As the Story Will Tell Itself: To Become the Mouth Which Holds the Universe

Somewhere there was a river where a mermaid named Satyavati reside d . She was born to a fish who caught the seed of a passing gandharva as it was looking up. Because she inherited her mother's tail instead of her father's legs, Satyavati was trapped in the river and had to find ways to lessen her boredom. Initially, she took to watching and listening to the people on the banks and crossing the river while hidden from a distance. One day the mermaid noticed some people who were struggling to cross. She wanted to help, but she was still afraid of people. It took her a bit, but she managed to overcome her anxiety and swam over to help them. From that day on, Satyavati took to ferrying people across the river. This did wonders to alleviate the mermaid's boredom, and she learned ever so much about the world beyond water. Then there came the fateful day when the rishi named Parashara appeared. He asked to be ferried across the river, and like she did to all of the others, sh...

It is so easy to forget who everyone is. There are so many names. It is also easy to forget that Dhritarashta is blind. How quickly did they manage to build their city of Indraprastha (Khandavaprastha)?? Write a sitcom about five brothers sharing a wife under one household getting voted "off the island" for thinking about her or intruding upon the current brother  Tell a story about 5 suitors. A lady cannot choose just one of them, so she chooses all of them. They are all like "Whaaaaaaa..?", and then they are okay with it. Is "bathing in holy waters" this time and place's equivalent of "taking a cold shower"? For twelve years at that? Tell a story of Draupadi's experience being married to five men Burning a whole forest to feed the animals killed in the fire to Agni? That is so cruel and strange. Why was the architect in or near the fire? Imagine the optical illusions not as wonders but instead as horrors like th...

Consider a story about Ganga and the drowning of 7 children - but how to transform such a story? Satyavati (lady who originally smelled like fish): turn her into a mermaid make her top half human, bottom half fish (or vice versa for comedic effect) retell "love" story between her and sage Kunthi has a pretty great power to be honest... Okay, but I do not think that rolling over causing an earthquake comes from strength; that just sounds like a heavy baby. Unless it was caused the force the initiates the roll... Is Kunthi actually enjoying this experience? It feels like she is being forced to pump out extraordinary kids for her husband. I know that is the attitude of the time, but it still seems unreasonable. There is no way Gandhari as a whole would remain intact, let alone be healthy, after bearing a hundred sons... Geez... It just hurts to think about. What if the hundred sons were combined into one person with the strength and skills of a hundred people? ...

There Sita sat beneath the ashok tree in Ashok Vatika. Earlier Sita had witnessed her dear husband fighting the terrible Ravana. Now the sounds of war outside the garden walls began to grow faint. Oh, joyous day , thought Sita, has my beloved Rama defeated that monster? The garden gates creaked open. Sita held her breath. In strode Rama, unscathed and all the more glorious from battle. Her heart leapt from her chest. She began to cry tears of joy. "Oh, Rama!" she cried. Sita got up and approached him with as much dignity as her happiness would allow. However, as she came closer, she noticed his demeanor. He had a frown on his face, a cold look in his eyes. This stopped Sita in her tracks. "My lord and love, why do you appear this way? The day is won. You have achieved all that you had set out to do. There is no reason to be so... this." Rama looked at Sita. His eyes pierced her like icy arrows into her soul and freezing her heart. "You are correct. I have...

"Dumpsville": that is harsh, man... Once again, the introduction animation sequence is pretty amazing! It is actually super trippy and cool! Rama kicks her out while she is pregnant?? He is really lucky about all the unrealisticness and deus ex-machina about his story because what he puts her through would not be good for their future children And if she proved her purity already, then he has no reason to suspect if she is not pregnant with his children! How do his subjects not know about her trial by fire? Why does watching or hearing someone else beat his wife (no matter if she was with another man) make him feel he must banish Sita? (And why let that man keep beating his wife? I know it is a different time, but still...) Even though it may have been part of the times, but Rama is a cold-hearted husband when he chooses to be And oh, man, that song "praising" Rama makes him look all the more like a jerk A dark, dark story of Rama being an abusive, gas...

The introduction animation and style are amazing... Everyone and everything are so shiny... Why are there clips of an American couple? Are they in some way supposed to mirror Rama's and Sita's relationship? Dasaratha tells his son to go away in a far less elaborate and personal way in this version.... Goofy-looking and -acting rakshasa Happy-go-lucky section of Sita and Rama leaving and going into the forest [Insert cheesy pun about how Rama shot a love arrow straight through Sita's heart] Also why is Rama depicted blue in everything? Is that some mark of divinity or just a way to set him apart from everyone else in artwork? Ravana was apparently a good king for some time? intelligent, talented, and a war master explore writing a story about how he became corrupted lotus, Lotus, LOTUS!  With all of the depictions of gods and people having multiple heads... Do they all share the same mind, or do they each have their own personality? if writing ab...

