Storytelling for week 10: Surya and Sangna

(Surya and Sangna)

Surya and Sangna

 

There once was a God named Surya. He was known as the God of light. Whenever he wished it, his form would be a bright light. Surya was blessed with a great strength, physical appearance, and kingdom. He had everything except someone to share it with. Surya was tired of being alone. He went on a journey to find a bride that will stand beside him as he traveled the heavens and the world casting light everywhere he went. 

In a faraway land, lived a maiden named Sangna. Sangna was known for her great beauty. She was daughter of a skillful but poor architect. She was not of noble birth. 

Surya noticed Sangna from a distance and was taken aback by her beauty. He instantly fell in love with her and had to have her. Knowing her lower social status, Surya did not want to scare her so he approached her as a commoner – like her. Upon meeting Surya, Sangna immediately fell in love as well. With the blessing of her father, Surya and Sangna got married. She bore him three children.

After some time though, Surya could not hide the fact that he was a god and could make himself light up as bright as the sun any longer. He revealed his secret to Sangna. Sangna seeing his bright form was taken back by it. She saw herself as incredibly inferior. Feeling like she did not deserve to be Surya’s wife, Sangna planned to runaway the very next morning before Surya woke up and replace herself with some like her – hoping that it will fool Sangna. 

Surya woke up and found himself next to a woman who looked like Sangna but was not actually her. The imposter did not fool Surya. Once he found out that the woman lying next to him was not actually Sangna left to find his real wife. 

Surya looked everywhere but had not luck. After several weeks, Surya finally found Sangna near a beautiful river. He begged her to come back by telling her how much he loved her and wanted her to come back and be his wife again. Sangna would not give in. She told herself that she could not live with someone so extraordinary when she was so ordinary. Surya prayed to the gods hoping that they would help. The gods heard his prayer and answer his prayers by giving Sangna the power to light up her form as well. Now Sangna and Surya are equal. 

Author's Note:

My story is based on the story of Surya from the public domain of Krishna. I kept the major points such as Surya weds Sangna and then Sangna runs away. Surya then chases after her. I kind of changed her reasoning for running away though. In the story Sangna runs away from Surya because her eyes were too weak and tender to bear the light of Surya but in my story Sangna runs away because she feels inferior to Suryan. 

"Surya" from Tales of Ancient India. Cox. Tales of Ancient India: Krishna and the Gods (1887). Web source: Public Domain.

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Krishna

I read the second half of Cox. Tales of Ancient India: Krishna and the Gods and really enjoyed it. I liked how it did not focus on just one character but several characters. One of my favorite chapters was Surya. This chapter was obviously about the God Surya. Surya is described as God of life and life. He was brave and strong. Eventually he went out and sought a bride. He found Sangna. They wedded and she bore him 3 sons. Sangna was weak and tender and therefore could not tolerate Surya's bright light form so she left him by replacing herself with Chhaya. She had Chhaya fool Surya into believing that she was Sangna but Surya did not fall for it. Instead he went after Sangna. he eventually found her and pleaded her to come back. Sanga eventually gave in and came back to him.

Another story that I enjoyed was Rama. The story begins by introducing King Dasarath. King Dasarath is described as a wise and loving king. Everybody loved him. Although King Dasarath was wealthy in many aspects of his life he was not wealthy in children. He prayed to the Gods that one of his wives would bore him a son. His prayers were answered. Rama is then introduced as the son of King Dasarath. He was the eldest of King Dasarath's son therefore was next in line to be king. King Dasarath also had another son named Laxman. Laxman and Rama were best friends. They truly loved each other. Rama eventually married Sita. He did so by winning her in a competition that no one could accomplish. He shot an arrow with ease.

(Surya and Sangna)

Reading Diary A: public domain Krishna and the Gods

I read the first half of Cox. Tales of Ancient India: Krishna and the Gods. I really enjoyed it. A couple of chapters that I really enjoyed reading was How Krishna Stole the Milk and Slew the Demons. In this chapter, Krishna steals milk and is eventually gets caught and punished.

Another story that I enjoyed was the story of how How Rukmini Became the Bride of Krishna. . In this chapter, there is a maiden named Rukmini. She is described to very beautiful. Her beauty was talked about all across the world. She was set to get married to Shishupal even though she did not want to. She really did not have any choice. Her only option was to call out the God Krishna. Krishna heard Rukmini's prayers and replied that he would save her. This put her at ease. Krishna tried to take Rukmini away but had to face an army before he could. There was not way that only Krishna could have created this army but because of his strong love for Rukmini, anything is possible. Fortunately, Krishna was able to save Rukmini from a horrible married with Shishupal.

