Topics

     Some possible topics that I am interested in are Gods/ Goddesses, romantic stories, war, and adventure. I am interested in the topics of Gods/ Goddesses because I am curious as to how these Gods compare to other Gods from different cultures. I took Latin in high school and in this class we learned about mythology. And if you know anything about Latin mythology there are a lot of Gods. I am curious to how Indian Gods compare to the Roman/ Greek Gods. The research I did for this topic consisted of googling it, looking into it on Wikipedia, and other websites.

   I have always like romantic stories. I am kind of a romantic. What I am most interested about this topic is learning about the Indian culture through it. I believe that having “romance” as a topic, it will not only be entertaining and enjoyable but it will also give me a glimpse into the Indian culture and how this particular culture deals with love. I do not know much about this topic other than what I have recently researched but I look forward to learning more about it and writing about it. The extent of research consist of Wikipedia and past storybooks.

     The third topic that I am interested in is war. I have always been fascinated with war. Some of my favorite movies and books are actually about war. I do not much about war within the Indian culture so I hope that by choosing this as a topic it will help me learn about it. I wish to learn about how the Indian culture fought, the way dealt with conflict, and what countries or people they were at war with. During my research I found some stuff about from Wikipedia but not much. Hopefully, I will find more stuff as I progress through this course.

    The final topic that I am considering is adventure. I would say that I can be pretty adventurous sometimes or try to be. This is why I included adventure as one of my topics. The research I did for this topic was looking at past storybooks. I actually found several storybooks dealing with adventure. For instance, there was this one storybook that had a travel journal theme. I thought that this was clever. You can do a lot with this theme. Another story book that caught my eye was the one about Himalayas.

(Hindu God and Goddess)

   

Storytelling for week 2: The Deal

(Ayodhya

The Deal

    Once upon a time, there was a King named Dasharatha. He ruled over the capital of Koshala, Ayodhya. Aydohy is known for its wide streets and extravagant homes. King Dasharatha had everything that he could ever want. He ruled over a wealthy kingdom. He lived in a beautiful palaces that was surrounded by gardens that were numerous in birds, exotic flowers, and fruit trees. And his people loved him.

    Although King Dasharatha appeared to be happy, if one was to look closely one could see that he really wasn’t. He and his queen have been married for several years yet they do not have a child or an heir. This saddened Dasharatha. Despite his riches, he felt unfulfilled without a child.

   One night while everyone was sleeping, a magical fairy godmother visited King Dasharatha. The godmother heard King Dasharatha’s prayers and she came to answer his wishes. The Godmother promised the King a son on one condition – he must decree that fairies are equal to humans as soon the child is born. Now, in the kingdom of Adohy fairies were looked down upon. They were nothing but pest to humans. King Dasharatha excited about the new of possibly getting a son readily accepted the Godmother’s deal.

   Once the child was born, King Dasharatha was overjoyed. He was so happy and overcome by his son he forgot about his promise the fairy godmother. This angered the godmother so much that she approached the king and placed a curse on the child: if he does not find true love by his 18^th birthday he shall die.

    It was almost the king’s son’s 18^th birthday. The King Dasharatha has been trying to find a fair maiden for him but the son turned down every girl. He did not love any of them. This made the king anxious for he never told his son his fate if he does not find love by his 18^th birthday because he did not want to scare and upset him.

   One day the king’s son was wandering through the forest and came upon a beautiful young fairy. The king’s son was raised to stay away from the fairies but the king’s son was so taken aback by the fairy’s beauty he could not help but introduce himself. It was love at first sight. Because of King Dasharatha’s detest for the fairies, they kept their love a secret.

   It was the day before the king’s son’s 18^th birthday. King Dasharatha could not sleep that night at all for tomorrow his son will die because he has not found love yet.

   It was finally the day of his son’s birthday. King Dasharatha entered his son’s room and was astonished to find that his son was still alive. He asked his son “how this was possible?” He went on to explain how a fairy godmother put a curse on him. The son then went on to explain how he had fallen in love with a fairy. The King was upset by this at first but he was too happy by the fact that his son was alive he did not care that his lover is fairy. Eventually the son and the fairy married and because of their marriage the humans and fairies lived in peace and equally. 

Author’s note:

I really enjoyed reading the “King Dasharatha.” I decided to intertwine some fairytales into my version of “King Dasharatha.” I kept how the king was wealthy but not happy because he did not have an heir. In the reading “King Dasharatha,” the king gets a son through a long ritual. I changed this in my story. I was inspired by the traditional fairy tales, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Therefore I intertwined “Cinderella” and Sleeping Beauty” into my story. Instead of having a damsel in distress, the prince needed the saving in my story. I thought this change would be interesting for the reader. I ended the story by making everyone happy. The king is happy because his son did not die, the son is happy because he found the love of his life, and finally the godmother is also happy because now the fairies and humans are finally at peace.
The reason I chose the picture that I chose was because I wanted a picture that represented the essence of the story, which was money does not buy happiness. King Dasharatha, had money, power, land, and authority but he still was not happy. This picture depicts a beautiful kingdom but behind all that beauty is sadness.

"King Dasharatha" from Ramayana (1913). Web Source: Public Domain Edition Ramayana