Course Improvements

I really liked the idea for story planning, and actually used it once this semester. Sometimes you're not in your zone as a writer, but you have a couple of ideas for a story. It would help for people to still comment on these story planning posts since your peers could help you decide on a story or give you feedback on your story idea.

I also like the idea of thematic reading for each week. When we were reading the Ramayana, it was great to have a schedule for what we had to read each day. However, once the time came for free choice reading, it was a little difficult to know what would be good. Having a weekly theme and then a list of suggestions for each theme would be great for people who prefer to have structure versus freedom.

Story: Criminal District Court Proceedings

Image: Flickr

"Your Honor, the State is ready to proceeds with motions."

Direct Examination

Ms. Smith: Could you please state your name for the Record?

Alan King: Mayor Alan King.

Ms. Smith: Do you see McKenzie King in court today?

Alan King: Yes.

Ms. Smith: Mr. Mayor, could you tell the Court what happened the night of February 2, 2015?

Alan King: Me and my wife were sleeping in the upstairs guest room at my mother's home. My sister and two brothers were also visiting and were staying in the downstairs guest room. It was 11 PM, and both of us have work early. I was woken by a noise in the living room, so I went to investigate.

Ms. Smith: What did the noise sound like?

Alan King: It was the sound of the door opening. It is old so it always creaked, every since we were little kids.

Ms. Smith: What did you do next?

Alan King: I went to the front door to see who had left. The porch light was on, so I could see who was leaving the yard.

Ms. Smith: And who was the person you saw?

Alan King: It was my sister, McKenzie King.

Ms. Smith: And when you saw it was your sister, what was your next action?

Alan King: I followed her but brought no attention to myself. You have to understand that I've always been a little...scared of my sister. When she was born, she acted like a normal child, but then sometimes in the middle of the night, she would sneak out of the window and go places and then come back before everyone had woken up. I saw it happen several times.

Ms. Smith: Is there any other reason you suspected your sister was different?

Alan King: People kept dying. They would find remains every morning of a child, a mother, a shopkeeper, random people from town. Always found in the morning. You must remember what it was like twenty years ago. They never caught the person responsible, but I always wondered if it was McKenzie.

Ms. Smith: So, on the night of February second, you followed your sister. Where did she go?

Alan King: She walked over to the home of our family friend, Tom Pultz.  I stayed outside, too scared to enter. I thought maybe she was having an affair with Tom. I was wrong.

Ms. Smith: And did she emerge from the house?

Alan King: Yes. I don't know why, but I waited outside. I thought of confronting her after about her affair. When she finally emerged, her nightgown was covered in blood. She quickly took it off and buried it in Tom's front yard. When she had gone back home, I dug it up.

Ms. Smith: I want to show you this document that's marked Exhibit Number 1. Is this the gown she wore that night?

Alan King: Yes, that is the exact one I saw her burying and later I dug up.

Ms. Smith: Your Honor, I would like to offer Exhibit 1 into evidence.

The Court: Exhibit 1 is received in evidence.

Ms. Smith: Mr. Mayor, what did you do after digging up the gown?

Alan King: I returned home and put it in one of my empty bedside drawers until I could go to the police department the next morning.

Ms. Smith: And what happened the next morning?

Alan King: Before I went to work in the next town over where I'm mayor, I passed by Tom's house just to see him and talk. There was police tape around his front door and a swarm of officers. I found out he was killed.

Ms. Smith: And who did they suspect?

Alan King: They thought it was perhaps an animal, since the scene was so gruesome. I knew it was my sister who had done it. McKenzie, you can sit over there and smile all you'd like, but I know you're guilty. You've always had an emptiness in your eyes that makes me shiver, and if the Jury were to look into your eyes they would see it too.

Ms. Smith: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have no further questions.


A/N

I based this story on one I read in The Flowering Tree called "Demon sister." It is about a baby who, when born, looks very unusual but acts like a regular child. Until nighttime, that is. At bedtime, the child sneaks out and one by one eats the people in the town. One night, her brother sees her transform from a baby into a demon, but says nothing. Scared for his life, he leaves the town and marries a girl in a neighboring town. All this time, he is preparing to kill his sister so that she can no longer hurt anyone in the town. He finally goes back to visit, and his hometown has become a ghost town. He ends up killing his sister with a trained lion.

I changed the plot of the story so that it could be in a court transcript style. I wanted to offer a snippet of the court hearing that would go on if the demon sister was accused of murder. I know that the story isn't that exciting, but I wanted to explore a new writing style this week.

 Bibliography: A.K. Ramanujan. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India. Link to reading.

Reading Notes: A Flowering Tree Part 2

For Tuesday's reading, I again chose to read more stories from A Flowering Tree.

I left off with a story called "The Dead Prince and the Talking Doll." It made me mad that the princess was trapped in this tiny room with a dead man and no company. She nursed the man back to health for 12 years and just when he was about to wake up, this acrobat girl swooped in and took the prince as her husband, claiming to have taken care of him the whole time. Luckily, the princess was telling her story to a doll one night in the room and the prince overheard what happened. He got rid of the acrobat girl and the prince and princess got married instead. The creepy part of the story was the fact that for several years, the princess gave food to a beggar who predicted that she would become the bride of a dead husband.

It's really strange because in all of the stories I read from this collection, the dolls always can talk and act like real people. For example, in another story literally called "Dolls," a husband is angry because his wife always eats what I'm guessing is the good part of their fish. He always has to eat the leftover tail and head. He asked his sister for advice, and she told him to leave three dolls around the house. The poor wife was scared by the talking dolls and left the house before she could eat anything. I guess they did their job.

There was another really interesting story called "Double Double" about a man who asked for a favor from God to double his supply. Unfortunately, God wasn't specific about what was doubled, so every time the man ate, his food doubled itself within his stomach, so he burst. But then at his funeral, his body kept doubling, and the townspeople had to keep burying bodies.

Photo By Roberto Tetsuo Okamura, Shutterstock.  

Since the collection is named after it, I decided to also read "The Flowering Tree." I was expecting a light tale about somebody falling in love underneath a beautiful tree. Nope. So it starts off nice with two sisters. The younger one can turn herself into a flowering tree so that they can sell the beautiful flowers for their poor mother. Soon the Prince learns about the flowers and finds the daughter and wants to marry her. His mean sister disregards the special instructions for turning the daughter into the tree, and leaves the poor girl with half a body. After a while, the Prince realizes that it's his wife and heals her.

 Bibliography: A.K. Ramanujan. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India. Link to reading.

Reading Notes: A Flowering Tree

This week I chose a new source to work with, and I was not disappointed. The stories are a bit weird, but very entertaining.

