Reading Notes: Savitri: The Perfect Wife

For this week's free reading notes I decided to take some notes on the last story in my storybook. I wanted to focus on my story this week because I am having a bit of trouble with knowing where I want to go. I am hoping my writing it all down I can come up with some new motivation. In my storybook, I talk about women's rights. Each of these stories I tell has a lot of meaning to me and every woman around the globe. With writing about such an important topic I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to create a great story.

Savitri: The Perfect Wife is a great story to wrap things up on my website because it is about knowing yourself. Savitri's story is inspiring to me because her story is about finding herself. Within this, she finds a man she really loves and wants to marry him. Despite her family saying she should not marry this man, she listens to herself and her wants and needs. I feel like this type of story happens very frequently still today. It is really tough when you are in love with someone and your family does not agree. But listening to your self is the most important thing. When it comes to women's rights we have had to work and struggle to have an opinion for ourselves. This is something women are still striving for today when it comes to the rights of our bodies. From here I thought of the idea to write a story about my body my choice movement. In my story I want to write about a woman who has decided to have children is just not for her. She decides she wants to get her tubes tied. However, because she is not married she is unable to get the procedure. This story is about her fight for the rights of her own body. Women should not have to get the permission of a man to get a procedure they want. In this story, Savitri is Kayla and instead of wanting to marry someone her father doesn't not like she is striving for women's rights. Savitri's father in this story is the protesters who think it is not moral to not give life a chance. The people who say "You might change your mind". 

Bibliography: 

Savitri: The Perfect Wife (Volume 511) by Anant Pai

While doing some more research I found that Savitri means "relating to the sun" in Sanskrit. Which brought in an inspiration to use a picture of a sunflower into this story to make this more feminine. 

I like this sunflower because to me it says it's okay to stand alone. Picture from: Piqsels 

 

Reading Notes Narayan's Ramayana

While doing some more reading I was watching Disney movies. Today I am watching The Fox and The Hound. This is one of my all-time favorite movies and foxes are my favorite animals. So it only seems fitting to create a story inspired by this movie. This inspired me to find a story that was about friendship.

For this, I found the story of Rama and Sita to fit very well. In their story, they fall in love at first sight. la most they way this widow falls in love with Tod from the fox and the hound. In a later chapter, Rama is going to be excited almost like how the fox is forced out of his home by the hunter. If I was going to create a new story from these two chapters I would be fun and easy to create it from this Disney movie. However, Rama is able to slip away just as Tod is able to in the movie in the forest. It would be fun to create a new side story from Rama while he is living in the forest. However, in my story, he would play as the fox named Tod.

Bibliography:
p. 65. Forest Life. from Narayan's Ramayana 

I found this cute little guy by JenDigitalArt. 

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Women (A)

For this week's reading, I wanted to go back and take a look at the nine ideal women readings we have looked at previously. I wanted to do this because I am interested in these story topics. I am also doing my project over women suffrage so looking more in-depth into these stories will help me out in the end.

I just so happened to be watching Disney's The Little Mermaid while reading over some of the stories in the book. I immediately noticed a resemblance in this movie and how most of these stories started out. In Sati's story, she is the youngest and the favorite of her fathers. Just how Ariel is King Tritons' favorite in the movie. I think for this week's story it would be really fun and something new if I was to put these two stories together.

Something unique I would like to try and complete is to create a song. I think this would fit the theme because Disney is known for all of their songs in their stories. I would try and create a story where King Trition first meets Ariel and falls in love with his daughter immediately. I would be sure to include key things from Sita's story such as how he calls her the most beautiful, fairylike, and exquisite.

This is a statue of a Mermaid in Denmark. By: PXHere

Bibliography:
Sita in Nine Ideal Women by Maharanee Sunity Devee

Reading Week 12 Twenty Jataka Tales (B)

I found this cute image that reminds me of Halloween as well. Picture from: Pixabay

For my second reading this week I was immediately drawn to the story titled The Goblin Town. This title reminds me of one of my favorite holidays Halloween. In a sense, this story reminds me of something a child would write for a Halloween theme story. In this story, some men shipwreck on an island and are greeted by women of the island. These women take in travelers and care for them. However, the twist is the women turn into goblins during the night.

I think this story is very original and a great read. If I was to choose this story to recreate this story into my own telling I would love to do it in a way that would be Halloween themed. For example, I could have a werewolf or other creature only come out on Halloween night. This would be a very fun story to write because the possibilities are endless for me when it comes to this subject in particular. This story also ends with one of my favorite ways which is by saying "They lived happily ever after". This is the best way to end a children's story in my book.

