Week 7 Story: Ghost on the Lake

Ghost on the Lake

By: Maria Dawson 

 

I love this picture of a lake by PXFeul this is what I picture for my story.

Nakula woke up in the wee hours of the morning, except, today felt a bit different than the rest. The air felt as if it was blowing in the opposite direction and with it brought the slight hint of.. moss..?

 

However, today is the day Nakula is traveling across the woods to travel into a new city. He packs up his horse with all of his belonging and starts the trip to his new life.

“To the North, Bessie” he states as they ride off towards new hopes and beginnings. Nakula had heard of this town from a good friend named Arjuna. Who will be meeting up with him at the foot of the woods around 20 miles away.

This is how I picture Nakula and his horse looked all packed up and ready to move. Picture from: Internet Archive Book Images

 “ARJUNA!!” yelled Nakula as he rode up on Bessie to the mouth of the woods. The two friends greeted each other with a simple wave and nod of hat. “After you” Arjuna said politely and the two friends rode carelessly into the forest.

“Man, I sure don’t remember these woods being this dark...” Nakula states. “Yeah me either I just got the chills” replied Arjuna. However, the two men continued on their path to the new city.

After the first patch of tree they reached a clearing in the middle was a lake. The two gues diced to stop and let the horses have a drink. “Hm.. I am having some weird déjà vu right now, Arjuna” says Nakula leaning over the water to look in. Just then a great wind blows the waters began to heave and foam. Within this wind he hears, “Before you take our water, that has fed our ancestors for years you must answer some questions.”

This is how I picture the foam on the water from the story: Picture by: Elena Campos Cea

“Hey, Arjuna, did you hear something?” askes Nakula? “Nope must just be your “vu” coming to haunt you!” replies Arjuna. Nakula agrees and shakes his head and continues to take a drink of water.  

SPLASH!

Arjuna whips his head around to see what the clatter was but nothing was there, not even a ripple. Curious he heads over to the lake to peak in, “NAKULA” he yells yet there is no answer. Suddenly the wind starts to appear again and with it the water begins to foam. In the distance he hears a voice say, “Before you take our water, that has fed our ancestors for years you must answer some questions”. Suddenly he realized his friend was right and jumps in the water to help find him.

Unfortunately, for these two friends, they never had the chance to see the new city and create a new life. In fact, they were never seen again. Another victim of the ghost on the lake.

Writers Note:

For this story I was inspired by two separate one that I thought would fit together quite nicely. I took the Story of the Voice in the Lake by R. K. Narayan and The Forest and its Ghosts by Donald A. Mackenzie. From the story of a voice in a lake I liked the part that stated, “Nakula finds a lake, but a voice tells him that, before drinking, he must answer some questions. Nakula ignores the voice, drinks, and dies.” I like the details given from the Forest and its Ghosts that explained hoe the waters from the lake began to heave and foam.

Bibliography: 

The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic Chapter: The voice in the lake by R. K. Narayan

Indian Myth and Legend: The Forest and its Ghosts by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part D

By: Maria Dawson

This is how I picture the foam on the water from the story: Picture by: Elena Campos Cea

      To keep the same theme for this week I decided to write my reading notes today on the story of The Forest and its Ghosts. In my previous post, I wrote how I would like to write a story about why Nakula died at the lake. Then I had the thought of combining these two stories to create one great one. I think this is a good idea because the story on Nakula does not go into much detail and I can fill in details of the lake from this new story.

       To combine these stories I will take the death of Nakula and the ghost. I really like this sentence "Suddenly the waters began to heave and foam". I might take this sentence and work it into my story by this being the telling sign the ghost are coming. This sign would then spook Nakula leading him to his death. During the comment of last week, I saw someone using a lot of images to be able to describe their story better. I would like to do that for my story this week as well. 

Bibliography: 

Indian Myth and Legend: The Forest and its Ghosts by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata, Parts C

By: Maria Dawson

I love this picture of a lake by PXFeul this is what I picture for my future story. 

One thing I noticed right off the bat with this week's reading is how many characters are in each story. Because of this I would like to focus today reading notes by trying to find one character out of all that was talked about. For this character, I want to either base my story off what exactly they were doing in this story or try to find a small detail and write a story over this. 

