Week 10 Storytelling: The Men in Blue

There were three men: Rama, Shiva, and Krishna. These three men would come to be known as "The Men in Blue."

Now, these men were not actually blue, but rather they all had a blue aura which only the trained could see. This "hidden" identity is what allowed these men to be in the profession of protecting mankind. Due to this blue aura, the men were able to gain trust in anyone, even those who wanted to kill them. The goal of these men was to protect the world from demonic beings called rakshasa.

Rakshasas can be both good and evil, and these men are here to decide whether or not a rakshasa is safe to live on Earth with people. This is a story about one rakshasa that they encountered.

The men in blue were wandering a trail in the forest on there way to go to a conference to discuss precautions that should be made towards a possible upcoming war between a certain family. On the trail, they suddenly realized a cat was following them. The men knew something was strange. Rama stopped walking to tie his shoe and the other men stopped so he wouldn't have to catch up to them. All while this was happening, though, the cat had also stopped walking. Krishna eyed both Rama and Shiva. Shiva nodded in acknowledgement of what was happening. Krishna pulled his rakshasa blaster out of his pocket and shot the cat. The cat suddenly turned into a screaming rakshasa!

“YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!”
“Yeah… If you were actually a cat,” replied Krishna.
“What are you doing following us?” Rama questioned the demon.
“I am a huge fan of you guy. I was hoping you would pick up the stray kitten and feel sorry for me and keep me. That way I would always be near my heroes.”

Heroes? The three men looked at each other in confusion.
“Number one, why are we your heroes, and secondly, how do you know who we are?” said Shiva.
“Two years ago, you guys saved me. I was being help against my will by an evil man-eating rakshasa. He had me locked up in a cage. When I heard you guys come in, I transformed into a parrot, and after you killed the demon, you released me and I flew off. Ever since then, I have been studying you. I, too, want to rid the world of evil rakshasas.”

Rama whispered, “You have got to be kidding me…”
“Okay,” shiva replied, “transform back into a cat and we can discuss this after our conference.”
And the three men in blue continued on their journey with a tiny kitten following their every step.

(Image Information: kitten in a forest. Source: catsanimals)

Author’s Note: I wanted to discuss why we keep seeing blue characters in our stories. Instead of actually being blue, I took it as these men had blue auras, which only a select chosen few would be able to see. Since a blue aura is protecting an nurturing, I saw them as the protectors of people, and hence the men in blue!

Bibliography: Mahabharata. Peter Brook. 1989.

Week 9 Storytelling: The Indian Epics Game Show

This week on.... Extreme Indian Adventures:

We exiled the Pandavas in a forest, this week the family will wander their way to a lake, where some of them may meet their fate if they and answer our questions.

After spending a week in the forest, the Pandavas were starting to show signs of weakness. They had not had a proper meal in days and were dehydrated from hiking so much. Today, they came across an oasis that we had installed with speakers and visual effects. One by one, the Pandavas would make their way to the edge of the water, but before drinking, they will be required to answer our riddles.

First up is Nakula. When he approached the water we spoke over the speakers, "Before you drink my water, you must answer my questions." Nakula heard the voice but that he was dreaming it because of his dehydration. He drank anyways, and soon fell over asleep.

Next was Bhima. He approached the water and saw his brother on the ground. He knew something was fishy about this. Then he heard the same voice. He ignored he voice because he was more interested in making sure he had enough energy and power to help his brother Nakula. He drank the water and met the same fate. 

Then was Sahadeva. After approaching his brothers on the water's edge, he heard the voice. He was so distraught by his brothers he would do anything to help. He listened to the question that the lake had. "When is a man drowned, but still not wet?" Sahadeva had no idea and thought that maybe drinking the water would allow him to think better. He drank the water and passed out. 

Arjuna would come to the same fate, because he too listened to the question, but when he answered the question wrong, he got angry. He said "this is STUPID," and went on to drink the water. 

Yudhisthria was the only one left. We were counting on him to make this week's show be enjoyable. He approached the water and saw his brothers laying on the ground. He was outraged and yelled, "WHO DID THIS TO MY BROTHERS?!" We replied, "They did it to themselves." Yudhisthria wanted to know what we wanted from him. "When is a man drowned, but still not wet?" Yudhisthria looked around for inspiration. In the distance he saw a strange patch in the ground. He approached the area and stepped on the ground. He quickly jerked his foot back. It was quick said. "That was close!" Then he knew..... "The answer is QUICKSAND." 

"Congratulations, Yudhisthria! You are this week's winner of Extreme Indian Adventures! You prize is a supply of bottled water for your travels."

