Week 10: Famous Last Words

This past week was slightly busy with two tests in other classes. Luckily the tests were on Thursday. I prefer to have tests towards the end of the week. I would rather work hard on the weekdays than stress about tests over the weekend.

I was very pleased with the reading assignment I chose for this week. I found it easy to read, and looked forward to the time in the week I set aside for this reading assignment. I also enjoyed the illustrations included in my reading, they are beautiful and contribute a lot to the stories. I will continue reading this book for the next few reading assignments.

I think my best writing was my storytelling assignment for this week. I know a couple of families who have five or more kids, and I often hear people joke with them saying, “What, are you trying to create your own basketball team?” This silly joke inspired me to convert the Pandava brothers into a team of college basketball players. The story was fun, light-hearted, and easy to write! I think I could improve my reading diary writing by including some more details. I will try to take better notes this week!

Unfortunately I missed this week’s presidential debate. I was so busy studying for my tests and wasn’t able to carve out time to watch. Usually they play a replay, so hopefully I’ll be able to catch that this week! Also, this past week, I enjoyed celebrating Halloween. Even though Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday, I had fun spending time in silly costumes with my friends and family and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. My roommate went all out with the decorations at our house. We had pumpkins, pine cones, witches, cobwebs, and caution tape all over our house. It was a lot of fun!

(Image Information: personal photo of my friends and I;

photo from October 2015.)

Storytelling Week 10: Do I know you from somewhere?

//23 years ago//

Kunti was young, beautiful, and full of life. She was madly in love with someone she barely knew. Actually, love may not exactly be the right word. Kunti was obsessed with Surya. Kunti was a sophomore in high school, and Surya was a senior. To her, he was a god. The two finally met one night at a party; it was as magical as she had imagined it would be. Well, one thing led to another and nine months later Kunti gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Karna.

Kunti knew the baby deserved a better life than she could provide for him at such a young age. She decided to put the baby up for adoption, and tried to move forward with her life.

//Present day//

“Mom, I can’t believe you drove all the way up for this, you really didn’t have to do that,” Arjuna insisted to his mom, Kunti. “Are you suggesting that I miss my sons’ most important college basketball game? Against their biggest rival? I wouldn’t miss it for the world sweetheart!” Kunti replied.

Arjuna and his brothers, also known as the Pandavas, had already become quite the campus celebrities … and they were only freshman! First of all, people were intrigued by them. Nobody at the school had ever seen quintuplets before! Also, the five brothers were as handsome as could be, and so kind to everyone they met. Finally, and this is the most amazing part, all five of them were incredibly talented, and were in the starting lineup for the school’s basketball team. That’s right, that means at every game it was the other school versus the Pandava brothers.

The boys were so excited to have their mom in town to watch their big game. She got to the courts early and waved at her boys. Her face beamed with pride as she watched them warmup. The opposing team made their way to the courts. They started to announce the starting lineups for each of the teams. The Pandavas walked out on the courts and started waving to the cheering crowd. When the opposing team was walking out on the court, the announcer made special notice of a walk-on who recently joined the team and made his way to the starting lineup-an impressive accomplishment! The walk-on player’s name was Karna. As soon as his name was announced, Kunti’s face turned white. The Pandava brothers all looked at each other puzzled. They were all having the same feeling. They whispered to one another, and then looked back at Karna. They couldn’t explain why, but they all felt like they had seen Karna before.  He looked so familiar to them. Arjuna was so perplexed, he couldn’t help himself. He walked right up to Karna right before the game was about to start and ask, “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Basketball through hoop,

Author: Airman 1st Class Kerelin Molina, Date: 2009, Source: Wikimedia

Author’s note:

An interesting detail I found in Buck’s version of the Mahabharata that I didn’t find in other versions, was that Arjuna had a feeling that he knew Karna. I thought an entire story could be developed from this one detail. I tried to ask myself, what would it feel like to meet and recognize your long lost brother? I tried to make the story more modern, so many details of the original story were altered. For example, in this version Kunti had Karna in high school, and the “competition” where the Pandava brothers first met Karna was a basketball game. 

Bibliography:

Mahabharta retold by William Buck and illustrated by Shirley Triest, 1973. Print.

Week 10 Reading Diary B: Buck's Mahabharata

In this reading assignment, I continued to read William Buck's retelling of the Mahabharata. Reading/watching all of these different versions of the original epic is proving to be very useful to me. I am able to compare and contrast various styles and interpretations. For example, the movie version didn't show as much detail as is in this book. I don't remember the war scene for the forest being shown in the movie. Probably, since the movie was constrained on time (and budget) only the most important stories were included. Side-stories that hardly contributed to the overall plot were generally left out of the film. In general, the war scenes in these epics are my least favorite. They are hard for me to follow and uninteresting to me.

There are also parts found in the PDE that are left out of this book. For example, I have read the story behind why Draupadi was given five husbands... how in a previous life she had prayed five times for a husband and was granted her request after her reincarnation. This part has been left out. Also, Amba's story is hardly told at all... I am hoping more details about Amba and Draupadi will surface later on in the book.

Small details are altered from interpretation to interpretation. For example, in this book Draupadi is jealous of Arjuna's second wife, but this was not the case in the other versions. It was interesting to read this version of how the Pandava brothers "win" Draupadi. Lots of details were included in the scenes leading up to Arjuna completing the challenge with the bow and arrow.

The Swayamvara of Panchala's princess, Draupadi,

Author: Ramanarayanadatta astri, Date: acquired in 1965, Source: Wikimedia

Week 10 Reading Diary A: Buck's Mahabharata

For the next few weeks of reading assignments, I have decided to read William Buck's retelling of the Mahabharata. I have read the PDE and watched the movie version of the Mahabharata, so I have some good background knowledge of the various stories going into this reading assignments. With so many different interconnected characters to keep track of, I think it will be good for me to spend some more time on the Mahabharata to fully internalize this epic.

The first portion of this reading assignment was spent describing the births of all of the incredible warriors that will ultimately go into battle. In this version, there is more of a description of Kunti's interactions with the Gods who father her sons. Also, there is more of an explanation as to why Pandu forgot the curse that the deer had cast on him. He was so filled with joy from having so many sons that he felt youthful again, and had forgotten the dreary days of his past.

I also loved the description of Dritarashtra and Gandhari's love. The king felt downcast, and like he couldn't rule because he was blind. However, when he learned of Gandhari's love for him, and the way she had blindfolded herself to be like him, he became filled with joy that overcame his sorrow. That was one of my favorite "scenes" described by the book.

Boon of Indra to Kunti,

Author: Ramnadayandatta Shastri Pandey, Date: Not listed, Source: Wikimedia