Link to my Storybook web page here . Please feel free to leave your comments and feedback here. Any and all are appreciated. Here is a link to the playlist that will contain all of the music used in the my storybook. The playlist is subject to grow and change as the stories are written and fleshed out. A music tree Web Source: draake thone on Pexels

Night had fallen. There in an abandoned warehouse in the Lanka district was Ravana surrounded by his most trusted friends. Earlier that week, a kid from the school's anime club was found trying to be heroic by sneaking around the lot and spying over Sita and them. In the process of trying to catch then chase him off, the kid managed to trash up their hideout. Ravana sat in his high spot brooding while fiddling with a pocket knife. "I cannot believe one nerd managed to mess everything up like this. Maybe we all need to just go find them all and teach them a lesson." One jock sitting with one leg pulled up to his chest and arm resting on that knee said, "No, Ravana! Don't sweat it, man! Let us go take care of it. There is no need for you to put yourself out there. I mean, I heard that Rama managed to 'unite' pretty much all of Panchavati High School's clubs plus some other people against us, but they are all just nerds. It should not be too much for...

Still continuing the thought of High School Rama Drama: Cut to a scene where Sita is being tortured and harassed by cheerleaders or another group along those lines  Ravana is hanging out in this abandoned warehouse with his posse receiving "counsel" from them ("They are just a bunch of weakling nerds. They can't do anything to hurt us.") Someone who is actually disillusioned by the group leaves being done being part of all the horrible things that they do and get away with to join Rama as an ally Montage of assembled army gathering and working in union to take down a bunch of bullies and the establishment Rama and Ravana facing off with spiked bats all across the warehouse battlefield Ravana trying to give himself an unfair advantage with a gun? Okay, but when you think about it, Sita has been in Ravana's possession for months, probably the whole time being watched and harassed by those female rakshasa. She has some incredible willpower if she h...

Consider actually continuing the story written from Week 3 High School Rama Drama Part 2 Ravana approaches Sita after school looking like a normal student instead of some jerk jock Ravana uses a ton of lame pick-up line that he legitimately thinks will work on her Ravana desperately flings Sita over his shoulder and kidnaps her A bodyguard that has been secretly watching over the trio this whole time sees this and tries to save Sita, but Ravana savagely beats him up with his brutish strength Rama and Lakshmana recruit a set of friends or allies to help look for Sita (could be some school clubs or the police) A rivalry among these clubs must be settled before any cooperation and search party can happen After scouring neighborhoods and streets, a club comes across a kind person wandering the streets (or maybe a Deep Throat or even an overly generous information broker) that tells where he or she saw Sita was taken An incredibly skilled member (or whatever he is) and friend of...

Starting out in this class was a little difficult. By that I mean all of the blogging was a bit draining on me. I am not used to writing so much in so little time, especially on an online medium. Even being creative for writing stories was a bit of a struggle. But now it is the end of week 3, and I can say that I am now getting into the groove of it all. Thank goodness. Now that I have been working out my brain in getting my thoughts and ideas out onto both paper and word processors, the whole processes have been flowing out with greater ease. I look back and think that writing the first two stories so far has been a blast! The ideas I was able to churn out and use just left me giddy and laughing for days. For anyone interested, here are links to my stories from Week 2 and Week 3 . My other classes amazingly are still quite slow in terms of everything. Given that they are all only two days a week, I suppose this is understandable. I will admit that I am a bit behind in the readings ...

The first article I read was Be a Mirror . One thing I found significant about this article was the mention of taking one's self out of feedback. I agree with the notion that by saying to someone "I think..." or "I like..." takes away from growth and thinking how to improve upon one's work. By saying this, a person is more likely in the future to direct his or her work towards meeting people's standards and approval more than anything else. Another significant point was to focus on what is there or how it got to that point rather than what is not there. By looking at some aspect that is missing, it may just be another way to discourage improvement or cause the person to work towards the approval of the one commenting. The second article I read was Presence, Not Praise . As many of these like to take from Carol Dweck, one thing to from this article is essentially not to praise based on an aesthetic quality, like intelligent or beauty, but rather hard wo...

