Famous Last Words For Week 2

Thinking back on this past week I got to do some of my favorite things!  Classes were canceled, games were attended, board games were played, movies were watched and laughs were had.

Last Saturday I attended the bedlam basketball game where OU had an easy victory over OSU.  It was a lot of fun and one of my first basketball games since working for the OU Athletic Department last year.  I definitely got a headache from being seated by a group of students who started the chants for the entire student section! But it was well worth it.  I looked on the Twitter handle of the OU Men's basketball team after the game, and there was a picture of the team high-fiving fans!  Can you find me?

(Photo from @OU_MBBall)

On Friday I went to see the movie Selma.  I highly recommend that everyone go and watch it.  It's heartbreaking but just goes to show how AMAZING the people who organized civil rights movements were.  And that's the thing that I really took away from it, they were just people but they did AMAZING things.  At one point in the film when someone is arguing and saying that they've done all that they can do for the movement.  Martin Luther King Jr., who was played by David Oyelowo, says that he's just a preacher from Atlanta and look what he accomplished.  I was blown away by the simplicity of how change only needs one person.  

During this week we got to see some early signs of spring!  And also a little bit of snow.  Only in Oklahoma do you have a snowy mornings followed by a wonderful weekend of sun.  After spending the weekend playing board games, cards and eating good food, it's due time to catch up on the homework I have been procrastinating.  In one of my other classes I actually have to do blog posts as well.  So this semester I'll be running two blogs and absorbing all of the tech and design information I should already know.  

Indian Epics: Topics Brainstorming

Possible Topics -

1. Sita's Abduction.  After reading that the demon Ravana fell in love with Sita before he abducted her I've become very interested in their dynamic.  I feel like there is a lot you could do with that situation in a storybook.  Could she eventually experience Stockholm Syndrome?  Or would she just detest him the entire time?  Her situation reminds me of Persephone and Hades from Greek mythology.  The possibilities to maybe do a crossover or reference Persephone in Lanka are intriguing.  I feel like there's a lot of potential here and this is the most interesting topic to me.   

Research.  I know quite a bit about Greek mythology as well as the story of Persephone and I feel like they have many similarities  Both Sita and Persephone were daughters of nature who were kidnapped from loved ones by someone who intended to marry them.  They were both forced to live in dark kingdoms with Ravana being a demon and Hades being god of the underworld.  

(Jadayu vadha)

2. Rama as a child.  Rama is often described as perfect, but I really don't think he started out that way! I feel like it would be interesting to see him as a child because the story jumps from when he was born to when he was old enough to marry.  This wouldn't just be about Rama but all of his brothers growing up.  

Research.  While browsing a Wikipedia page on Kooni (who is also called Manthara) I noticed a section talking about a young Rama.  It talks about how when Rama was playing a game he accidentally broke Kooni's knee.  I found this really interesting because up until this point I did not see Rama as a character that had made any mistakes.  I feel like exploring Rama's adolescence and immaturity would be a new perspective on him.  And since there are so many storybooks set in modern day I feel like this idea could easily transition from past to present.  

3. Ahalya's solitude.  Another interesting topic would be to write a storybook about Ahalya's point of view when she's trapped in the slab.  It could feature stories of her thinking back about her life, or even her witnessing other epic stories happening in front of her.  

Research.  The story of Indra seducing Ahalya would be interesting because she would be looking back on it with a guilty conscience.  She could also observe Rama's battles of slaying Thataka or her son, as this occurs just before he releases Ahalya from the curse.  The story of Rama and Sita's meeting happens just after she is released, so maybe Ahalya could catch a glimpse of young love.  I feel like she would have some interesting thoughts on love after being imprisoned for 100 years.  

4. Ravana in Lanka.  Vayu and Agni used to live freely as gods but now they are Ravana's slaves.  For some reason this makes me think of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  I feel like a storybook could revolve around Vayu and Agni acting as Lumiere and Cogsworth with Ravana living as the Beast who gets his life interrupted by Belle (Sita).
Research.  I am quite familiar with Beauty and the Beast having watched it over and over since childhood.  Many of the other storybooks have reimagined the tales of Ravana, Rama and Sita.  I feel like this would be another way to tell their story.  

Storytelling for Week 2: The Pearls of Peril

Cries and sobs erupted outside the palace walls, the people of Ayodhya were in disarray.  They chanted the name of Rama, their lost king, who was forced to live in exile for the next 14 years due to conditions step by his stepmother Kaikeyi.  

Far away from the revolt of the kingdom, there sat a woman hunched over in a dimly lit room.  Kooni was seated in the only furniture of her quarters, the best accommodations from being a servant to the king’s third wife Kaikeyi her whole life.  The only light in the room was from a small fire in the corner, as Kooni sat in the chair she twiddled with a string of pearls.   She smiled a devilish grin as she twirled the pearls of her exploits around her hands.  

Kaikeyi then burst into the room bringing in a gust of air, she had been running after her son asking for his forgiveness before racing to the servant quarters to see Kooni.  

“This is all your fault!”  She shouted while her eyes burned with resentment.  

“Calm down.  You received exactly what you wished for.”  Kooni countered without even looking away from the pearls.  

“I am your queen, address me when you speak.  I never wanted my son to despise me or the kingdom to protest me.  You must fix what you orchestrated you serpent.”  

