Jacob and The Epics of India

 Son of the Sun: Durvasa the sage came to where Kunti was. Most people were afraid of him because he would put curses on people he didn't like. Kunti however befriended him and had great talks with him. Before long, it was his time to go. Before leaving, he told Kunti a mantra that would allow her to summon any god she wished.  After he left, she decided to test the mantra. She looked into the sun and spoke the mantra. The sun god then appeared standing in front of her. She reached out and embraced him. After she stopped, she noticed that a beautiful child was in her arms, and she felt that he was destined to be great. She, not being married, felt that she could not in good faith keep the child as her own. So, she wrapped him up, placed him in a basket, and sent him down the river. I really like this story and I feel like there's a lot of potential here to modify it into something else. Depiction of Drona at Angkor Wat  Wikipedia Commons Bibliography:  Epified Mahabh...

 I really enjoyed watching these videos. The pacing was really good and the illustrations were quite helpful. Shantanu having to watch as his wife kills his first 7 children was really tragic and dark. His wife then tells him about the eight celestial spirits that he had promised to take into the world and immediately free them of mortality. She then left him and took the eighth son with her. 16 years later, King Shantanu was riding near the river, when he saw a mighty archer tame the river with arrows. The archer was his long lost son, Devavrat. The king brought him back to his kingdom as the prince.  Shantanu then fell in love with a fisherman's daughter, but her father refused. He knew that their children would always be second to King Shantanu's children. Prince Devavrat visits the fisherman having seen his father's sadness. Devavrat swore an oath that he would never marry or father any children so that the fisherman would allow his daughter to marry Shantanu. He became...

 I am very happy with my progress so far. I didn't expect to have enjoyed this class and the writings so much. My routine isn't the best but in the end, I still manage to get everything done. In the second half of the semester, I want to get better at sticking to my schedule and not waiting until the last minute. I think in the past few weeks I have done better, but there is still room for improvement. I really want to finish the semester strong so that I can feel proud of my stories and the final portfolio. I really like where my portfolio is at right now and I think the stories have come together much better than I anticipated. I'm looking forward to a great second half of the semester. Procrastination  Wikipedia Commons

 So far I have really appreciated the comments and feedback that I have received on my stories and portfolio. On top of being very useful for revisions, it's really fun to see what people thought of my stories and see what they enjoyed. The feedback people have been leaving has been actually quite useful. I wasn't expecting to use the comments as much as I actually do. I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of leaving comments on other stories or portfolios. I've always felt awkward giving my peers feedback, especially when it ends up being negative. However, I understand the need for leaving comments and reviews. I find these assignments to be the ones that I put off the most, even though they really don't take much time to complete.  Moving forward, I'm not sure much needs to change regarding comments. The comments that I have received thus far have been very useful, and I feel that the comments I have left have been well thought out. Optimizing Feedback  Daily ...

 I am actually quite proud of the blog and website that I have created so far. Every reading and writing assignment has gone pretty smoothly. I've impressed myself so far with my ability to write creatively because prior to this class most of my writing (possibly all of my writing) has been research-based. I have had a hard time motivating myself to do all of the commenting assignments, but the reading and writing assignments have been very enjoyable. My favorite reading so far has definitely been the Ramayana. I found it much more engaging than the Mahabharata although both were interesting reads. Moving forward I want to try to get more ahead with my assignments and be more consistent so that I don't have to do big chunks of work all at once. I would have to say that my story "Abduction" about Pennywise has got to be my favorite story that I have written so far.  Ravana Slaughtering Jatayu  Wikipedia Commons This is probably my favorite image that I have used so far...

Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 151-200 The war wages on.  Ghatotkacha, son of Bhima led the Rakshasas on an assault of the Kauravas. Karna launched his celestial spear at Ghatotkacha, killing him. He fell to the ground, crushing many soldiers. The Pandavas plan to tell Drona that his son, Ashwatthama is dead, thus destroying his will to fight. They decide that Yudhishthira will tell Drona of his son's death, and Dhrishtadyumna will kill him once his guard is down. Bhima kills an elephant and names it Ashwatthama so that technically they are telling the truth. The plan works perfectly and ends with Dhrishtadyumna cutting off Drona's head. Ashwatthama, still alive, plots revenge. Ashwatthama then launches the Narayana-Astra which launched fire across the sky. Krishna tells everyone to put down their weapons and bow and that it will spare them. Bhima runs toward Ashwatthama with his mace. Krishna and Arjuna run to him and get him to put down the mace so that he s...

 Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 101-150 The Story of the lakes at Kurukshetra: The brahmin warrior Parashurama dug five lakes. Samanta-Panchaka. They were filled with the blood of kshatriyas he had killed. There was a solar eclipse before the war at Kurukshetra and kings had come to the lakes to bathe and purify themselves. The pandavas were not there because they were in exile. Krishna, watching the kings bathe, had a vision of them all covered in blood which indicated that a war was coming. The story of Vishnu and Bhudevi: The earth goddess Bhudevi was in the form of a cow long ago. She gave her milk to the people of earth (mother nature?). The kings were greedy and milked her until her udders hurt which caused her to cry out. Vishnu heard these cries and vowed to punish the kings who did this to her. He said that he would return in the forms of Parashurama, Rama, and Krishna and spill their blood. I really liked these stories because they gave some backstory to ...

 Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 51-100 The Pandavas arrived at the gambling hall in Hastinapura. Draupadi went towards the women's area to greet Queen Kunti as well as the other royal women. Dhritarashtra asks what Yudhishthira thinks and he replies that the palace is beautiful. Yudhishthira already knew what was going on when he saw  Duryodhana  being joined by his uncle Shakuni. then asked Yudhishthira if he was ready for their gambling match. He replied that he was.  Prior to this,  Duryodhana  had become jealous of Yudhishthira and his amazing palace at which he made a fool out of himself by falling into a pool. He had plotted revenge with his uncle Shakuni and they decided to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice. Shakuni would play and beat him if all went according to plan. Yudhishthira had been warned about this plot by Bhima who said that the invitation was probably a trick.  They then played their dice game and Yudhishthir...

 Notes for Tiny Tales: Mahabharata pages 1-50 The Story of Satyavati: King Uparichara was laying under a tree thought about his wife and...ejaculated :/. He apparently wrapped the semen in a leaf and gave it to a parrot to fly it to his wife. Then, a falcon attacked the parrot and the leaf fell into a river. A fish (that poor fish) then ate the leaf. The fish happened to be an apsara who was cursed. A (probably very confused) fisherman caught the fish and found twins inside. He took the twins to King Uparichara who accepted the boy but gave the girl back to the fisherman. The girl became his daughter named Satyavati.  Not to make fun of this story, but I absolutely love the apparent absurdity of Satyavati's birth. You really never know what is going to happen next. It also kind of reminded me of some Greek mythology birth stories. King Shantanu then marries Satyavati after asking her father for permission and promising that their son would be heir to the kingdom. Harivamsa, Ma...