First Story Idea : Saraswati must face off against the demon king Ravana for a yet to be determined reason. Instead of battling with brute strength, this is a battle through musical prowess. This could either be the first or the last story in the storybook, and this may take place in a time before the events of the Ramayana or in a different universe. Second Story Idea : Saraswati must gather together a band made up of some of other goddesses, like Durga (Parvati), Kali , maybe Lakshmi , and so on. Along with this, they would need to convince their husbands to allow them to use their associated instruments like Vishnu's conch ( shankha ) and Shiva's damaru . This could be either the first or second story. Third Story Idea : The band faces off against a group of demons consisting of Mahishasura , the brothers Sumbha and Nisumbha , Raktabija , and maybe Ravana in a battle of the bands kind of situation. This could be either the second or last story. For whichever story ...

It was a bright, new a day at Panchavati High School. In the distance, a trio was approaching the school: Rama, our good-looking Marty Stu ; his sweetheart, Sita; and his faithful, anger-prone brother, Lakshmana. Previously, they had been attending the Adyodhya School for Incredible Individuals, but unfortunate circumstances forced Rama's father, Principal Dasaratha, to transfer Rama and his companions to Panchavati. This day was their first day there. Immediately, Rama and Sita became heartthrobs for everyone at the school. This was not a problem, as the two were used to this from their previous school, and it made adjustment for the trio a bit easier. However, there was Kamavalli, the queen bee of the school, who was beyond smitten with Rama. One should note that while Kamavalli was outwardly sweet and reasonable, she had a tendency to be devilishly vicious and destructive like her even more fearsome brother, Ravana. This earned her the nickname Shurpanakha. She was alone the...

Chapter 4 : Imagine an alternate story where Kamavalli/Soorpanaka actually managed to trick and steal away Rama by some spell (or maybe in a way along the lines of a succubus in a dream?), and Sita must brave through (maybe with help from Lakshmana) to break the spell and save Rama Perhaps the before mentioned scenario but where Lakshmana is the victim (or both he and Rama)? Re-imagine the whole scenario as a petty high school drama: Hot bad-boy Rama is new to the block with his super sweet wife/girlfriend Sita and his brother Kamavalli/Soorpanaka vies for his attention (Ra-rama-senpai...) With no luck she tries to sobotage/humiliate Sita, but Lakshmana discovers this and turns the tables Being humiliated instead, Soorpanaka sics the jocks and other jerks in her posse on the trio, but Rama beats them up Chapter 5 : Why is anyone who comes across someone who is beautiful, attractive, or something along those lines reduced to a state of either hopeless moping or outward...

Chapter 1 : The sage Viswamitha comes to King Dasaratha to ask to take Rama to help him with a yagna (Rama nor his brother are present) What if Dasaratha was adamant about not letting Rama go (maybe have Rama be there during the exchange), and Rama and his brother sneak out on their own or with the help of the sage instead? The scenes are vividly described; painted like pictures come back to desert description on page 11 (location 461) for example  What if the sage could be some crazy but powerful/smart old man along the lines of Rick from Rick and Morty He could sneak Rama out by way of strange or unreasonable mean s He could help Rama and his brother deal with the desert first by insulting them for not being able to tolerate the heat and drought and then "reluctantly" giving them aid  In reference to Rama being iffy about killing the female demon, Thataka: "She's a bureaucrat, Rama! She's not a person!" (really just a demon) Rama figh...

I am plagued with an anxiety of presenting my work and what kind of feedback I could get from said work. The article 6 Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success highlights 3 issues that I know that I have: "believing self-doubt",  "putting yourself down", and "second-guessing yourself". I am especially guilty of second-guessing a lot of the work that I do, like writing blog posts for this class. I put too much effort into thinking what I am trying to convey and then worrying about whether it would be taken the wrong way or just not being my best writing. This then ties into putting myself down and believing self-doubt. Such leads to the need to Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head . I tend to ignore or doubt most of the positive feedback or comments I receive. I focus on what is wrong with my work and ask for how to fix or improve that. It is easy to forget that you need to actually hear the positives as well and how to play those as strengths. My ...

The Deva and Devi . I am not familiar with the Indian gods and goddesses, yet the more I have been doing research over topics to write about this semester, the more my interest grows in this area. From the storytelling research, I feel I am definitely interested in writing about Saraswati . I plan on going to the library try to find her comic book soon. I noticed that she is also a goddess of music and is depicted with a vita. This gave me an idea where Saraswati would form a band that has the power to defeat demons. I'm not sure if I could implement this idea, but I'm sure it would be a fun one to try. Animals . I find learning about the significance about certain animals across different cultures fascinating, and Indian culture is no exception (even though I know nothing about this either). What are especially interesting are the divine mounts and other animals associated with the gods and goddesses: Airavata , Indra's elephant; Garuda , Vishnu's eagle; the swan an...