Reading notes: Mahabharata Part A

I choose to read the PDE Mahabharata for this reading. When I first started reading this story I was a little confused on some of the character's birth, especially of Vyasa's birth. I had no idea how this could be real, fish getting pregnant with two babies from swelling a semen that fell from the sky.  I have never heard of this part of the story as I am familiar with Mahabharata. It was also interesting of how the king Shantanu marries Ganga, who throes away all her babies until the last one because king asks her not too. This is where she leaves the king because he breaks his promise of not getting mad at her. Later on, she brings the last son to the king. I liked the part where king Pandu marries to two wives Kunti and Madri and they go to forest, where Pandu kills the sages disguised into a deer form and the sages comes to his real form, cursing the king that he will die similarly with one of his wife in the forest. This resembles the story from Ramayana and I want to recreate it. Maybe in a different context. I think reading all these stories from Mahabharata is more intense than Ramayana. This focus a lot on the Pandavas and Kauravas, who basically turn on each other, creating many battles. There were so many characters in this epics that it was hard to keep track of each individual, I can only imagine how much others struggles as they have no background in Hinduism.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata

Ganga bringing back her last son 

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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 

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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 

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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

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Week 4 story: Life of Kumbhkarna

Kumbhkarna, destroying the town Danville

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Once upon a time, there was a big monster named Kumbhkarna, who lived in Danville. He was known all over the town as the biggest evil monster and everyone feared him. He goes around the town messing up people's lives by eating their food, messing up their houses and also eating some of the people. Many people were tired of his behavior so they all decided to go to the king's palace for some help.

People: "We are tired of Kumbhkarana and all his evil doings, can you do something about it."

King: "I know his deeds are getting worse day by day, I will come up with a plan to defeat him. Just be patience my people."

People: "We can not wait any more, that evil troll is eating people. We are all going to die soon."

The king was furious and had to come up with a plan to kill the beast. One day he decides to call a meeting with all the nearby kings. They eventually end up confronting a brave man, who decides to take on the challenge. The brave man, named Indra goes and tries to destroy the monster, but before he could Kumbhkarna takes all away all his weapons. He is helpless so the monster ends up killing him. The great being is mad at him for doing such and destroying many other innocent lives so he curses Kumbhkarna, who will sleep for six months and eat for six months. However, when the monster is awake, he causes more trouble then ever. The god is mad and finally sends Vishnu, as a form of Rama to earth. Rama is destined to go to Jungle for fourteen years due to a boon that his father was responsible for. While in Jungle, one day Rama is passing by the town and he hears people talking about this evil monster. He feels like he can help the people so he goes up to them and talks to them about it. Eventually, Rama finds about more about the monster. Where he stays and when he will be up. Rama and his brother both goes to the monster and see him sleeping. They try to wake him up, but they had no luck. Then one of the townsman, hit a rock into Kumbhkarna's eyes and he wakes up.

Kumbhkarana: His eyes are red and smoke is coming out of his ear, "Who dares to wake me up, while I am in my hibernating period."

People: In fear, they all rushed to their home

Rama: "It was me, you big monster. I am here to put an end to your evil behavior."

Kumbhkarana: "HAHAHAH, No one can defeat me. I would like to see what you got.'

Kumbhkarana throws a big rock towards Rama and his brother, which luckily they pass by. Rama was furious too now so they start fighting. Rama knew he was in a big danger as he saw what the monster was capable off. They go through many rounds of throwing things at each other. Gods are seeing that Rama is struggling, so they send a fire weapon for him to use. Rama uses the weapon, which eventually ends up killing Kumbhkarana as the fire weapon passed through his head and body.

The king is pleased with the Rama's deed so he ends up crowning him as a prince for the town of Danville.

Author's note:
This story was actually about Kumbhkarana, who is cursed by Brahma when he defeats lord Indra. Therefore, he is a monster, who sleeps for six months and eats for a day. I wanted to make the story into a children's version so I added extra details. Rama kills him in the actual story and I wanted to keep it same because I like the way he defeated him so I used the same story line.

Bibliography: PDE ramayana, Kumbhakarna Link