The first story I read, called "A Story and a Song", was about a woman who had a story and song she wanted to tell, but she kept them in too long, so they took revenge. In the middle of the night, the story and song became a man's coat and boots. The woman's husband got jealous and they fought. The strange part of the story is that the woman's husband got the explanation from a group of gossiping lamp flames. It's interesting how inanimate objects were able to talk. The husband heard them talking about the true reason for the boots and coat being at their house and so he went home and asked about the song. The most disappointing part of the story is that she had forgotten the story and song. They could have sounded beautiful and it was all wasted because she didn't let them free. The commentary is really interesting because it talks about how nothing is destroyed; it is transformed.

The next story("A Brother, Sister, and a Snake") that was interesting was this one about a King, his new wife, and 2 children. The step-mother did not like the children, so she tried to kill the girl by putting a baby snake in her water. The snake stayed in her stomach, and the two children were banished for some weird reason. The brother and sister stayed in a forest with a nice Ogre for many years until one day her brother for some reason turns into a snake and long story short she almost marries her dad until she tells her story to him and then everyone lives happily ever after.

I liked this story called "Cannibal Sister." The title basically contains the story. There is a family and a baby is born and it looks weird and terrifying but the mother doesn't think anything of it. One night, a brother wakes up in the middle of the night and sees when the demon baby goes out and eats villagers and comes back to sleep in the crib like a human baby. He leaves town and comes back with trained lions to kill his "sister." He ends up killing his sister, but only after his demon sister had eaten his horse's legs off.

A Ghost Town, Wikipedia

Bibliography: A.K. Ramanujan. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India. Link to reading.

Tech Tip: Meme Builder

I've never done a tech tip yet, but I was going through my friend's blog and thought her meme was super funny, so I decided to try it. It's really easy too. All you do is go to this link, go through the pictures until you find a suitable one to fit your general message, and make the caption! You can either choose "top," "middle," or "bottom" for the placement of the caption. Make sure to add spaces before the caption if it's not centered enough. Here's my result:

Story: The Two Little Pigs

Image: Wallpaper Cave

I was walking along the dirt road that led to the market, which was going to be about a 3-mile walk. I haven't yet trusted the idea of some loud machine that sounds like it's about to erupt in flames while I'm in it. Sure, it's the 1920s  and people are coming up with all sorts of strange contraptions, but I'm staying with what I know. And what I know is dirt roads and water wells and growing my own food. Unfortunately, I still have to go to the market to get yeast for bread and a couple of household things. Now I was holding a large bag  on my way back to my house. I was just nearing the lake, when I heard strange little squeals, one slightly lower pitch than the other. I looked around but saw nothing until I looked down close by the lake and saw the smallest little pink objects. I approached and they didn't seem scared of me. On the contrary, they had started sniffing the bag of groceries I had set down. There didn't seem to be any mother around, which almost made me cry. Someone had abandoned these adorable creatures. I picked them up and put them in my basket. All three of us walked the way back from the market.

"Pinky, Inky!" I called. It was exactly 6 o'clock.
"Time for dinner!"

Three years later, the two little pigs were no longer little, but they were still pink. They both came immediately, oinking their way to the customized food bowls. This ritual continued until one day I didn't want them to come home. Two large men had just come to my door. They were clearly drunk and could barely knock on the door. They offered me a bottle of wine and so I let them into my house.

"Ma'am, we want your pigs. There's a big festival today and we ran out of meat for everyone. We need more." He pounded on the table to emphasize the last three words.

"Those are my children, not for eating."

"How about we open that bottle of wine?" One of them asked.

They drank and talked for about 30 minutes and they had hoped that I was drunk enough to let them have my little ones.

One of them finally brought it up.
"So, ma'am, how about those pigs of yours?"

"They are still my children." This brought them over the edge. The two barbarians stood up and started for the door.

"Then we'll find them then. We don't need you."

It was 7 PM, and Pinky and Inky hadn't come yet, since they always waited for her call. The large men started looking in the barn. These idiot men didn't realize that my children and I had a secret system. If there was danger, I called their names in reverse order. So while the men looked around the barn, I called my children home.

"Inky, Pinky!" I prayed that they understood the message. The men soon got tired of looking and went back to the party, furious.

I waited 15 minutes for them to completely disappear, and ran toward the place I knew my little pigs would be. There they were, laying by the lake where I first found them. I called them over and embraced them. We walked back home, the three of us, just like that day I found them.



A/N
The story this was based off of was from Twenty Jataka Tales called "The Two Pigs." In the story, a woman finds two baby pigs on the side of a lake and cares for them for several years. They became like her own children. Every day, she would call them to be fed at the same time. There came a week when a large feast was being held in the village, but they ran out of meat. They remembered the lady had pigs, and tried to get her to let them kill them for meat. She refused, even after several glasses of wine. After that, to protect the pigs, she called them in reverse order so that the pigs would know not to come. The only difference between the original and mine is that one of the pigs says a magical poem about love that transforms everyone in the village. They no longer want meat, and everyone is happy. After this, the pigs are celebrated and brought to the King of the village and are able to live there until they die. However, I wanted the pigs to stay with their mother, so that's how I changed it for my story.

Bibliography: Twenty Jakata Tales. "The Two Pigs." Link to Reading Guide. 

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Reading part B

Image: Deer, Quotesgram

I loved the first story from Reading B of Twenty Jataka Tales. It was about this woman who found two baby pigs on the side of the road and picked them up to bring home with her. She took care of them like they were her own children. Several years later, there came a time when the village needed more meat and asked the woman for her pigs. The lady called the two pigs in the opposite order she usually did when it was feeding time to try and warn them of the danger. One of the pigs came when they were called, and the other said this poem that magically made the men from the village happy. In the poem, it talked about the perfume that never fades away, which is love. The pigs ended up being taken in by the King and lived there until he died. Why did they have to leave the woman though? Wouldn't their happy ending include her?

Another good story was about a beautiful deer that was silent and lived deep in the forest. One day the King was riding in the forest and spotted the deer and tried to get his horse to catch up to it. However, the deer (named Sarabha) could leap over a chasm that the king's horse couldn't. Sarabha, however, saw that he had caused the King to be trapped in the chasm, so he went down into the rocks and pulled the King out. As a favor, the King offered the palace to Sarabha, but the only thing Sarabha wanted was for hunting to not be allowed in the forest he called home.

