Reety etc.

House of Fire by unknown.   Part B of the Mahabharata was very much focused on family and the sacrifices that family members make. Compared to be Part A, this part was much easier to understand since the names and characters were all clear. They also had fewer characters, I think, than Part A so it was easier to process and enjoy. I used the stories based on the public domain of the Mahabharata.  The first story I'd like to focus on is called "House of Fire" . I really enjoyed this story, probably more than I expected. The descriptions of the house touched something in my heart and I'm not quite sure why. The picture I got in my head of beautiful tapestry soaked in oil reminded me parts of childhood. I think the picture that was included was also helpful in conceptualizing exactly how the family escaped. Instead of the idea of miracles helping characters escape, this story was more based around logic and escaping the palace in a strategic way. I also got a ...

Pandu Goes Hunting by Unknown .  Hello! Section A of the Mahabharata was confusing to say the least. For the reading notes, I will be focusing on my favourite parts of the section since taking it all in at once is a bit more difficult since much of the story is quite sporadic. For this notes section, my favourite parts will be comprised of the stories of "King Shantanu and Ganga" and "Pandu and His Wives". I picked these stories from the public domain of the Mahabharata and they seemed like the most descriptive. Let's start with "King Shantanu and Ganga". Immediately, the name was more familiar to me because of my familiarity with the river. While it may not mean much, with the context of a brand new story and the unloading so many names, having at least one name with something ready to attach it in my mind was very helpful. What I really enjoyed about this story was that it was short but it made it easier to process what was going on. Up until...

Photo from " Sita Sings the Blues " by Nina Paley on Youtube. The  Sita Sings the Blues : This animated film by Nina Paley is an incredibly creative retelling of the ancient epic in terms of modern themes; I've written up a  detailed guide  to help you navigate the film, and here is some more information about  Nina Paley . I think it's very interesting to see how this plays out in the film. I will comment on the animated work itself.  I actually kind of love it. This video is not something I really expected to like since most animated versions of written literature become very tacky and obtuse. Instead, I think the stories were made more fruitful and beneficial to my understanding of what was done and said. I think the introduction of the speakers being equally casual about the story was very helpful for my understanding of how the stories came to be. While the written stories we read in the first two weeks weren't bad by any means, short stories th...

Simhika leads Draupadi into the forest (by  Raja Ravi Varma ) While this picture doesn't completely correlate with the stories of Part D, it does remind me of how Sita would have looked after the battle had died down and she was expected to walk back to her husband and her future.  The concept that stuck out to me the most during this portion of the Ramayana epic is, of course, the battle scenes. I'm not sure if it's just me and how I process scenarios, but I can never quite get a grasp of battle scenarios. In these scenarios, specifically, I noticed that the characters often got lost in what they were doing and who they were doing it to. It was significantly easier to process the scene if it worked with the main characters that had been a part of each story, like Hanuman, Ravana, and Rama. Their actions, whether it was written out differently or not, seemed easier to understand and the reasoning for their actions was usually clear. When it got to external chara...

 Done in Pune, India around the year 1800.  Sita's rakshasi guards. The most prominent part that stuck out to me about Ramayana Part C was the idea of protection. From both sides, protection of whatever they thought was the priority was the highest matter in order. For Sita, Rama seemed, at least in my opinion, more worried about her being hurt or otherwise more than his loss of a wife. I think it is interesting that these kinds of stories have such a strong force of martyrdom. While there is a lot of history of Rama and how he got to the situations, most of the other characters that are searching all over the "world" are left quite vague in their own history and stories. I think the faith in Rama is rooted in the idea of protecting the most important priority. I certainly don't know all the angles of exactly why the entire population was on his side since many stories that are driven by passion instead of strategy are disregarded and require a special group ...

Photo by pieceoflace photography on Flikr.   The pond had been the home for generations of fish. The pond had seen generations of schools, all swimming up to feel the warmth of the sun after being burrowed in eggs on the deep floor. As the years passed, the pond kept losing water, kept losing fish. What was once a booming pool of abundant creatures slowly became a warm puddle with fish that were slowly suffocating. The wild crane, the old and cranky one near the bay, watch the water line dip lower and lower every year. Instead of working hard to catch a few fish every day in a deep pond, he waited. Patiently. He watched the waters evaporate from the now shallow pond and saw the booming schools of fish starting to panic. He smiled to himself, knowing his long-awaited moment was almost here. "I don't know what much else we can do, sir," said Lole, the wisest fish in the pond. "I've never seen anything like it," said Boe, the oldest fish in the pond....