Bibliography:
Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan) Story The Goblin Town (1939) 

Reading Week 12 Twenty Jataka Tales (A)

This story tells about how important it is to stand up for what you believe in. Picture by: LPHR Group

For the next upcoming free reading, I have decided to mainly focus on stories I have enjoyed reading the most. Over the past few months, I found myself really able to buckle down and enjoy reading different Jataka Tales. I love working with children and reading the fun stories to them as well. I think by knowing about these tales I will be able to use them in my future. I think this because the tales are able to tell such a great story with good morals in a short amount of time.

I really enjoyed reading the story titles The Master's Test this week. In this story the is a teacher who is asking his pupils to steal for him because he is old and weak. All but one of the kids goes along with his plan. Instead of keeping to himself he brings his feelings up with the teacher and said, "There is always someone watching. Even when I am alone my self is watching." I think this is a great moral to teach to young kids who might be reading this. Learning about yourself and what you want to take out of life is a very important thing to learn. The style of this story captured me too because it feels like it was written many years ago. The author speaks very properly. I am more a laid back writer so speaking like this would be a new challenge I am up for.

Bibliography:
Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan) Story The Master's Test. 1939

Reading Notes Babbitt. More Jataka Tales (B)

In my previous post, I talked about how I enjoyed how much detail the Authors are able to provide in such a short story. While reading part B this weel I noticed another aspect that I enjoy about these short stories. It is how they provide just enough backstory right at the beginning. This is able to provide enough information to the reader able the main characters or aspects that are going to take place. In a way, I would consider this to be foreshadowing.

These three monkeys in a tree remind me of the ones in this story. Picture by: Get Coloring Pages

For this week's reading notes I like the story titled, How the Monkey Saved His Troop. I enjoyed this because the first two sentences provide a backstory and this is something I would like to try and do this week for my story. I notice in the stories I write I just throw the readers into the mix and let them catch on to what is going on. This week I would like to try something new that this story provides!

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt How the Monkey Saved His Troop

Reading Notes Babbitt. More Jataka Tales (A)

One of the main things I love about reading the Jataka Tales is the length and details. They are very short but can provide so many vivid details without having some things lost or overlooked. This is my main task for this week for me. I tend to get myself off-topic and provide so many unneeded characters or details. However, this week I want to only focus on one or two main points with the number of details seen in the tales we have been reading.

For part A I was drawn to the story of The Three Fishes. I like that it starts as a fairytale would which gives me a lot of inspiration to create a story out of this. There are so many things I can do to this story but focusing on the main storyline is my primary objective. Within this story, three fish (whos names are thoughtful, thoughtless, and very thoughtful) are swimming and get into some trouble in the river. Thoughtful and thoughtless did not adhere to the warnings made by very thoughtful and got stuck in a net. Fortunately very thoughtful was able to save them both and they lived happily ever after. After reading this story it would be very easy to spin it into a fairytale with three characters and a lot of important details.

This is the main quote I think of when it comes to fairytales. Picture by: Creative Commons Zero

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt The Three Fishes

Reading Notes: Jakata Tales Part B

For part B of this week's reading notes, I was drawn most to the story titled, The Banyan Deer. I loved this story immediately because of the amount of details put into it by the Author. Right off the bat, she hits you with how beautiful the deer is in while and gold. I would love to take this subtle detail and add it to one of my stories where it is this week or the next coming weeks. When the first thing you read is so much detail about one character they really stand out in your mind. I want to create this amazing imagery within all my stories and I think this is one easier way I could make this happen.

This is not exactly how I picture the deer but I do see it as lit up and beautiful. Picture from: Nikita Khandelwal

When it comes to this moral of the story is how one is able to sacrifice so much for someone else. In this story, the King od the Banyan deer decided to give his life so a new mother could live to take care of her child. It is selfless acts such as this that would be interesting to write about for this week.

Bibliography:
Jataka Talesby Ellen C. Babbitt The Banyan Deer

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A

I choose to study the Jataka Tales this week because I am interested in reading about these different ways animals can fit in these stories. I have yet to write a story that has a viewport between two animals so that something I would like to work on this week.  It would be interesting to write a story between animal charters with their given features. 

The story I was drawn the most to in reading A was The Ox Who Won the Forfeit.  I am drawn to this story immediately because it reminds me of myself and how stubborn I am. In this story, the Ox does not being talked to in a harsh town and being told what to do. Because of his actions his owner loses a bet made. Once his owner understood why he was acting this way he treated the Ox with more respect. 

