including himself, his brothers, and Draupadi the wife of the Pandavas. He continued to lose but was to stubborn to acknowledge he was going to lose no matter what. 

Eventually, Shakuni brought the game of dice to an end. Yudhisthira knew that his opponents would not hold him to all of his wagers, as it was just a game of dice that got carried away. However, that was not the case. Shakuni and Duryodhana had great plans for all the people they now had possession of due to the game.

Shakuni's first plan of action was to take all of the Pandavas and make them personal assistants to himself and Duryodhana. The Pandavas would be required to do anything they asked of them. These chores would not all be demeaning or negative, but more meaningless tasks that they would have to perform solely out of spite from their new “owners.” 

They decided that it was time for Shakuni to get married as well and they felt as if Draupadi would make a great wife for him. She was therefore forced to marry him and only to be with him from that point forward. As for Yudhisthira, they did not know what to do with him. They then went on to put him into isolation. The reason they came to this decision was they felt it was the only way to get rid go him and not kill him. Had they killed him they were scared karma would be against them. 

They felt now that they had control of the entire kingdom and no one would be able to challenge them from the outside. Fortunately, that was not true. They did not pay close enough attention to the remaining Pandavas, which allowed them to communicate with Yudhisthira without being monitored or caught on to. Although he was still technically in "isolation", they had been able to establish a line of contact. 

Within two years, the Pandavas overthrew Shakuni and Duryodhana after eighteen months of a long revolutionary war. Pandavas took control of the entire kingdom and forced Shakuni and Duryodhana to watch as they destroyed the great palace that hosted the game of dice. The Pandavas then, instead of risking keeping them alive, killed the two and buried them beneath the palace.

The Pandavas would go on to be the wealthy elite of the city that would be ruled by King Yudhisthira and Queen Draupadi. The kingdom would last for many years and no one would dare to challenge the powers of the Pandavas.

Demolition of the Great Palace 

Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: My inspiration for this story was obviously the story of the game of dice within part B of our reading this week. I really liked the way the story was written originally, which is why I chose to stick to the script for the majority of the beginning of the story. However, after the game of dice I could not decide what to do. I decided to go with the enslavement of the pandavas being used a symbol status because I felt it was better then banning all of the characters from the kingdom and having them out of existence. I felt it was a good idea to somehow incorporate the idea of revolution, which this allowed me to do. The reason I wanted to create the story of revolution was mainly because a lot of my early stories all followed kind of the same plot where the evil prevailed. All stories where the good guy wins get old. However, I wanted to write this one where the good prevailed so that it would change up the tone of my stories. Another reason for me to do this is that personally, only through the beginning of the novel I have grown to dislike the characters that appear to be on the evil side or the opposition if that is a better description.

Bibliography:

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Week 9 Reading Diary B: Games of Dice

This week for the second part of our reading we picked up with Duryodhara. He has just learned that the Pandavas are still alive. He is bothered by the fact that his father, Dhritarashtra, will not hate the Pandavas. Bhishma and Vidura give opposing advice that ends up resulting in Karna wanting war. However, Dhristarashtra gives the Pandavas land in Hastinapura. The Pandavas take this land and erect their own city, Indraprastha. Yudhisthira is named king of their great city. Duryodhana becomes very jealous of the Pandavas and Indraprastha. Duryodhana and Shakuni then plan their game of dice in order to get revenge for the Pandavas laughing at them. Yudhishthira cannot refuse the game of dice so the Pandavas and him head to Hastinapura. During the game of dice, Yudhishthira loses everything that he owns in the game of dice. This includes his family, himself, and Draupadi. Draped and the Pandavas are forced to strip in the hall. After everything is returned to everyone and they all return home. There is then, of course, a second game of dice. Yudhishthira loses forcing the Pandavas into exile. Krishna then goes to Yudhishthira and promises to punish Duryodhana. At the end of this week's reading we are left with Arjuna returning to the Pandavas with the weapons he has acquired.

The First Game of Dice

Source: Wikipedia

Week 9 Reading Diary A: A new beginning

This week we began reading Narayan's Mahabharata. The book begins with the introduction to Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura. He and his wife have an extremely strange marriage where he is never allowed to question anything she does, including drowning all of their newborn babies. However, on the eighth child's birth, he questions her a s she begins to drown the child. This is where we learn she is the river Ganga reincarnated in order to give birth to eight gods. She is drowning the children in order to return them to heaven, however, she takes the eighth child with her. She then returns Devavratha or Bhishma to his father when he is grown. Shantanu then falls in love with Satyavati. Her father forbids her from marrying him since the heir to the throne has already been named in Bhisma. Naturally, Bisma steps down and lets them get married and have their son Chitrangada take the throne. Unfortunately, he dies soon there after. Bhisma takes his place as regent for their other young son Vichitravirya. Bhisma claims Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika all for Vichitravirya. Amba then says she is already taken but then she is rejected by her husband in waiting and vows revenge. We then meet the next group of sons from Vyasa and the mistresses including the servant of Ambalika and we get Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidua. The first two being flawed and the last, from the servant, not being flawed. After all of them go on to have children, Dhritarashtra rules as king. His son Yudhishthira is deemed the heir to him.

Shantanu chasing after his wife and child 

Source: Wikipedia

Commenting Review Week

The commenting part of this class has been very interesting. In most online classes you are required to do this type of interaction, forcing you to attempt to connect with your classmates. However, majority of the time you just do it because you are required to and respond to some boring discussion post on D2L. With this class I feel like the commenting process does a much better job of fostering connections. My favorite part of the commenting process is that we continue to comment on the introductions of all of our classmates the first time we interact with them. Reading the introductions is very interesting to me and I feel like I actually have an idea of who I am commenting to on my posts instead of the usual D2L format where I am just responding to a comment that has a name on it I have no idea what is behind the name. I have strongly enjoyed the commenting on both ends, commenting to others and receiving comments from others.