The last story I'm thinking about making a story about was the one where some travelers shipwreck on an island. They try and find someone to help them, but they only find beautiful women. They become entranced by these women and live with them for a while. One night, one of the men realized that the women were goblins in disguise and that they needed to get off the island. Luckily, a magical unicorn came and brought them home.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. Link to Reading Guide

Story: Antonio and the Three Grandmas

Morningside Park, NYC: Biking in Manhattan

The first week of November in New York City had brought the beginnings of a harsh winter. Whereas the week before, natives wore light sweaters, now the strong wind demanded heavy coats to walk a couple of blocks. Antonio was making his daily rounds on the subway. He would get a free swipe and ride the train all day, collect some cash from a few people, and go back to the Morningside Park where he would distribute his earnings among his family. His family happened to be three old ladies he called "grandma", an old man who didn't like to admit that they were friends, and a teenager who was relatively new to the homeless world after realizing the cruel world didn't care about her dreams to be a musician. Every day, Antonio woke up, bought coffees for the old ladies so they could stay inside for a couple of hours, and then him and the teen would go to the subway station together. While the teen sat in the subway station playing violin, he would do his daily rounds on the train. They happened to be saving up for coats, since the supply at the local shelter had run out weeks ago.

On this day, it was particularly cold. Even the train was cold, so he couldn't imagine how cold his grandmas would be right now, outside in that park. At the end of the day, he met the teen at their stop and walked back to the ladies. From a distance, he saw one extra figure among his family. Who was this strange dark figure?

As he got closer, Antonio realized it was the cops. He began to run. The cops had noticed.

"Sir, please calm down." They didn't seem comfortable with anyone running towards them.

"They have done nothing wrong." he tried to explain to the cops.

"I'm sorry, but a new city ordinance requires that all transients be required to leave after 5 PM. It is currently 8 PM, and these women are here illegally now."

"Please, it won't happen again. Please let them go." The cops looked at each other and nodded.

"Just this once." They left and Antonio helped the ladies up so that they could all find a place to stay that night. He walked them twenty blocks to the nearest homeless shelter where he put their names on the list for a bed. After three hours waiting, they were given some soup and a place to stay. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow all six of them to stay, so Antonio agreed to sleep outside.

It grew colder and colder until he was unable to stop shivering. The shelter owners recognized him as the caretaker to the old ladies and remembered how kind he was to them. They couldn't bear to see such a kind person die from cold outside, so they carried him into the shelter. It seemed that he had been saved just in time. After that day, his grandmas and teenager always had a place on the list because the shelter directors were so moved by his generosity.

A/N

This story was based on one from the book "Twenty Jataka Tales." In the story, a king called Brahmadatta ruled over a land that had an adjoining forest. A troupe of monkeys lived in some trees in that forest, and were always careful to keep their presence secret. One day, fruit made its way over to the town and the monkeys were discovered. The king came with his subjects to get the fruit and kill the monkeys by trapping them on a tree. To save his troupe, the chief of monkeys made a bridge with a branch, but it was too short to reach, so he had to make his back part of the bridge. His back was broken by saving the monkeys, but the king felt so bad for the chief of monkeys that he gave him a nice last day of his life.

I tried to create a similar troupe of people living in the streets of New York trying to lay low in the park. The police finding the homeless family is supposed to parallel the king's subjects finding the monkeys. The chief of monkeys died helping his family, so I wanted to have Antonio sacrifice himself to keep his family safe too. The only difference is that I didn't have the nerve to allow Antonio to die, so instead, he just suffers one bad night in the cold until the shelter workers find him.


Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. Link to reading guide.

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Reading A

In the first story, a king called Brahmadatta ruled over a land that had an adjoining forest. A troupe of monkeys lived in some trees in that forest, and were always careful to keep their presence secret. There were fresh mangoes on the trees and the chief always told them that if the stream carried fruit to the land where people lived, the people would come and take all their food. One day, fruit made its way over to the town. The king came with his subjects to get the fruit and kill the monkeys by trapping them on a tree. To save his troupe, the chief of monkeys made a bridge with a branch, but it was too short to reach, so he had to make his back part of the bridge. His back was broken by saving the monkeys, but the king felt so bad for the chief of monkeys that he gave him a nice last day of his life.

The other stories seemed very similar to this one. They're all about animals being killed or about to be killed until they are spared. For example, there was one involving two clans of deer that were not being hunted by a king because they were golden, and the king wanted to spare the golden deer. Instead, he hunted all the normal deer. The golden deer tried to save the normal deer by taking turns going where they might be hunted. One day, the leader of one clan, Banyan, took his turn, but the king would not hunt him. The king vowed to spare not only the golden deer, but all the other deer and animals in the forest.

My favorite story was about a man who wanted to make his family rich so that his daughters and wife would be spoiled. Unfortunately, a fairy turned him into a golden goose. He visited his family so that they could sell his golden feathers. His wife thought maybe the goose would stop coming, so they plucked out all of his feathers and always had money. However, his wife kept the poor goose (her husband) in a barrel with no food. Soon, white feathers grew on the goose and it flew away "far away to a forest where every bird was happy."

Image: Webshots

I tried to read the story about the swans, but I kept imagining different colored swans living in a pretty lake and the story seemed lame in comparison to the picture I was constructing in my mind.



Bibliograpy: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. Link to Reading Guide.

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India Part D

The first story was called "The Fatal Oath" and to be honest I did not completely understand it. Up until the part where Bijaya comes home and cries upon hearing the death of her mother, everything makes sense. However, after that, Bijaya swears by something (perhaps the goddess?) and therefore her family dies. She searches out to find the goddess Sashthi, whom her mother worshiped on a regular basis. It was now her turn to continue worshiping Sashthi, and so she found the goddess and performed a sacred ritual to bring her family back from the dead.

The next story was very strange. It was about a grandfather who wanted to have a pond, but no matter how far deep he dug, there was none. He had a dream in which the only way to get water was to cut up his infant grandson into pieces and bury them where he wanted the pond. He told his son about the dream, and so his son sacrificed the grandson without telling the mother of the child. The next day, plenty of water came to the plot and so the mother of the child cooked for a feast celebrating the water. She didn't think anything about her child being missing, as he probably was with his grandma or aunt. After doing her daily worship of Sashthi, the goddess appeared holding her son, who had been sacrificed the night before.

Another one of the stories was about a grandmother who was looking for her grandson, who was stolen by a cat after being born. So she went to find goddess Sashthi, in case she would help find her grandson. Along the way to Sashthi's house, she found a cow, a carpenter, tree, and stream that were wondering why nobody milked them, picked their fruit, and drank their water. They asked if the grandmother could ask Sashthi when she found her. It turns out that they all had refused service to a Brahman when they needed it.