This is the main takeaway from the story is how communication can help as well as valuing each other. I believe I would be able to create a very good story with the same morals in mind. By creating two animals who have to work together. They would have to do something as a team such as find a meal but relying on both their unique qualities. Then one is trying to belittle the other by saying they do not need his partner because he can do the same and does not see the point of what he is doing. From here the partner would leave and eventually once they figured out they actually need each other to get the job done they can finish as a team again. 

I picture these two animals on the hunt together. Picture from: University of California Libraries

Bibliography: 

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt The Ox Who Won the Forfeit

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part B

This is how I picture the forest after it burns itself and grows back. Picture from: Chris Fort

Now that I have gotten to know myself through creative writing a little bit better I am able to create works I truly love and feel inspired by. However, to keep myself inspired I need to be able to try new things while also keeping everything consistent. While looking over the note strategies I saw something that caught my eye, by focusing on the setting. Taking this one step further I thought it would be fun and neat to write about the main setting in all of these stories as it if was a real being. In the stories within the Mahabharata, the forest is the main setting.

The forest is seen in the following stories in part B: 13. THE YEAR OF DISGUISE and 16. DURYODHANA'S DEATH. For the story of The Year of Disguise, the main charters are stuck within the forest for 12 years and later are sentenced to another 12 years within the forest. I could use this story to introduce the forest as the main setting giving it an internal dialogue between the trees and the lake. To expand the different stories I could use the story Duryondhanas Death where he dies in the forest fire. Maybe in this part of the story, the forest wanted him to die for a particular reason so they set themself on fire knowing they would grow back greener and stronger. This would make a really good moral pot of the story by saying sometimes it is healthy to purge the bad things within your life to create a better you so you will be stronger and wiser.

Bibliography: The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City by
Author: C. A. Kincaid year 1921 chapter 13: THE YEAR OF DISGUISE and 16: DURYODHANA'S DEATH.

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A

The large amount of ducks is how I see some of the stories we are reading. Picture by: PXFuel

The main thing I noticed while reading all the parts within The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - was the number of charters. For example, in the story titled The Princes of Elephant City, there were 19 different charters seen within this story. For my stories, I usually like to focus on one or two characters because I have a hard time keeping things consistent between a large number of different characters. I could use this week to really challenge myself to see how well I do add in these vast majority of characters with my own twist on the story. Taking notes on how this author is able to do this within these stories is by introducing each one a little at a time.

One thing I do like about this type of writing by this author is how he introduces all these characters in relation to other characters. For example, " Vichitravirya, who died and left two sons: Dhritarashtra, the older son, who is blind, and his brother Pandu, who becomes king." in this one sentence there are three main characters introduced. He is also able to describe a small amount about each of these charters this is how I would like to add in man charters to my stories as well. It would be very interesting to create an entire story that is primarily based on introducing different charters within a family. Going through the family tree and creating a dialog between the charters as well as a small insert about the character would be fun to create.

Bibliography:  The Indian Heroes: The Princes of Elephant City: Mahabharata written by C. A. Kincaid in 1921

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

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.

Reading Notes: Promila and Sakuntala

Sakuntala

By: Maria Dawson 

One of the main details or this story includes a ring I picture such as this one. This image is from OpenClipArt 

One of the first things I noticed in this particular story is the amount of dialog within it. For example, talking goes back and forth between multiple charters creating the scene very well. For this particular story, I am most interested in the last page where Dushmanta puts a ring on Sakuntala's hand and says some beautiful words to her. After this scene, this story ends by telling all the amazing things Sakuntala did for his people. If I was going to retell this story there are two different pathways I see myself creating. One is just simply making changes to this scene but creating modern-day storytelling. Within this story, I could have symbolism such as the ring used in this one and have my charter go on to accomplish amazing things after this such as this story. Or I can see myself just focusing on the things Sakuntala does for Dushmanata's people. In this story, all that is said is "and she gave general of his love to all his people" I would like to expand on the ways I see her giving to his people and the thankfulness they have towards the couple. I would take into consideration the amount of dialogue created by the author and use this in my own telling. 

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

Reading Notes: Sita

Nine Ideal Women

By: Maria Dawson

In this story, there is mention of a baby reminding me of this carriage. Picture from OpenClipArt 

Right away from this story written by Sunity Devee within a book called Nine Ideal Women, I noticed a lot of backstory and details within this backstory. Within the first couple of paragraphs, I really like the internal dialogue inside the character's mind with the questions he is asking himself about the baby. I think this is a simple detail that would be easy to transform into my own writing. It is the first couple of paragraphs I am drawn to this story because it tells of a king wanting nothing more than a family which I find beautiful and would love to retell! I am also drawn to the story of how in order to marry Sita a man must be able to break a bow. I would like to tell this story from Sita's view and what she thinks of this task but also focus on making it a bit more modern. For this story, I would make sure the motifs are the same such as a king marrying his daughter away and the need for something to break to get her hand in marriage.