The only thing I wished about this story is that I wish that there were pictures. There are so many colorful indian pictures that could have been included. It would have been a nice visual aid. I am curious as to what Rukmini looks like. She is described as very beautiful. The story seems to emphasize her beauty a lot. It is just kind of hard to imagine so it would be nice to have an image to refer to.

(Pukmini)

Storytelling for Week 9: Radha and Krishna

Radha and Krishna 

Radha just started junior year of high school and was turning 16. “This year was going to be a great and momentous year” – she told herself in the morning. Radha met up with her friends. They caught each other up with what they did over the summer while walking to school. It was really like any first day of school. They saw some familiar faces and some not so familiar faces – it was a pretty big school. 

Being a junior meant that Radha would be taking some upper-division courses, which means that she may have some classes with seniors. Radha did not really think any of this. Until in her afternoon class a senior boy walked into her class and sat next to her. She could not take her eyes off of him. He had black waving hair and he smelled of jasmine. 

As the teacher of the class was calling out attendance, Radha waited and listened for his name. The teacher called out the name “Krishna” and the boy next to her responded “here.” So his name is Krishna. Radha could not think of a better name for the boy sitting next to him. Throughout the whole class they did not exchange one word. Radha was too shy to say anything anyways.

After the first day of school was finally over, Radha met up with her friends to walk back home. She used this opportunity to them all about Krishna. She talked all the way from school to her house. She really adored him. Her friends could tell how much Radha liked Krishna just based on her expression while she was telling them about him so they tried to give Radha some advice on how to them talking. They suggested pretending to need a pencil to borrow or needing help with the class homework. These all were good suggestions but it was a matter if Radha was willing to do them.

Weeks went by and still Radha and Krishna had not exchanged even one word. The longer Radha waited to talk to him the harder is getting the courage to talk to him. 

One day during class the teacher announced that she was going pair everyone up for project they must complete by the end of the semester. As the teacher was calling out the pairs, she said Radha’s name and to her surprised she also said Krishna’s name. It was destiny. This could quite possibly be the beginning of something amazing. 

(Radha and Krishna)

Author's Note: 

My story is loosely based on the poem "The First Passion of Radha" from the Coomaraswamy. Songs of the Love of Radha and Krishna. When first reading the original poem, it reminded me of a school girl crush. This inspired me to modernize the story. I kept the idea of how Krishna is superior to Radha. In the original story Krishna is a God this makes him superior to Radha. In my particular story I just made him into a senior which is still superior to Radha. She is only a junior. I also kept the  main idea that Radha adores Krishna. I just modernized it into a schoolgirl crush. I ended the story the way I did because I wanted the reader to make up his own conclusions of what happens next.

 "The First Passion of Radha" from coomaraswamy. Songs of the Love of Radha and Krishna by Bidyapati (1915). Web Source: Public Domain.

Reading Diary B: public domain Krishna

Although I really enjoyed the second half of Coomaraswamy. Songs of the Love of Radha and Krishna, it was a little harder to understand or translate. It was harder because there were more characters. In the first half it was mainly just Krishna and Radha but in the second half there are at least four characters. Having so many characters kind of confused me. I would get who is saying what mixed up.

Similar to the first half of the story, the second half had a lot of imagery as well. The detail and imagery set the romantic tone of the story.

While reading the chapter of the second half the story, Dalliance in Spring , I noticed that there were some rhyming. The rhyming helped to make the story more upbeat and interesting. I feel like the rhyming helped to make the story more fun and lighthearted. It also helped to make the song more well- structured.

Another chapter I enjoyed from this story was the Reunion after Wilfulness. From this chapter can tell that Radha is still deeply in love Krishna. The way she speaks, her choice of words, and the imagery she uses to describe her love for Krishna help to emphasize her love for him. One other chapter that I enjoyed reading was Reproaches, Lacak and Longing. In this chapter Radha defends Krishna. She defends why Krishna is her true love. She uses a lot imagery and detail to show how she feels for Krishna. From this chapter you can tell how much Radha admires, respects, and loves Krishna.

(Krishna and RAdha)

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Krishna

I read the Coomaraswamy. Songs of the Love of Radha and Krishna from the public domain of Krishna. These tellings were in a poetic format. Although I am not a huge fan of poetry, I really enjoyed reading the songs of the love of Radha and Krishna. My favorite thing about it was how detailed it was. It was filled with colorful imagery. The colorful imagery really set the romantic tone in the songs. A specific song that I really like was actually the first one: KRISHNA PURBBARAGA: The First Passion of Krishna. In this song Krishna describes his admiration for Radha. The length of his song really reflects his strong love for Radha. The imagery and details emphasizes his love for Radha as well. I was a little worried that I would not understand what I was reading just because it is in a poetic format but I felt I felt like I really understood it.