The last two story, "The Banished Girls," an evil stepmom send her step-daughters away after convincing her husband that the two girls would bring about trouble. So after they are banished, the goddess Lakshmi took pity on them and sent them husbands.

                                                                 Lakshmi, Wikipedia


Bibliography: D.N. Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link to reading guide.

Extra Reading: Sacred Tales of India part C

Sacred Tales of India Notes (Reading Part C)

In the first story of the reading, a king had no children and, as a result, everyone (including his court) believed him to be evil. Apparently, childlessness was considered a bad omen. One day he heard the sweeper talk about how he eats early because if he sweeps and sees the king's face, he has a bad breakfast. The king went to his rooms and cried, until a holy ascetic came and predicted he would have many children if the king promised to give him one of them. Unfortunately, the son that was given to him was the one that the third wife gave birth to (Sankata-Narayan, which means he who was born in a conch shell). The ascetic took the son and told him to stay in the forest but not go South. The Prince decided to go south anyway and a beautiful woman he found there told him that the ascetic was going to use him as a sacrifice. So, he created a diversion and cut the ascetic's head off. He returned to his mother.

Vishnu and a Conch Shell: Pinterest

The other story that I liked was about Indra, the god of heaven. A Brahman was in the middle of blessing him, but Indra threw flowers at him, so the Brahman changed his mind and cursed Indra instead. Indra had been turned into a cat, and Sachi, his wife, was unaware of this. She tried to find the Brahman who had cursed Indra, but when she found him, he said that the curse could not be reversed. Thus, he would have to stay a cat in the house of a huntsman for 12 years. However Sachi started to worship the goddess Kalika and so the goddess felt bad for her and told Sachi that she could make the 12 years less terrible by letting Sachi and the cat sleep through the remaining years. They both woke up after the time was up and lived happily ever after.

In the last story, a Brahman is traveling. While he's hitchhiking through some land, a guy stops him and tell him that he wouldn't have to rely on charity if he started worshiping Satya Pir. The Brahman is used to worshiping Narayan. So the Brahman did the sacrifice as instructed and suddenly became rich.

Bibliography: D.N. Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link to Reading Guide.

Story Planning: "The Mouse and the Farmer"

I think I'd like to do a story based on "The Mouse and the Farmer" from my reading yesterday. Unfortunately, I'm not used to simple stories after reading the Ramayana and Mahabharata, so this week's readings have been a strange experience for me.

In "The Mouse and the Farmer," a mouse lives on a farm in a little hole. The farmer was always nice to the mouse (like sometimes he would throw Mousie a piece of cheese during dinner) Fortunately, the farm was built on land that had buried treasure, so one day the mouse gave the farmer a gold coin, and, in exchange, the farmer gave the mouse a good piece of meat to eat. This started happening on a daily basis for a couple of weeks. Soon, a cat named Grimalkin started to notice the mouse since he had gotten fatter. The cat threatened to eat the mouse unless the mouse gave the cat the nice meat. The farmer started noticing that the mouse kept getting skinnier (this was because Grimalkin was eating all of his food). Mousie told the farmer what was happening. The farmer gave him a clear inkwell or similar container, and when the cat came to eat the mouse, it saw the mouse through the inkwell and didn't realize there was a barrier between them. Grimalkin choked on the inkwell and the mouse crawled out of the dead cat's throat.

Brainstorming for plots:

Image: Public Domain Pictures

1. A girl is walking home and always passes by a group of cats and pets them every day when they're laying on the porch of a nearby house. One day, someone walks behind her and tries to attack her, but the cats have come to trust her, so they attack her attacker and nearly kill him/her. Every day after that, the girl keeps bringing the cats food and pets them. Obviously, I'm adding a bit of material as an epilogue but it might work! This version is switching the victim from an animal to a human and I love stories about how animals know more than their human counterparts sometimes.



2. A variation on the tale where Grimalkin sees that the farmer does not feed the Mouse, so instead of the farmer giving the Mouse food, Grimalkin (who is already on the farmer's good side) decides not to kill Mousie and instead gives him food.

I need to start changing up my writing style because I tend to stick with modern storytelling techniques. More ideas?

On a side note, Grimalkin is an old name for "grey cat" so I think I might use a name that translates to a characteristic of a character's personality or appearance.


Bibliography: W.D. Rouse. The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India. Link to reading.

Reading Notes: The Giant Crab

For this week, I branched out and read some short children's stories from "The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India." The first one was called "The Crab" and was about a crab (surprise) that lived in a lake and sat at the bottom waiting for animals to come to the lake so he could eat them. Soon, he becomes huge from all the food he's getting. Mr. and Mrs. Elephant soon become tired of the crab eating all of their animal friends, so they come up with a plan to kill him. They end up cracking his giant shell, and when they become Queen and King of the animal kingdom, they use the giant shells as drums in war.

The next one I liked was called "The Hypocritical Cat." A family of rats lived in a hole by the river that a cat liked to watch. The cat eventually tricks the rats into thinking he worshiped the sun and ate air, and that was why he always faced towards them. The cat made them think they were safe walking past him, since he didn't eat other animals, and so the cat kept eating rats that passed.

In "The Crocodile and the Monkey," a crocodile was persuaded by his wife to capture a monkey so that Mrs. Crocodile could eat its heart. Mr. Crocodile pretended that he wanted to help the monkey cross the wide river, but really he was going to drown him for his wife. However, the monkey convinced the crocodile that the figs hanging in the tree on the other side of the river were the hearts of monkeys. So the stupid crocodile believed him and helped the monkey across the river.

I have nothing to say about "The Wise Parrot and the Foolish Parrot" because it broke my heart to hear that a poor parrot was plucked by that horrible maid.

There was one story that I liked called "The Mouse and the Farmer." In this story, a mouse always gave the farmer a gold coin, and, in exchange, the farmer gave the mouse a good piece of meat to eat. Soon, a cat started to notice the mouse since he had gotten fatter. The cat threatened to eat the mouse unless the mouse gave the cat the nice meat. However, the farmer helped the poor mouse. He gave him an inkwell and when the cat came to eat the mouse, it swallowed the inkwell and the mouse crawled out of the dead cat's throat.

Are we sure this is a children's collection??

Picture illustrated by W. Robinson.

Bibliography: W.D. Rouse. The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India. Link to text.

Story: Waitlisted

Kaitlyn woke up on the couch that sat in her mother's hospital room as she heard the door opening. A figure wearing a white jacket strode in with a handful of papers and no discernible expression on her face.

"Katherine Meyer?" Kaitlyn sat up straight to answer the doctor.