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

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part D

The Bridge: Notes 

By: Maria Dawson

For this story, I imagine a bridge such as this one to be Rama's Bridge. Picture by: Louise McLaughlin of The New River Gorge Bridge. 

I was immediately drawn to this story in particular because of the vivid details and pictures it creates in your mind. Mackenzie, the author of this story, has a great way with words and using them to create such a detailed story with only a few. That's the one downside I see to this story, in particular, is that it only has 200 words and the one we need for our storytelling has to be at least 300. Therefore, if I choose to do mine over this one I will need to get creative. 

Creativity is something I can see myself having a lot of when it comes to this story this author is able to draw some very distinct comparisons which I believe I can replicate in my own way. In this story, I read about 6 distinct characters that all play a role so I can use this to my advantage when I am creating my own to keep the storyline similar. Another thing I would like to include in my post when creating one based on this author is naming a particular object after the main character. I believe this is the main point of this particular story and I should do the same with mine. 


Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana, Part C

46. The Rainy Season

By: Maria Dawson

While looking for images I came across this beautiful painting by Vincent Willem van Gogh named Rain.
 

While reading the stories for part C this week there was one in particular that stood out the most and think I will enjoy writing over this week as well. This is Chapter 46 The Rainy Season by Romesh Dutt (1899) for the first half and Arthur William Ryder (1919) who wrote the poem at the end. It was this poem that drew me into this story the most and I see a lot of potential in it for a writing style I can use in the future. 

The first thing I noticed about this 600-word poem was the structure of it. Each paragraph was comprised of 4 short sentences with about 5 to 7 words in each of these sentences. The rhyming scheme is also something I am very interested in doing and inspired by. In this poem, the second line in each paragraph rhymes with the last line of the paragraph. For example, take a look at the first paragraph, 

They say that as the seasons move,

Our sorrow gently fades away;
But I am far from her I love
And sorrow deepens every day.I also noticed some alliteration going on throughout this poem such as the line "Blow, breezes, blow". 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 46 The Rainy Season by Romesh Dutt (1899) for the first half and Arthur William Ryder (1919) who wrote the poem at the end

Reading Notes: Part A Rama: Avatar of Vishnu

Reading Notes

3. Rama: Avatar of Vishnu 

By: Maria Dawson

This picture by PXHERE is how I picture Rama in his cradle from the Epic. 

For this week's first reading the story that caught my eye by written by Donald A. Mackenzie in Indian Myth and Legend titled Rama: Avatar of Vishnu. There were a couple of main writing techniques I noticed from this author the first being the comparisons he drew to the story. For example, he says, "Rama was the most beautiful: lying in his white cradle he was like to a blue lotus bloom amidst the gleaming waves of the Ganges". The way he was able to create such a vivid picture from words inspires me to create my own work of art within my story for this week. The second thing I noticed in the writing is how each paragraph is written and how each one almost tells its own little story. Another detail provided to us by Laura was how she hyperlinked all the main characters as well as the items we might not be so familiar with. I will be sure to use this style when writing my own stories to ensure my readers are able to understand what I am saying. 

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend written by Donald A. Mackenzie chapter titled Rama: Avatar of Vishnu

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

Reading Notes on Turtle/Geese and Crane/Crab

By: Maria Dawson

This image gives a clear picture of the story over the turtle and two geese. This image is named The Boastful Turtle by OpenClipart.

For this week's reading notes I could not decide between the story of the Crane and the Crab or the Turtle and Geese of being my favorite Anthology. The first story that was my favorite was written by Ellen C. Babbit and titled The Turtle who Couldn't Stop Talking. This specific story first got my attention from the vivid detail the author was able to give with only a few sentences, you can truly imagine yourself in the story watching this unfold. The moral of this story is about learning when the right time to speak is and when you should keep things to yourself. Unfortunately for this turtle, he had to learn the hard way about when he should talk and when he should not. My main takeaway from this short story is learning how to tell a life lesson from the views of a simple construct such as from one turtle and two geese. Another life lesson is found in my other favorite reading from this week from the author W. H. D. Rouse and titled The Cunning Crane and the Crab. For this life lesson, the crane learns that being misleading will only get him so far in life and how someone is able to see through his disguise. The main details I paid attention to for this short story is the style of each line broken up in spaces in between creating flow and a personal style. This story also goes back and forth between dialogue in the characters as well as narration.