Kooni began to cackle when Kaikeyi called her a serpent, she finally turned around and faced her accuser.  “My, my.  You certainly have aged in the days since our last discussion.  As I said previously, you only have your youth and your beauty.  Do not let these setbacks take away the only things you have ever had. In only a short time you have become years older and far less pretty.”  

“All I ever had was my sons.  I shared four sons with Dasaratha and his other wives.  Now the king has fallen from shock, none of my sisters will look at me and my son wants nothing to do with me.  I was perfectly content watching Rama grow to be king, you manipulated that away from me.”  Kaikeyi screamed at her trying to preserve the tears behind her eyes.  

(Image information: Picture of Kooni and Kaikeyi
from Story of Rama.) 

“You are so unfortunate.  I will keep you in my prayers.  I shall pray for the strong woman who was queen and fought for her son to receive what is rightfully his.  I shall pray for the girl, who has taken that woman’s place, to one day realize that you had everything handed to you on a silver platter and you squandered  it.  So the wives of the king, despise you?  Only because of their envy, you sacrificed two wishes granted by the king in favor of your son.  Oh the kingdom cries because they support their beloved Rama.  Rama is so perfect, Rama is so righteous.  What about your own son Kaikeyi?  I would rather have a king that has never crippled a poor, old handmaiden.”  Kooni then stood from her chair and the pearls fell to the ground, her back struggled to regain its former shape.  Kaikeyi had seen Kooni’s hunchback before, but never knew what had caused it.  

“Take what is yours, and never let the small minded people in this city change you.  You are not selfish for pronouncing your son as king, the people are selfish to not give him a chance.  Rama may have their affection now, but if he were king he would show his true colors.”  Kooni uttered, as her mind flashed back to the time when Rama accidentally struck her with a stick while playing a game with his brothers.  An occurrence that ignited her to knock Rama off the throne ever since that day.

Kaikeyi turned and left the servant quarters with confidence to face her harassers and for this moment in time both women got what they wanted. 

~~~

Author's Note: When reading The Ramayana I was really interested in why Kooni manipulated Kaikeyi to use her wishes to dethrone Rama.  The book did not really give an explanation of her motives until the end when it said Rama used to throw clay at Kooni.  So I decided to write my own version of why she intervened.  I consulted Wikipedia and it talked about another episode where a young Rama broke Kooni’s knee on accident while playing a game.  I decided to alter that and make it the motivation behind her character to dethrone Rama as well as be a reason that she was hunchbacked. It was a lot of fun to write because I felt like her dialogue resembles Olivia Pope's father in the TV show Scandal who is a master manipulator.  I chose an image that I thought would represent the strained argument between Kaikeyi and Kooni, with Kaikeyi being torn on what to do.  I wanted the reader to take away that Kaikeyi was in a tough predicament and that in her mind she wasn’t being selfish making her son king.  In her own mind she is being selfless and sacrificing her two wishes for the betterment of her son. 

 

Bibliography -

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Week 2 Reading Diary B: The Exile of Rama

This is a Reading Diary that details my thoughts from pages 53-89 of The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan.

• I'm glad that Bharata unlike his mother has a heart, and I love that Bharata and Rama have an intellectual debate on who should rightfully rule the kingdom.  
• If Jatayu, a great eagle, swore to protect Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, then why does he let Kamavalli, Kara's demon army and eventually Ravana all lurk in the forest?  
• Lakshmana is the best brother ever.  He follows Rama into exile, builds them a perfect hut to reside in AND saves Sita from being kidnapped.  I'm starting to feel that maybe Lakshmana should rule over the kingdom.  
• I have to admit that it's pretty clever of Surpanakha to convince Ravana to seize Sita, did not see that coming.   
• How does a golden deer undoubtedly captivate Sita, who abandoned all material possessions of the palace to accompany Rama on his exile in the forest, and make her convince Rama to chase after it?  What if she just thought it was pretty but didn't want it as a pet or anything? I guess the fates work in mysterious ways.  

(Image Information: Picture of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana living in exile in the forest from Wikipedia.)

Week 2 Reading Diary A: Rama's Origin

This is a Reading Diary that details my thoughts from pages 1- 53 of The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan.

• King Dasharatha biggest problem is that he can't have children, but he has three different wives who can bear him legitimate heirs… I'm having a hard time believing that a guy who lived for 60,000 years with at least three wives was having long lasting fertility problems.  
• Am I the only one who would be kind of pumped if Vishnu reincarnated himself as a monkey rather than a human and took on the ten-headed demon?  
• Definitely noticing a theme of women getting punished by association.  Thataka and Ahalya were both condemned for being around men committing evil deeds that they themselves were not committing.  
• In a way, Indra profited from seducing Ahalya because he became the "thousand-eyed god."  While she was imprisoned in stone to repent for a 100 years.  
• I'm a little sad that all of the details about Rama and Sita's wedding were omitted from the text.  Narayan's version even notes that the wedding preparations "is one of the most fascinating sections of the epic" (33).  If it's so fascinating why aren't any descriptions included?  This is supposed to be the wedding of two reincarnated gods who were previously married in heaven.  This wedding should be X100,000 times better than William and Kate's!  
• What does Kooni gain from having Bharata as king instead of Rama?  I'm so confused why she interfered and changed Kaikeyi's mind because it seems like everyone loves Rama…
• 14 years of exile is very specific.  Does Kaikeyi only want her son to be king for that long?  

(Image Information: Picture of Sita and Rama at their wedding from Wikipedia.)