"I'm her daughter, I'm allowed to know." Kaitlyn responded. She still couldn't determine what kind of news the doctor was about to deliver. Her mother had been suffering through the middle stages of liver failure and was awaiting test results to see whether a liver donor was required.

"I'll come back later to talk to your mother myself, but it looks like she is going to need an immediate liver transplant. The scarring is too severe to treat." Kaitlyn fought back tears.

"But I-I'm not a match for her blood." Her voice cracked.

"Yes, your mother will be placed on the transplant list until a match becomes available." Kaitlyn wondered how someone could be so robotic in delivering news like this.

"But she needs one now." Kaitlyn couldn't help raising her voice slightly at the disappointing news.

"Until a match becomes available, which can take up to several months, your mother will have to be monitored closely and need to stay as healthy as possible, which means eating a balanced diet and cutting out alcohol completely. It looks like it'll be your job to make sure these things are carried out." The doctor looked at 20 year-old Kaitlin with almost a hint of sadness, but it disappeared quickly.

After the doctor left, Kaitlyn fast walked to the bathroom on the fourth floor and immediately starting crying in a stall.  Why couldn't she save her own mother? And how long would her mom last without a transplant? She was barely awake most of the time due to her illness, and when she was awake, she was nauseous and had no appetite. Other time, she was completely confused and called Kaitlyn by her brother's name.

Then it came to her. Her brother! He could possibly be their mother's donor and save her. Her older brother had been long gone. Right after college, he left for a manager position at a big technology company on the west coast. After their mother's long struggle with alcoholism, he didn't want anything to do with her. Kaitlyn decided to call anyway.

Surprisingly, the phone picked up.

"Hey Erik, it's Kaitlyn."  A long pause.

"What do you need?" he asked, sounding inconvenienced.

"It's Mom." Another long pause.

"You know I can't deal with her addiction anymore. I did for ten years and I refuse to put myself through it again."

"Erik, she's dying. Her only hope is a transplant and she's on the list for one but it might be months and I don't know if she'll last that long. Please, Erik, you might be able to save--" The dial tone sounded.

Kaitlyn sat down on the toilet and cried again. Erik was the only one who could save her in time and he had refused. Their mother was in so much pain and all he could think about was himself and her past mistakes. Now, their only hope was someone on the list.

------------------

Six months later, Kaitlyn sat in the same hospital, two floors up, helping her mom pack up her stuff to leave. Her mother ended up getting on the list, and an anonymous donor gave their liver a month and a half after calling her brother.



A/N
This story is based off of a story I found in Sacred Tales of India called "The Wife of Yama". So in the story, there's a brother and sister named Kausik and Bijaya. Kausik and Bijaya had performed a special ceremony to Parvati that gave them each one wish. Kausik had wished to be a king so it happened, and Bijaya asked to be the bride of one of the ghost beings from the land of the dead. She married Yama, the prince of death. One day, she was strolling through the forest and saw her mother among the souls suffering in hell (because of a sin her mother had committed), so she asked her husband to get her mother out of there. He said he could not, and her last hope was if Kausik, her brother, gave up his wish. He refused because he did not want to give up his throne. Eventually, Bijaya found a woman who also performed the ceremony and had one wish given to her. This woman was kind enough to give Bijaya's mother the wish and so her mother was released from hell.

I wanted to modernize the story, so I made "hell" a sickness that their mother was dying from due to her own choices in life. So, I chose Cirrhosis of the liver since alcoholism would put her at risk of liver failure. The estranged brother in my story represents Kausik, who was unwilling to leave his job on the west coast to give part of his liver to his own mother. The anonymous donor plays the role of the woman who, although she didn't know Bijaya's mother, gave her life anyway.

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India By Dwigendra Neogi. Link to reading guide.

For Liver info: Web MD

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India Reading Part B

A brother, Kausik, and sister wanted to do something to worship the goddess Siva and her husband Parvati, so they started taking care of a bull, which was Siva's favorite animal. Unfortunately, some thieves came and took the bull, so they went out looking for it. While in the forest, they met celestial beings doing a ceremony and the beings told them that the bull would come back if they  performed the Budhashtami ceremony on their own. Parvati was pleased with their sacrifice, so she granted them each a wish. The brother asked to be a king, and the sister asked to marry one of the celestial light beings in the forest. She ended up marrying Yama, the god of the dead. One day in the forest, she saw her own mother suffering in the equivalent of hell and asked Yama to save her mother. He said the only one who could was Gautami, a young woman who also performed the same ceremony. Her terrible brother refused to give up his throne to help their own mother!  a complete stranger, gave up her wish to help Bijaya's mother.

Chand fighting Padma, Dolls of India

Another interesting story from the section I read was from "Chand, the unbeliever". Mahadeo, god of earth, visited in human form and saw a woman of low caste but fell for her anyway. Their daughter was born completely full-grown. Bhagavati (Mahadeo's wife) sees a random woman walking alongside him and immediately feels jealousy, so she tears out one of Padma (his daughter)'s eyes. Padma and her new friend Neta met a millionaire named Chand. However, Chand didn't believe that Padma was the daughter of a god, so her refused to worship her. Padma ended up marrying Jaratkaru and had sons and daughters that were snakes. Padma sent her sons and daughters to bite Chand's children, but he still refused to worship her. She went on to even reincarnate her aspara couple friends as one of Chand's new children to try and convince him that he should worship Padma.


Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India By Dwigendra Neogi. Link to reading guide.

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India

Manasa, goddess of snakes, Wikipedia

Padma and reptilian animals are worshiped in the Manasa Ceremony, which falls at the beginning of the rainy season since reptiles start to infest most areas at that time.

Krisidhan was a rich farmer. He had seven wives and the youngest was Lahana. Her idea of a perfect day was to eat kol fish and then have no work to do the rest of the day. The fish turned out to be divine serpents, named Ahiraj and Maniraj. For a whole month, she fed the two snakes until food became scarce. Someone found them in the kitchen and in the store-house, so Lahana kept having to move the snakes. The two snakes went back to their mother, Manasa, and said they wanted to repay Lahana for her kindness by being her home. They came to get her by pretending to be her brothers, and along with them they brought a train of snakes carrying presents for Lahana. The cute part was that they basically forced a nearby king to be her father so that Lahana would have a home like the other wives.

The Savitri ceremony is based on a woman who technically was a princess, but made herself live in the forest to practice self-discipline. Savitri, when she was a young woman trying to find a husband, saw Satyaban and immediately fell in love. Her father tried to get Savitri interested in various princes, but she wanted this son of a hermit. However, the only problem is that Satyaban has been cursed to die within a year of marriage. Nevertheless Savitri wishes to marry him because she says that one day married to Satyaban is worth the lifetime a widow. The newlyweds are blissfully happy in the forest, though they have little of luxury. Satyaban has no clue that he has this curse on him. The day he is doomed to die, Savitri manages to convince the gods to not take her husband's life.

