Reading Notes; Babbitt's More Jataka Tales, Part B

How the Monkey Saved His Troop
This story showed true dedication and loyalty; when I read it I thought of Harry Potter and the loyalty that everyone shows Dumbledore. The protagonists are always comforted when Dumbledore says something uplifting and doesn't panic. He also always seems to know how to save them so in my head it kind of related!

The Hawks and Their Friends
This reminded me of the Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer story. There were four sets of animals helping each other and were always there for each other. If I were to rewrite this story, I might combine it with the Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer tale and have both groups be enemies, maybe?

The Stolen Plow
I really liked this story because it reminded me of Akbar Birbal short stories/fables. The way the trader figured out that the other trader had sold his plow and announced it in the court was amusing and reminded me of other short stories I've read. 

The Lion in Bad Company
Wow, this story was really interesting to me. The theme of it was very relatable to today's world and how good people sometimes get caught up in bad habits or in a group of friends with bad influences. If I were to rewrite this story, I would change the setting to OU or just the United States in general.

Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals
I like how this story was all about being respectful, patient, and humble. It immediately made me think of Kendrick Lamar's song "Humble" and maybe I can rewrite the story as what inspired Kendrick Lamar to write the song.

Source: The loyal relationship between the elephant and the dog in one of Babbitt's stories.

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales, Part B.

Reading Notes; Babbitt's More Jataka Tales, Part A

The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls
This story depicted a monkey who was too prideful for her own good. When the other monkeys were pitying her for not having glass beads, she immediately revealed herself and the pearls she stole in order to look superior. If she hadn't said anything, she may have never been caught! This reminds me of the other Jataka tale with the turtle who talked too much for his own good, so I could possibly do another rewrite with this same theme.

The Three Fishes
I liked that the fishes' name were based off of their personalities; it made the plot of the story flow well and predictable. If I were to rewrite it, I might change up the names to Funny, Very Funny, and Funnyless. Or something like that, just to make it interesting but connected to the original story!

The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer
I really liked this story because of the unity between characters. All three looked out for each other and I thought it was a really neat story! 

The Golden Goose
This theme of greediness pops up in a lot of ways, so I could rewrite this story in a different way. I could put it back on OU's campus and write about a student receiving free things, or maybe even scholarships, every year and eventually getting greedy and asking for more. Once the person in charge hears their plea, they get annoyed and do not want to give any more things to someone who has to ask for it. 

Source: The greedy mother taking all of the golden goose's feathers.

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales, Part A.

Reading Notes; Babbitt's Jataka Tales, Part B

The Princes and the Water-Sprite was an interesting tale because it sounded so much like the Ramayana, when Rama is exiled! The reason he was exiled was due to Kaikeyi wanting King Dasharathra to make her son, Bharata, king (instead of Rama). In this story, the queen asked the King to let Sun Prince be the king, instead of the Prince of Stars (who was the oldest). Both Sun Prince and Bharata realized what was happening later, and both offered to go with the other sons to live in exile. In the Ramayana, however, Rama convinced Bharata to stay. In this story, the Sun Prince convinced the brothers to let him go with them into exile. I thought this was super interesting since both the Ramayana and this tale told a similar story, although with different styles and characters. 

If I do a rewrite of one of these stories, I might do Why the Owl is Not King of the Birds, and give different reasons as to why the owl and the crow are enemies. 

I also could do the Princes and the Water-Sprite and retell it in yet another way! There are so many stories with exiles, so I could either write another one or do one where nobody is exiled.

I could also write a story about the Crab and the Crane, except make the crane the victim and the crabs/fishes the predators.

Reading Notes; Babbitt's Jataka Tales, Part A

I really love stories like these! They're short, simple, and always have a great underlying theme incorporated into it. The moral of the story is always something relatable. 

Many of these were about creatures outsmarting the other animal in the story, but they each had their own twist and plot. I really liked The Ox Who Won the Forfeit because it showed how a person can act like two different people when around two different groups. The owner of the Ox had always been nice, but as soon as he had to show him off, he was very rude to the Ox to show he was powerful to the other bystanders. I feel like this happens a lot with people nowadays; they want to look good in front of others so they leave some of their moral and principles behind for a little bit and act completely different from what they are usually like. If someone wants to impress someone else, he/she oftentimes changes. I, for one, do not like when people do this because I believe everyone should be themselves 24/7. Obviously we all have a sense of how to act in an interview setting and with our friends, but our overall personality should not change. Our morals and principles should not change. So I think I'll rewrite my story based off of this Jakata tale. It's one of my favorites and I think the underlying theme is very perceptive and relatable.  

Source: The owner and the ox, after the owner has realized he should always respect his ox.

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt's Jataka Tales.

Week 9 Story; The One With the Ugly Ducklings

Gandhari and Dritarashtra bumped into each other as they were trying to drink water from a beautiful, pure lake nearby. Both ducks were blind, so they were not aware of the other one attempting to drink from the same lake at the same spot. Though they couldn't see, they immediately fell in love with the other's touch. They could feel each other's soft and luscious feathers and yearned for the other's embrace. Each day after their first encounter, Gandhari laid an egg. this occurred for 100 days, and finally the couple felt like they had their own little family they could be happy with. All of the other ducks nearby, who inhabited the same area around the lake, were very happy for the couple and even helped protect the eggs and sat on them when it was cold and when predators lurked nearby. 