I felt the most drawn to Nakula in the story of The voice in the lake. In this story, the author states, "Nakula finds a lake, but a voice tells him that, before drinking, he must answer some questions. Nakula ignores the voice, drinks, and dies. I am drawn to this part of the story because I feel like a lot happened in these two sentences. I would like to create an entire story for this character because there is a lot that I see that I could create for this scene with a lot of details. 

Bibliography: 
The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic Chapter:The voice in the lake by R. K. Narayan

Story Laboratory: Storybook Research

More Research

By: Maria Dawson

For this week in the story lab option, I would like to get my thoughts straight for what I want to write about in each of my stories and also find some good pictures to include in my storybook. Since my storybook is about a more feminist view I would like to find some symbols I can use within my stories to represent this feature within them.

I Like how this picture you are able to look at and know exactly what it means and stands for. I believe this would be a very good image for me to include in the intro page or home page so you know exactly what point I am trying to make right off the bat This image is from Geyer .

I love this picture because it is girly and simple yet I know how complicated flowers are and how many intricate parts they have. I have not decided which story I wish to represent with these flowers but I am sure one will stick out once I finish writing them. This picture is by Edwards's Botanical Register

I found this picture while doing some google image searching and thought it would be perfect to represent the story called "The Woman Wronged". I see the woman as being the sun and the man trying to escape her as seen within this story as well. This image is from L'atmosphère

Reading Notes PDE Mahabharata Part B

The Burning Forest
By: Maria Dawson

I like this picture because it shows a fire but I also see how this fire looks greater. Picture by: RAJESH Misra

What I like about this particular story the most is how many ways I can change it into my one rendition and truly make it my own. The first inspiration I had with this story comes from the first paragraph where it tells how everyone was having fun and drinking. I think I could create an entire small storyline about this one part in particular. Another idea I have is about telling the last part of this story and the great fire and taking into consideration what survived the fire. I would use the survivors as the main symbol of this story may be in my story it was not a fire that killed everything but a great flood or another disaster. One thing I will definitely use in my story this week is how each of the paragraphs tells their own little story within this bigger story. 

Bibliography: 

The original story is from The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921) and titled  The Burning Forest.

Week 5 Story: The Daughter of Akba

The Daughter of Akba
By Maria Dawson

I picture this locket being the one Benni from our story must break. Picture from: Open Change

This story takes place in a sea, the forbidden sea

Most people would never set foot around this body of water

However, this is a tale of one brave devotee

Whom had his heart on some poor souls’ daughter

Legend has told to steal her heart

You must first possess a locket

No no, not just any locket, this one is state of the art

Here is the trick, it belongs to Akbas pocket

Long ago a spell was cast

In order to wed his offspring

One must first break this latch

While in her prime the maiden waiting

She was wanted by many

Only one man could have her hand

A journey stands before our lead character Benni

His trustees by his side and by him they stand

As many know but few will ever see

This sea is surrounded by woodland

To get through one must follow the lighted tree

Coming from the land of sand

This task will be beastly

Many triumphs stand in the way

But for Benni, the strong and mighty,

Her hand in marriage will pave the day

Little does he know the final task will be weary

For King Akba of the Aqua, ruler of this sea

Has many missions for his royalty

The final being the greatest you will see

Oh, whatever may this task be?

Our Prince Benni must shatter

This locket heart in two smitheree

For this task shall win the hand in this matter

Our first obstacle is coming near

How will our dear Leader fulfill?

This crossing in the woods Aw, by spear

And also, by skill

Once through he meets the King

To his surprise the trinket it is waiting

The brave Prince breaks this delicate piece in one simple swing

He runs to his princess and pulls out a ring

Bibliography: Nine Ideal Women Chapter Sita was written by Sunity Devee

Authors Note: 

I started out with wanting to rewrite this originally about how a suiter must break a bow in order to marry the king's daughter. While I was thinking about what I wanted to write about exactly I figured why not try something new and do a rhyming scheme. I noticed right off the bat this was going to be difficult and have a rhyming website open to help me! But I had so much fun writing this weels story and I hope you have fun reading it too!