Bibliography: "The Divine Brothers", "Snatched from Death", "By Itu's Favor". Sacred Tales of India. Link to Reading

Reading Notes: "On the Track of Love" and "Indra Gets Caught"

Since I have included a small comment about Krishna in my Introduction for my storybook, I decided to focus on stories that included Vishnu or Krishna, who is one of Vishnu's incarnations. The first story I read about Vishnu was called  "On the Track of Love". Some background about Vishnu--Radha is his main love interest when he is incarnated as Krishna, so she is the girl in this story. The other important character is Narada, who basically follows Vishnu around through spacetime, singing songs of love to Vishnu day and night. The story starts out with Narada becoming really jealous of a man called Muthu Mohan because he realizes that Krishna visits the hearts of all his followers, even this guy who only devotes 2 minutes per day to Krishna. Narada fancies himself as a better follower since he praises Krishna all day. To sort through his feelings, Narada recalls a time when Radha became similarly jealous. One night in a forest, Radha was invited to dance with Krishna. In the midst of dancing, she opens her eyes and notices that Krishna had multiplied himself so he could be with all the devotees present at the dance. She ran off, crying. Krishna had tried to explain to her the "Whole remains whole" aspect of being a god, but she couldn't forgive him. Narada remembers that Radha is human and cannot understand these things, but he has the choice to realize that Krishna must be present for all of his worshipers. Narada later asks Krishna why Muthu Mohan was such a great devotee of his. Krishna explains that even a second spent with him is eternity. So when Muthu was spending 2 minutes a day of his busy schedule to pray, he was completely present, which is something that Narada did not do.

Narada Visits Krishna, Pinterest 

The other story I read was called "Indra Gets Caught". In it, Indra is trapped in Ravana's dungeon and calls Brahma to help him escape. It was really beautiful to read because the dialogue switched between Indra's sad complaints and Brahma's calm reassurances. Brahma tells him to let go of the anger he has, since that is imprisoning him more than the chains are. Eventually, with some persuasion, Indra focuses on meditating to find a way out of the dungeon and is surprised to find himself free again.

Bibliography: Ganesha Goes to Lunch by Kamla K. Kapur.

Week 8 Growth Mindset

                                                   Image: Pinterest 

In looking at the chart of growth mindset dimensions, I've made my own list of weaknesses and strengths:

Weaknesses:

-Doing the minimum

-Focusing on Grades instead of learning

-Thinking I cannot improve

-Doing things at the last minute

-Comparing myself to others

Strengths:

-Finding motivation inside myself

-Choosing what's hard (if it interests me)

-Being willing to learn from mistakes

-Asking lots of questions

-Taking risks

This class has helped me realize that I am willing to take more risks, like with my writing, than I am used to. Writing is a very personal thing, and being brave enough to post stories on topics that matter to me has been an experience that has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone. One thing I'm going to start working on for Indian Epics is doing the minimum. I want to start doing the extra credit options each week. I'll start with just one extra per week and hopefully do more as the semester progresses. Another thing I want to work on is doing assignments at the last minute. We all made a schedule at the beginning of the semester on how we wanted to split our work up for the week and I have not been good about sticking to mine. Instead of working on Monday mornings on readings, I've been sleeping in. Indian Epics has also helped me to stop comparing my work to other students'. Reading other people's stories has helped me realize that everyone has a unique way of thinking and writing, and we can't possibly compare them. 

Week 8 Reflections

I haven't missed a reading yet, and I've tried to stay away from summarizing the plot of each reading, which really helps when it comes time to write the weekly story. In looking back at my reading notes, it looks like writing about places being described was my favorite thing about the Ramayana, whereas with the Mahabharata, the parts that captured my attention were the little story lines that each character had. For example, I took notes on the story where Shantanu and Ganga fell in love and Ganga kept throwing her babies in the river and then another note on Satyavati's story. Overall, I think I'm doing pretty well transitioning from my reading notes to storytelling, since I really only write about details that make me think or parts that I liked. The Mahabharata and Ramayana have been fun to read, but my favorite "readings" so far have been watching the short films that the professor has posted as options, like the "Mahabharata Epified" and "Sita Sings the Blues". I'm excited for weeks 9-14 because I've checked out "Ganesha Goes to Lunch" and read a couple of stories already from it, but now I'll be able to delve into some deities that we haven't really covered yet in the two epics we've studied so far in class. I also want to look at "Hindu Legends" and "Fables of Bidpai".

I have been pretty happy with how my stories have turned out. I've noticed that, with the exception of my second story about Thataka's beginning, I draw inspiration from modern everyday life. Settings for my stories have been poverty-ridden towns, boring cubicle farms, biology laboratories, and college classrooms. I love how ancient Indian epics have timeless lessons and themes that can be applied to any setting. In the weeks left, my goal for storytelling is to explore dialogue. I don't usually add a lot of dialogue to my stories because I'm afraid it won't sound natural, so I'm trying to read more of other people's stories to see how they make modern dialogue sound.

 I am happy with my choice of doing a storybook. Although my storytelling collection could be used in a portfolio, I wanted to start a fresh project that would allow me to be creative and add some humor to Indian epics.

  Sometimes I see some things that I want to avoid in my future stories by looking at other peoples' blogs. This goes beyond simple grammar mistakes. I'm talking about mistakes like not adding enough detail or not using colorful and interesting words. Sometimes, stories don't flow very well and as a result you can lose interest fast. Other students are continuously impressing me with their creativity in this class. I've seen some great examples of suspenseful and funny stories that have inspired me to try and recreate the same mood.


Image: QDT

Story: Little Gray Dots

Dr. Adams was declining as a researcher. Although he had previously had many good ideas in the past, he hadn't been published in nearly a decade and would have been fired had he not already received tenure. Ten years ago, he was known around the world for his research in cell growth that was used to study cancer tumor growth, but his spring of ideas had quickly run out. One night as he was looking at old science books that he used to love. The flawed experiments from the 1800s where flies were thought to spring from slices of old raw meat caught his eye. 

"Something out of nothing," he whispered to himself. His spark suddenly came back. He started formulating a similar experiment that could be capable of creating completely different cells from tissue. It would be reminiscent of the old experiments he had read about, except in his version, it looked like actual living things might be capable of growing in his petri containers. Months of research later, he created a special serum that would hopefully grow into a strain of bacteria. He was careful to make sure that the serum contained no living cells. The petri dishes were cleaned and sterilized to ensure the same condition. He put the serum into the containers one night and waited for something to grow. Throughout the months, the containers were kept closed off from the outside world. To create a control group, he made some of the petri containers transparent, and some coated with black paint to keep light out. 

