Week 5 Story: Cleverness over Foolishness

Dhobi as an evil rat, as cursed by Rama

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Rama and Sita re returning from Lanka to Ayodhya. All the people are so happy for Rama killing Ravana and returning back safely. His brothers were so happy to see him and Lakshmana. Eventually,        they all crown Rama as a king. Soon, Sita is pregnant and she goes to the dhobi to get her family's Laundry.

Dhobi: How are you dong today queen?

Sita: I am really happy, what about you?

Dhobi: I am doing well, What's the occasion behind the happiness?

Sita: I am going to be a mother soon.

Dhobi sees this opportunity and spreads the rumors all around the town of Sita carrying Ravan's kids. All the town's people find out and believes his rumors. They are furious and goes to the king Rama and advise him to exile Sita so the town is not in future danger. Rama gets angry and asks them who told you all this rumor. Eventually, Rama figures out it was Dhobi, who was spreading the rumors. Rama goes to the laundry mat, where Dhobi resides and curses him to be a rat. 

Sita and Rama have ceremonies to decide on the name for their child, where they invite many respectful sages. The sages tells them they are going to have twins, they will be named Love and Kush according to their fate. The sages also tells Rama that they is going to be an evil force, which will try to harm your kids. Rama and Sita becomes petrified so as soon as the twins are born they are protected by many soldiers. As the twins are growing up, Rama prepares them for a possible war between them and a evil force. 

One day, when the twins are playing alone in the backyard the rat decides to sneak up on them and try to poison them with his bitting. The twins realize, he was the evil force that would try to destroy them so they get their bow and arrow to kill him. The rat is sneaky and roams around and hides from them until Kush finally grabs him from his tail and change the rat into a person. 

Dhobi: Please, do not kill me

Kush: Why should we not, you have caused many trouble to out family and us.

Dhobi: He distracts the boys by making up a clever story, but the kids are intelligent and realize that he is lying and just trying to escape from him. (Dhobi makes a run for his life)

Love: Grabs his bow and aim it at the dhobi with his arrow. He shoots and kills the Dhobi.

The Twins rush to Rama and tell him what happened in the garden. Rama and town people are happy and realize how bad the Dhobi was. They all cherish the deeds of the twins and celebrate with a big Festival of greatness over evilness. 

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Author's note: Originally, the second part of the movie started with Dhobi spreading the rumors of Sita carrying Ravana's sons. Rama is furious and believes the town people and exile Sita to the forest, where she has the twins and sings for her love, Rama. I did not like the way Sita was sent away so I made it into a happy ending, where Rama would not treat Sita so ruefully. Also I wanted to punish Dhobi for starting this so I made him into a rat and killed him by the twins.  

Week 5 Planning: Cleverness over Foolishness

It is hard to come up with a story for this week so I decided to work on brainstorming and planning before I write out the story. I was thinking about writing about the second half of the film, Sita Sings the Blues. I was thinking about not letting Sita go to the forest since I did not really like the way it was played out. I could retell the story from where Rama and Sita returns to Ayodhya. I was thinking about punishing the dhobi for his wrong doings to Sita, so maybe I can talk about how he tries to spread rumors about Sita to the whole town, but Rama finds out he is lying so then he is cursed by him. I was thinking about making him into a pet, rat. The way Pettigrew disguise as a pet rat to Ron in Harry Potter. Sita is not sent to the forest as Rama proves them the babies does not belong to Ravana. Sita is happy that her true love believes in her purity and localness. They have a big ceremony with many sages, to decide what to name the kids. The priests tells Rama and Sita that they are having twins, who will be names Love and Kush. They also tell them about an evil force, who will try to kill them. Rama prepares the kids for future once he realizes someone is after them. one day the rat comes in their home and tries to kill them. However, the babies are smart and realize the doings of dhobi and they bring him to life to understand why he was trying to kill them. The two boys get in a fight as the dhobi tries to deceive them again, where they evetually end up killing him before he can escapes. They kill him with bow and arrow as they are experts in using them. Rama thought them very well on how to use it, he sent them to trainings just like the way he was sent when he was little. At the end, everyone is happy and celebrates Rama and his family. 

dhobi cursed into a rat form

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Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Reading Notes: Reading Notes: Sita sings the Blues Part B

Hanuman setting Lanka on fire 

Wikicommons

I was not really aware of the part B of the story, all I could remember was that Sita had two sons named Love and Kush. I had no idea that she had to go through so much after returning back to Ayodhya. I was upset to see Nina reading the email from Dave. I would not be okay with receiving those kind of emails. I thought Dave could have been a little gentle with the break up. There was so much going on in this part, especially when a Dhobi beats up Sita. Dhobi believes Sita was carrying Ravana's babies and tells rest of the town. He spread rumors and was the reason Sita was exile in the forest again. On the other hand, Sita thinks she is getting cursed from her past karma. I could not believe that Rama would just send her away because he was the king and wanted to protect his reputation. Then Rama knows he made mistake and tries to get her back, but this time she leaves them forever. I think Rama should have stood up for Sita instead of making he go though struggles every time someone says something negative towards her. I did not expect Sita to leave Rama that was shocking for me, especially since she spent most of her time singing about her true love, Rama. In the story, I would make it opposite and make Sita be the one who judges Rama and Steps up for her girl power.

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley  

Reading Notes: Sita sings the Blues Part A

Sita in front of all the creators 

WikiCommons

In the first part of Sita sings blues, it is mostly a short summary of the Ramayana. I liked how this was more comical based. Some of the parts were really funny rather then serious. I also liked how there were parts of Nina and Dave in the movie. There was a part about how the bridge was used to connect India to Sri Lanka and how it still exists today. Many people would not believe that Ramayana happened, but there are so many evidences in India that shows the correlation between

 real life and the story. Ayodhya is an actual city in India, where many people go for religious ceremonies. I was not a big fan of the part where Rama refuses Sita because she had been in other man's house. Ram does not trust Sita, he blames her for being beautiful and prolly getting "rapped" by Ravana, even though it does not happen. Rama is finally convinced by her, when she almost burns in the fire and then asks for forgiveness. One of the best parts were the narrators, who were arguing about small details and also adding other extra details to the story. I think the topics they argued over are actually worth considering. I was a little confused when they talked about Ravana playing the Veena with his intestines, I do not remember reading about it. They also talked about Hanuman, arguing if it was half monkey and half man. Overall, this was a good film to watch 

Bibliography : Sita Sings the Blue by Nina Paley