Yudhisthria, confused, replied, "What about my brothers? What happened to them?" 

"They are fine. The lake water laced with sleeping medicine. They will make up soon." 

(Image information: water for days. Source: icbirdband)

Bibliography:  

The Mahabharata. Dir. Peter Brook. 1989. Film.


Author's note: I was always interested in why the brothers would drink from the water, when they could clearly see the others laying on the ground at the edge of the water. Especially when a miraculous voice asks you a question? I would have definitely answered just because I would have been a little frightened. I decided to take a look at why each of the brothers drank the water. I tried to present it as someone watching the whole thing happen, in this case the game show producers! 

Week 7 Storytelling: A Divided Family

There were two families: the Stoops and the Gundys.

Bob stoops and Mike Gundy were brothers, but their sons did not get along (and they never have).
One day Stoops had to go on vacation and his sons were forced to go to Stillwater to stay with Gundy and his sons, the Cowboys.
Now, it was kind of Gundy to allow Stoops' sons, the Sooners, to stay at their house, but he should have known better. The Cowboys have always been jealous of the Sooners for their strength and their numbers of fans. The Sooners included Yudhisthria (the most truthful of men), Bhima (the strongest of men), Arjun (an irresistible warrior), and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva. The Cowboys were so numerous, to make up for their lack of greatness. The eldest Cowboy, however, was Duryodhana. Gundy had been advised to get rid of Duryodhana, but he did not follow the advice which would later haunt him.

(Image Information: A state divided. Source: news6)

Although Gundy was blind, he wasn't stupid. He knew the power that the Sooners held, and he decided to give them the title of Champions. Duryodhana could not bear that his father would do such a thing, so he attempted to sabotage the Sooners. He decided to replace their Gatorade with alcohol. Thinking he had finally ruined the Sooners, Duryohana left proudly. However, when the Sooners came on the field, they realized their items were tampered with, which fueled them to be even greater and more successful against their enemies. This upset Duryodhana, and he rallied up his Cowboys to go to war with the Sooners. The Sooners accepted the challenge and met the Cowboys on the field. 

Once they were on the field, the Cowboys had realized what they had done and pleaded to Duryodhana to make peace with the Sooners. Duryodhana, however, ignored these requests and allowed his egotism to cloud his judgment of success. He thought surely they had enough men to bring down even the greatest of football teams. The Sooners, seeing Duryodhana and the Cowboys not showing any signs of stopping, also continued to fight. Bhima tackled and thus injured many of the Cowboys. Arjun threw the ball to his brothers as if it was an arrow, always meeting its target. Soon, there was only one Cowboy left, Duryodhana. He continued to fight, and he was soon defeated too. He had allowed his rage against the Sooners to get the best of him, and in doing so he destroyed the whole team. Gundy was devastated when he heard the news, and just as before, he had to crown the Sooners as the champions. 

The moral of the story is: the Cowboys will always lose in the battle against the Sooners, no matter how hard they try….

Author’s Note: I decided to write about something we all hold so dear at OU: football. I kept the outline of the story the same, but changed the context of the battle. I got the idea for this story because it's OU/Texas week! (I couldn’t write badly about Texas though because the rest of my family went there.) The version I read this week also took out all the magic and humanized the characters of the epic, so I decided to do the same. 

Bibliography: Wilson, Richard. The Five Tall Sons of Pandu. Print. 1914.

Week 6 Storytelling: A War at Hand

Advisor: Sir.... Sir...
General Duryodhana: Leave me alone.
Advisor: ...but sir, we need to know what you plan to do
General Duryodhana: I have no choice. We need to keep fighting.
Advisor: You do realize that people are dying out there, right?
General Duryodhana: How could I not? HE KILLED MY BABY BROTHER.
Advisor: Sir, he did much more than just kill him.
General Duryodhana: This man is not human. Bhima cannot be controlled until he is dead. This will not end until I get my revenge. HIs brother killed our supreme commander, Bhishma. They all have killed so many in heartless ways. They shall all meet the same fate.
Advisor: How do you plan to do this?
General Duryodhana: I need to go back out there and fight them myself, in honor of those who have fallen.
Advisor: Duryodhana, do you think that is wise? They just killed Drona, Karna, Shalya, and your uncle Shukani.
General Duryodhana: I have nothing left, so why not die fighting for those I love.

LATER THAT DAY....