The transparent containers started to grow impressive colonies of living cells. Most were brightly colored and the colonies created beautiful, symmetric shapes in the dishes. Dr. Adams gazed with wonder at his new life. Photographers came to document his success, and other scientists began to try and develop a similar experiment. Finally, it came time to check the black-painted dishes. These cells were completely different than the others. The cells were a light gray color and only a few sporadic colonies were found inside the dishes. 

Now, the testing began. The colorful bacteria were distributed throughout the world to leading biologists, but Dr. Adams kept the light gray bacteria to himself. He had a peculiar feeling about them. It might have even been fear. Over several years, the colorful strains ended up being used in medicines since they were found to have unique qualities that attacked other bacteria. 

After several years of keeping the gray strain out of the public, scientists were beginning to get impatient. One night, a young grad student of Dr. Adams broke into lab after hours and stole a small sample. He sold pieces of the sample to biologists around the world. Unfortunately, the grad student was not careful in handling the sample. Before any research could be done on the gray strain, the student became violently ill one day. In turn, his roommates showed similar symptoms. Soon, the mysterious illness spread to the whole campus before the government could do anything to stop the spread. 

Dr. Adams was furious at the breach in security. He and a team struggled to develop a vaccine. A week after the first death, they were successful. The day after that, the government came to lock up the remaining samples of the strain. Dr. Adams watched as the innocent-looking, gray dots that he was responsible for creating were placed in an air-tight box by hazmat-wearing officials. 

A/N

The story that interested me this week was the story from the Mahabharata of the king and queen who wanted children, so they created them out of lumps of flesh from the gods that they put into 100 vats of oil. They noticed that the firstborn son that was born in this manner, Duryodhana, seemed more evil than a normal child. It turns out that he actually was, and was responsible later for the war against Arjuna. I tried to create a parallel with the world of scientific research. 

Bibliography: Mahabharata Epified Part B

Image: Wikimedia Commons 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Epified

For this week's Mahabharata reading, I chose to watch thee "Epified" Mahabharata video parts A and B for Monday and will watch C and D for Tuesday. I personally found it easier to follow the story when it was being illustrated in real time. Details that I might have missed in the public domain edition were much easier to pay attention to in the video. For example, I wrote last week that I was having trouble following why Ganga had to throw her babies into the ocean. The video did a great job of explaining how there were celestial spirits that Ganga had promised to help. The spirits were being punished by being forced to live as mortals for eternity, so she agreed to birth them and kill them to free them from mortality.

Another part that made more sense was Devavrara stealing the three princesses. I was initially confused why he stole them in the first place, but thanks to the clear explanation and illustrations, it made sense that he wanted his brother to have wives and children so that an heir would come about soon.

From Part B, a part that was confusing for me in the PDE version also made better sense. This part was the lump of flesh that they split into a thousand pieces and put into one thousand vats of oil to make children. It seems like the Indian version of Frankenstein, so it wasn't surprising that the first born child was sort of demonic.

Overall, I believe that being able to follow the illustrator as he/she draws the epic is not only a creative idea for a short film series, but also makes it easier for readers to follow the epic. The PDE and the film are very similar, but the easier language of the video and the pictures really add a new dimension to the Mahabharata.


Bibliography: Epified Mahabharata

Image: Facebook 

Story: The Ultimate Question

Draupadi couldn't remember then last time she had gone to bed before three in the morning. She worked 30 hours a week (and she still needed more money) and balanced that with classes somehow. After an afternoon of working at a local company, she spent her remaining hours on schoolwork. Her friends were whoever sat next to her in class. She wasn't always in this predicament. Another classmate she had befriended last year had taken the scholarship she depended on for money. Draupadi and Yudhishthira had been chatting one day before class when Draupadi mentioned that she had made a much higher grade on their statistics test than Duryodhana had.

"What did you make on that test last week?"  Yudhishthira had asked Draupadi.

"I made an A, what about you?" Draupadi responded.

"I also made a pretty good grade." Draupadi nodded and said,

"Most people did really well. Those people who made lower than an A should probably just drop the class, honestly." Unfortunately, Duryodhana had been sitting behind them.

"How did you do, Duryodhana?" Draupadi asked.

"I made a C." Yudhishthira and Draupadi started snickering. A few people from around the lecture hall looked over. That was the moment that Duryodhana, exhausted from sleep deprivation and motivated by his competitive nature, vowed to get back at Draupadi for insulting him.

Duryodhana worked all semester to make better grades than everyone else. He stole answer keys and even e-mailed professors for extra work, telling them that he had terrible circumstances that made him more deserving than the other students. He applied for the same scholarships as Draupadi, giving a sob story to the scholarship donors so that he could receive what she depended on.

Now, Draupadi was suffering through the worst year of her life without the money she needed. Often she would call home in tears, asking why good things happen to people like Duryodhana. I mean, everyone knew he cheated on tests and copied homework. Her parents had no answer except that she should persevere and forgive Duryodhana, but that was too difficult for Draupadi. She thought back on her life before the ordeal. She had time for friends, extra money for eating out sometimes, and at least 8 hours of sleep every night. It was a dream. Now, she was getting four hours of sleep per night. Her friends had eventually stopped inviting her to functions when they realized that she would never say yes. Duryodhana continued to do well in school so the professors all liked him and recommended him for special projects and internships. All the students, meanwhile, knew how he had achieved his status. Everyone knew he was a cheater, but it didn't matter. Duryodhana continued to prosper, while Draupadi and her friends suffered. Though all of this, she just had one question for life or fate or whoever controlled the universe: Why did the evil do well while the good suffered?


A/N
I wrote this in response to reading about Draupadi's moment of despair in the forest with the Pandava brothers. She is thinking back to how the evil Duryodhana, who tried to make her his slave, is now prospering, while her and the brothers, who are good people, are stuck in the forest. She remembers how she used to have such a luxurious life-- full of beautiful clothing, good food and a comfortable bed. Now, she's in a forest--wet, sleeping on the ground, and merely surviving. She asks Yudhishthira why the evil prosper. This question comes up a lot even in our lives. We wonder why the bad people around us are doing so well while we suffer. I connected a lot with Draupadi's question and decided to make a parallel story in which Draupadi and Duryodhana were students. I like to write what I know, so that's what I did.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata 

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part D

The last part of the epic concerned the war that the Pandava brothers are still waging. I'm going to be completely honest; reading about people fighting can be extremely boring. It is difficult to remember which person chopped off whose head, and which person has a new problem with another. So, in writing my notes, I only wrote about specific people who stuck out to me. The first part that seemed really dramatic was  Abhimanyu's death. He was killed "like a forest lion surrounded by hunters" which really conjured up a picture. After hearing about how his son was killed, Arjuna vows to avenge his death.