Finally, the first egg hatched. Dhritarashtra had gone to get food for the couple, but Gandhari had immediately heard the first crack. SHe felt each egg until she came across the one that was less smooth than the others. as she grazed her feathers over the egg, she could sense movement inside. She was so ecstatic! Her first child was about to be born, and it was going to be perfect! All the other ducks gathered around quickly and waited for the big moment. Finally, a baby chick was born. Gandhari immediately cuddled her child and was so happy that the other ducks couldn't bear to tell her the truth. What they saw was the ugliest and scariest looking duck they had ever seen. However, they knew Gandhari and Dhritarashtra couldn't see, so they saw no harm in keeping this information from them, rather than ruining their perception of their first-born. When Dhritarashtra came back, he had the same reaction as Gandhari and could not believe it! He could sense the baby's little fuzzy body, but obviously couldn't actually see it, so he was oblivious to the true nature of his child as well. One by one, all the eggs hatched and each time, the other families around the lake exchanged a look with each other, signifying that they were in fact terrified of what the baby ducks were going to be like. Finally, they decided to tell the happy couple what they saw. As they imagined, the couple was not happy to hear their comments and believed the others to simply be jealous of their babies.

A few weeks had passed since all the eggs had hatched, and their first-born cried out his first cry. When Gandhari and Dhritarashtra heard it, they were in shock. Though they couldn't see the demon side of their children, they heard its cry and immediately realized that the others were right. No duck ever sounded like that; instead of the usual ca-caw, their offspring emitted a demonic shriek that chilled them to their core. A demon's cry. The happy couple was soon devastated. 

The couple was extremely terrified and decided to pray to the Goddess Ganga and help them cleanse their babies, hoping that bathing in the Ganges River would get rid of the darkness in their souls. After praying for 100 days and 100 nights, Ganga appeared before the couple. They explained their situation and after one look at the children, Ganga readily agreed to help. She placed each of the baby ducks in their own pot and took all 100 pots to the river with her. She spent days performing various rituals and after what seemed like forever to Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, Ganga finally returned with 100 smiling, beautiful, demon-less ducks who cried out in soft voices. The cleansing had worked! The couple was extremely grateful, and the other duck families around the area were relieved to know their home would not be soon invaded by demons.

Source: Gandhari surrounded by her one-hundred sons.

Bibliography: Epified Mahabharata, One-Hundred Sons. 

Author's Note:
I don't really know how I thought of this, but when I was reading the Epified Mahabharata videos, I was thinking about how 100 children is a lot and that their birth wasn't very normal. It explained how Gandhari had been pregnant forever and how she had many nightmares and bad experiences during the term, and when she finally gave birth, it was a huge lump of flesh. Finally, Sage Vyasa took the lump and divided it into 100 pieces and placed each one in a pot. After a while, the babies were finally born. However, their eyes were super dark and demonic looking. While the other people saw it, Gandhari and Dhritarashtra clearly didn't. I decided to keep that part the same, and at the end I decided to make it a happy story. I also made the characters ducks because 100 hatching eggs sounded fun to write about, instead of 100 lumps of flesh growing in pots. Since I wanted a happy ending, I had them realize their kids' demonic side and pray to Ganga and have her clean their babies' souls.  Hope you liked it :)

Reading Notes; Epified Mahabharata, Part B

Part B of the Epified Mahabharata videos actually had a few things in which R. K. Narayan's version did not have, so I thought that was super interesting! They were just small things in which the Epified went into more depth about. 

#1) Gandhari's demonic children
In the Epifieds, it showed how Gandhari gave birth to a large lump of flesh, after which Sage Vyasa separated the lump into 100 little lumps and allowed them to grow, each in a different pot. It turns out the children came out looking demonic / scary, but since Gandhari and Dhritarashtra were both blind, they didn't notice. They were just happy to have children. In R. K. Narayan's story, it just mentioned that the couple had 100 sons. They never went into depth about how they were born. If I were to rewrite this part of the story, I would make all the characters some sort of bird. The 100 sons could be eggs that suddenly hatch, instead of lumps growing in pots. I kind of thought of an "ugly duckling" sort of story, because everyone noticed that Duryodhana and all his brothers were quite abnormal. 

#2) Ekalavya's story
I don't think this story is in R. K. Narayan's version, but I really like it! I can't believe Ekalavya handcrafted an image of Drona and used that to practice in front of. That shows true dedication to me and I believe he should have been praised for it. Instead, Drona asked him to cut off his right thumb, knowing that would take away from Ekalavya's true potential. I thought it was kind of sad and in a way, it was Drona spoiling Arjuna. He only did this to Ekalavya because he was outsmarted and I don't think that's fair, so maybe I'll make a story in which it IS fair and Ekalavya DOES get to reach his true potential and get praised for it.

Source: Ekalavya praising his handcrafted image of Drona.

Bibliography: Epified Mahabharata, Part B.

Reading Notes; Epified Mahabharata, Part A

I really like this version of the Mahabharata. I love the drawings that Epified does and the narrative does a great job of explaining the stories as well as what they mean.

Part A discusses everything from the beginning of the Mahabharata until Dhritashtra and Gandhari's marriage, as well as Pandu's marriage with Kunti and Madri. Everything in the story so far is lined up with what I read in R. K. Narayan's Mahabharata. I really like how the narrator stated that everything in the story happened as a result of something before and after the situation (like of like a huge cause-and-effect cycle or karma cycle sort of thing). I could see those things clearly with the gifts, boons, and curses placed on various characters throughout the Mahabharata.

If I were to write a story about this part, I would focus on one aspect of the cause-and-effect or karma cycle. For example, I would maybe discuss the story of the eight sons that Ganga drowned and what they did in their past life that caused them to have the fate they did. 

Source: A drawing from the Epified Mahabharata videos: Shantanu meeting Ganga.

Biblography: Epified Mahabharata, Part A.