Another song that I enjoyed was RADHA PURBBARAGA: The First Passion of Radha. I like how they included Radha's point of view. It allows the readers to see that the love between Krishna and Radha is mutual. Although Radha's song is not as long as Krishna's, I felt like she loves Krishna just as much as he loves her. I believe so because in her song there is a lot of imagery and detail as well and I believe that they are reflections of her admiration for Krishna. Krishna is just a little more expresive than Radha.

(Krishna and Radha)

Famous Last Words: Week 8

Since we did not have reading this week, I am going to talk about the reading last week. The reading last week went well. I actually included one of the readings from last week into my portfolio – the story about the God Krishna’s childhood. I chose this story because it stood out to me the most. I found it very interesting and entertaining and it fit well into my theme for my portfolio. My theme for my portfolio is a gossip theme. The God Krishna endures a lot of turmoil and drama so it was not hard making him the main focus of my portfolio.
The best writing I did last week was in my Social Psychology. I do my best writing in this class because I have written many psychology papers and therefore have kind of mastered it. I did not say that my best writing was in this Epics of India because I am not a creative writer. It takes me awhile to think up of ideas.
I have read many great stories from my classmates. What made some of my classmates’ stories amazing was how they creatively modernized it. It made it more interesting and relatable. Sometimes it is hard to understand Indian epics just because the culture in it is foreign so when you make it more relatable to the reader it is easier to read and understand.
Things are going well in my other courses. Because I taking mainly science and psychology courses there are not a lot of similarities among them and my Epics of Indian course. The only connection I can form is that in my courses I am required to read chapters for my classes and take notes. The notes help me recall main points of the chapter. I do this in Epics of Indian as well. I take notes of the stories I read so that I can look back at it.

(Mahabharata)

Tech tip theme

I made a google site in a previous class but I never really new how to customize the theme on it. With this tech tip I decided to change the background color to gray. The original color of my site was white. Even though gray is not much of change, I believe it really made the site look better. It is not too plain or too extravagant. It still looks professional and clean.

My Google Site

Curation: Week 8

#curation

 I found this image below when trying to find images of the God Krishna. Even though I did not use this image in my previous stories, it stuck with me. I think it really portrays the majestic and rich tone of Indian epics.

(Indian Epics)

 While researching the God Krishna, I came across this website. It gave me a nice background to the God Krishna -- God Krishna.

I saw this image below on facebook and it made me laugh. It also made me think about his class and how we have proofread our stories and our peer's stories.

(Grammar)

Growth Mindset: Week 8

I did the editing challenge this week. In this challenge I was asked to shortened my writing. This was kind of difficult for me. I tend to write more than is necessary. My writing can be kind of wordy. I believe I write like this because I like to emphasize my ideas and to do that I like to repeat myself. Although this challenge was difficult, it was very beneficial. It taught me to be more concise and clear.

(words)

Reading Plan

My reading plan for the next 6 weeks is to continue on focusing on the God Krishna. My portfolio is going to be mainly about Krishna so by committing to stories about Krishna it will help me write my stories for my portfolio project.

(God Krishna)

Reflections: Looking Foward

Some new things I would like to try are having my friends read my storytelling or portfolio before I post it, reading more than what is required of me, and adding more style or formatting onto my blog. I think that by having my friends peer edit my posts, my posts and stories would be better grammatically and creatively. I enjoy all of the stories that I am reading so I kind of wish to reade more of it. Right now my blog is pretty plain. I want to maybe spruce it up a little. I believe that this will attract more readers.

(Read more)

Reflections: Looking Back

My favorite part of this class is reading my classmate's posts. I really enjoy reading their introductions. It hard to get know your classmates in an online class so the introductions really helped me to get an idea of who my classmates are. I also really reading my classmate's storytelling. I like reading and seeing how the story was changed. It really let's me see how creative my classmates are.

I generally do this online at my apartment. My schedule is pretty fast paced and hectic so when I do have time I am usually at my apartment. I like to use this time to work on this online class. This class does not really stress me out but rather it is kind of relaxing.

I also enjoy doing the storytellings. I feel like it is improving my creativity and writing. It is kind of fun making up your own stories.

(Reading)

Portfolio The Insider

Krishna's Birth
This story is about Krishna's family and how he escaped from his evil uncle.

 Yasoda: Foster Mother to Krishna 
This story is about Krishna's childhood and how his uncle continues to try to kill him.

Krishna the Go To God
This story is about how Krishna saves a child from the ocean and reunites him with his father, who is also Krishna's teacher. 

Krishna slays Kansa
This story is about what Krishna had to go through in order to finally slay Kansa.