At least there was one, not exactly funny, but witty moment to give the reader a break from all the dying and killing. The part where Bhima tries to convince Drona that his son Ashwatthaman had died by saying over and over "Ashwatthama (the elephant) is dead" was actually kind of funny, since it was actually an elephant by the same name that was killed. And Bhima just kept saying "the elephant" really quietly after saying Ashwatthama's name. Of course, it wasn't funny that an elephant died, just funny that he found a way to tell the truth.

The only part of the battle that seemed to make sense was the dramatic match up between Arjuna and Karna. Rules of battle came into play several times during their fight. At one point, Arjuna's celestial bow was broken and so he begged for a pause in the battle. Karna refused. So later, when Karna's chariot broke, and HE needed a pause, Arjuna refused as well, and ended up killing Karna. I thought it was interesting that Arjuna wanted to allow the pause, but his advisor Krishna made him reconsider having mercy on Karna, since he was responsible for Draupadi's harsh treatment and Abhimanyu's death.

On a random note, I wished that they went into more detail about the jewel on Ashwatthaman's forehead, like what it did and what they stole it to use it for.

The last part of the reading really captures the imagination. The scene of all the fallen warriors coming back to embrace their living relatives was magical. Wives were even allowed to go back with their dead husbands if they wanted to. The moment of dawn when the dead had to return to heaven was beautiful to imagine.

Vyasa summons the dead warriors: Wikimedia

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata 

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part C

A common plot element that carried over from the Ramayana was exile. In this story, the Pandava princes and Draupadi (who follows them) are exiled into a forest for 12 years. They suffer through bad conditions, but also see really beautiful parts of the land. At one point, Draupadi has a little breakdown because she realizes that she was living so well back in the city being royalty, and now has nothing except grass to sleep on and rags to wear. She brings up a common complaint among us non-storybook people: Why do bad people prosper and good people suffer? This part really captured my attention because anyone could relate to having it really well and then having it all taken away. She ends up getting really angry about the exile, ad has to be calmed by Yudhishthira. He explains how anger makes it worse, and that she needs to embrace forgiveness instead. I liked their dynamic conversation because it sounded like any friends comforting another when something does not seem fair.

                                           Image: Wikipedia

The other part of the exile that I liked reading about was Indra's celestial city, Swarga, in the clouds (there were even cloud spirits who took Arjuna there). It was such an interesting and unexpected twist that Arjuna's "punishment" was to stay in Indra's city and live among the street dancers and singers as a nobody. And he goes straight from this weird life of dancing to battling demons. For my story this week, I think it would be fun to explore this time in Arjuna's daily life.

The last part I will talk about is the contrast between Duryodhana and Arjuna. Many times in the story, their actions are compared, and eventually it is revealed that Arjuna usually makes the wiser choice. He's also less self-absorbed, which makes him seem more favorable to the readers. The choice between Krishna and the army was interesting to read about. It is similar to a part in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, in which the main character has to choose which chest to open-- the gold, the bronze, or the lead. If he chooses the correct chest, he is allowed to marry the King's daughter. The obvious choice would be the gold chest, since it is prettiest right? Well, it's actually the lead chest. In reading this part of the Mahabharata, I think that Krishna is the equivalent of the lead chest.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata

Story: The Proposal

Image: Wikimedia Commons

There was a young girl named Satyavati and she lived with a fisherman who had adopted her. As she grew up, she became the prettiest girl in small fishing town they lived in. Her father was poor, and hoped for a marriage proposal to come from a rich king from out of town. Soon, a king named Shantanu came from the mainland to see her. As his boat approached the shore where she stood, he saw her and immediately fell in love with her beauty. However, the closer he came, the stronger the fish smell became.

“why is the smell of fish becoming stronger as we leave the ocean?” Shantanu questioned his servant. The servant, perplexed, guessed that it was the fish that the fisherman was keeping by the shore. Shantanu became more and more infatuated with Satyavati as the boat grew nearer to the shore. However, the smell also became worryingly stronger. As he stepped out of the boat and kissed Satyavati’s hand, he realized that the strong smell emanated from her. At once, he shouted to Satyavati’s fisherman dad,

“Where are the fish kept?!”

Like a madmad, the king ran to the area outside the home where fish were kept in large containers of chilled water. The smell became weaker.

“Is this all the fish?” he demanded of the fisherman.

“That is all we have,” the fisherman answered.

As he walked nearer to where Satyavati stood smiling, he realized that she was the source, not the fish. He looked longingly at her beautiful face, but he could not overlook her odor.

“I cannot go through with this.” The king said solemnly. He and his advisors and servants packed up their belongings and returned to the mainland. As they left, Satyavati stood by the shore, her eyes following the boat as it disappeared into the sunset.

“Why not me?” she sobbed over and over. “Why can’t he love me?”

She knew that her smell was difficult to accept. Her own father, who sold fish for a living, could sometimes not bear to be near her because her smell was stronger by far than the actual fish.

She sat in a shallow part of the water, continuing to cry to the ocean. But then it answered.

“Why are you crying?”

“He doesn’t want to marry me!” She was now crying so hard she could barely breathe.

The ocean answered again.

“I have heard you crying for many hours here. I am aware of your plight. I was meaning to ask why you are crying when many are waiting to make you their wife.”

She looked out into the ocean and then looked behind her at the home where her family was eating dinner, looking for the body that belonged to the voice.

“You are looking in the wrong direction.”

She looked down at the water and saw a beautiful fish right below the surface of the shallow water.

“There are many below the sea who wish to marry you. They have seen your beauty and have been captivated by your fragrance. All you have to do is come with me and I will lead you to our kingdom in the water.

Satyavati looked back at the fisherman’s house. She didn’t want to leave her family, but she didn’t want to cause them more pain. She dived into the water and followed the brilliantly colored fish to the kingdom. 

A/N

Background: Satyavati actually was the daughter of a fish, but was adopted by a fisherman. She had a fish smell until she promised a I wanted to write a story about Satyavati because her smell seemed like a curse (like from a princess movie). I wanted to make a story where her smell wasn't taken away because she saved herself for the sati, but rather it was celebrated by fish. 

Bibliography: Mahabharata Public Domain Edition