The class has been a Colosseum for building connections 

Source: Wikipedia

Writing Review Week

I have taken some time to review all of the writing assignments from throughout the semester thus far. Comparing this semester of writing to my other works throughout high school and college was quite interesting. This is by far the most writing I have done in a long time on a consistent basis. I think when you are writing a shorter story like we often write it is easier to pick something and run with it, for example, in many of my stories character development has been a major focus. I feel like that has been a huge development for me as I have learned to analyze how an author develops certain characters throughout stories and what role they want the character to play in the development of the plot. Personally, I feel like that has been my favorite part of the class is getting to see how much my writing and analyzing skills have grown due to the application of them on a weekly basis.

The Ramayana: Sums up our semester so far

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Review Week

This week i have read over all of my reading diary from the past weeks of this semester. While reading, I noticed that a few things stuck out. The main thing however, that stuck out to me, was the focus I put on Rama, Ravana, and Sita throughout my diary and storytelling posts. Obviously, these are the main characters of the story and deserve lots of attention. I think what stuck out about it though was the amount of attention I have not placed on minor characters throughout the past weeks. I briefly touched on Hanuman, Lakshmana, and Bharata in stories and in diary posts, but besides that I have put no focus on them. When reading through classmates work I noticed that this was very true for most of my classmates, not all, but most. The ones that did not struggle with this problem seemed to be using a deeper analysis of the story than most. This made me think that maybe I have not been using a deep enough analysis of each section we are assigned. However, I did state that I wanted to focus on Rama and Ravana early on, so maybe all of the major characters are just that much more appealing to the reader in this case. This all did strike me while reading my reviews so I am interested to see if i can do a better job bringing some attention into the roles of minor characters. The only thing I seem to be struggling with is how to not sacrifice my focus into main character development while bringing attention to the minor character development. Either way, I am excited for the second half of this semester and cannot wait to see what else unfolds as we venture into new readings.

Hanuman and Lakshmana before Sita and Rama

Source: Wikipedia

Week 7 Storytelling: Rama's Plan Revealed

Rama was reaching the end of his journey through the forest, this meant he would finally have to kill Ravana in order to move on with his plan. He had used this journey as an excuse to putting off the execution of his great plan, it had begun to haunt him. Everyday he thought to himself about if he was really capable of taking over all of the land for him selves and returning to take over all of the heavens as well. However, he had finally come to terms with it and understood that it was time to execute his final steps of his great plan.

Rama went to Ravana and waged a great final battle with the god. He wanted this battle to be the one that was so great it was talked about for ages to come. He cut all of the heads from the body of Ravana and continued to defeat his great opponent until he was finally dead. This great death marked the beginning of Rama's take over. He could now return to the throne and remove his brother from power. He and Sita returned to rule the great city as their return was greeted by a tremendous festival though the streets. This festival was all to celebrate the return of Rama, the great ruler of all the land.

Rama knew he had one last part of his plan that he must carry out to gain the full trust of all the people and to be considered the most powerful leader of all time. However, this last part of his plan was the toughest. It was so tough it took him over ten thousand years to act out the plan. The reason it was so hard was that he was forced to get rid of Sita in order to be the sole recipient of all praise. He sent Sita, who he had come to admire after their great journey, to a small island where only he and very few of his trusted friends knew she was. The reason for this was that she was finally pregnant, he only needed her to have the children so they could be returned to him and she could be left to die alone.

With Sita now out of the picture, his only job was to wait for the children to be returned so that he could force the city to worship the ground they walked upon and he would be able to leave the city to them in very few years. As soon as these years had passed, he left the children the throne, knowing he would always have absolute command over them once he took full control over the heavens. Rama now went to his close friends and killed all but two of them, Lakshmana and Hanuman, who had been part of the plan all along. The plan called for them to return to the heavens with Rama. One would rule the earth from the heavens, while the other would be first in line behind Rama in commanding the heavens.

Rama, Hanuman, and Lakshmana headed to the shores where they would depart from the lands and head for the heavens. As soon as they entered the sea, their souls headed directly up to the gates of the heaven. They were met by the great gate-keeper it appeared, however the man who appeared immediately transformed into the great Ravana. A battle broke out directly outside the gates of heaven. Ravana destroyed the souls of Lakshmana and Hanuman, with no resistance from Rama. However, the two then embraced each other. Ravana said to Rama, "I have been awaiting your arrival for nearly ten thousand years brother, I am glad we may now rule all of the lands and heavens together". Rama hugged his brother and whispered in his ear, "I will rule the heavens, as you will only rule the underworld". He then drove a great sword through the heart of Ravana, forcing his soul to the underworld where he would rule but never be able to escape.

Ravana awaiting Rama at the gates to the heavens

Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: Over many of the past storytelling projects I have told many great tales about Rama and his defeat of Ravana. Although I strongly admire the character of Rama, I felt as if doing something a little bit different with this story. I wanted Rama to appear as a very confident, strong character but maybe not so morally strong. This story focuses more on his personal interests instead of his interests in saving the people. It may seem very farfetched but that is what I was hoping to create, as well as the fact that this great plan was his intention from the very beginning. Obviously there were many great changes to the story but overall I wanted to include most of the original characters and keep it as relatable to Buck as possible.

Bibliography:

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.