General Duryodhana emerges to confront his cousin, Bhima. However, Bhima saw this as an opportunity to continue his rampage and he attacked Duryodhana before he could even pull out a weapon and declare a dual. Bhima had smashed in Duryodhana's knee, as he had promised to do so long ago. Bhima explained to Duryodhana that his family had deserved it because all they put him through as a child. Duryodhana could not utter a word, for the pain was too much to bear. All he could reply with was a single tear, a tear which symbolized his sorrow that all this war could have been avoided if both sides of the family would have gave each other a chance. Bhima, still high on his adrenaline, ignored Duryodhana's last plea, and walked off leaving his cousin to die alone.

(Image Information: Duryodhana dies. Source: Slide Share)

And so the war has ended. Decades worth of resentment built up and passed on through the family has finally ended in a bloody massacre of the royal families. Yudhishthira had gained his rightful place on the throne and goes to the dying Bhisma to tell him it has all ended, and to give him the proper burial. Yudhishthira gives Bhisma's dead body back to his mother by laying him in the Ganges. As the years go on, each of the Pandavas would die, until only Yudhishthira is left, whom ascends to heaven, free from the sins of war.

Bibliography: "Duryodhana in the Lake" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).
"The Pandavas and Bhishma" The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921).
"The Pandavas Depart" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

Author's Note: I decided to write my story assignment about the end of the war, and chose to do it from the view of Duryodhana. Everyone probably thought that he was the bad guy in the stories, but as the epic went on, Bhima started to become disturbing to me. He was captured in battle and war and carried out terrible acts on those he murdered. He killed all of his enemies. He thrived on it, it seemed like. I wrote this piece to portray that feeling.

Week 5 Storytelling: Bhima the bachelor

This season on the Bachelor...

Meet Bhima. A one-of-a-kind guy. This man is intelligent, strong, and did we mention his arms are as big as the trunks of elephants? There is no other word to describe this guy except for "Dreamy".

(Image Information: The Bachelor. Source: Sheokhanda)

He is the true "Alpha Male", and as we saw in his encounter with Hidimbi, he is willing to protect women from the cruelties of others. There are a few things any woman should know about this man before she gets involved. He was born with superhuman strength, which he discovered when he was a child. Because of his strength, he needs to fuel this great usage of energy with a large meal. One of your duties as his bride (that is if he gives you the rose) is to make sure you are preparing enough food to sustain him. That also means that if he believes he is not getting enough, you will be expected to give up you food for him. Another situation you should know about is his family situation. Bhima's father died while Bhima was still young, and he had to be raised with his cousins, one of which is
Duryodhana. Duryodhana has been jealous of Bhima and his side of the family since they were young. Due to this jealousy, Duryodhana has tried to harm Bhima and his followers and family more than once. As Bhima's bride, keeping an eye out for these scemes will be cruical to your health and well-being. You should not worry, however, because Bhima has, on more than one occasion, showed his strength to his enemies and slayed them upon encounter. It is also important to note that he has been married once. His marriage was a happy one, and he did have a child with her. Also, his wife was a man-eating demon... in which he killed her brother before marrying her (but we are sure that was just a one-time occurance... we hope). OH, and he has a terrible fear of snakes. It has something to do with him being poisoned as a child and being thrown into the Ganges. There are some more things we should probably tell you, but you will most likely find out as the season goes on, and we don't want to give out any spoilers!

What can we say... we said he was dreamy, not easy to deal with!

Author's Note: While I was reading the stories of Bhima, I just had this sense that people thought he was a very dreamy guy, and would do a lot for him (I mean, Hidimi literally followed him around and begged him for marriage). I also had this sense that he had a lot of problems that people seemed to ignore, so I decided to write down some of his faults, from the standpoint of someone talking to a potential follower of his. In this case, I chose the Bachelor, and by doing so I brought the context of the stories into a modern day. (I'm not sure how well I did because I have never watched the Bachelor or Bachelorette). 

Bibliography: "Bhima and Hidimbi" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)."Duryodhana's Jealousy"The Indian Heroes by C. A. Kincaid (1921)

Week 4 Storytelling: Everybody loves Rama

Everybody Loves Rama: Season 1
Review by Heather McGuire

In the city of Adoyhya, a man named Rama lives with his wife, Sita, and their two sons, Kusha and Lava. Their family seems pretty normal until you include his mother and father into the story. Rama's father, Dasaratha, and his mother, Kausalya, along with all of Dasaratha's other wifes live right across the street from the couple. Rama has a brother named Bharata, who sees that Rama is the chosen one to rule Adoyhya one day. This day would have to wait, however (until season 2, actually). Bharata's mother, Kaikeyi, became jealous and made Dasaratha promise to ban his son to never leave his house, and, therefore, he would not be king. Rama decided to become a sports writer while he was locked away inside his house for 14 years.

In this TV series, Rama turns his sports writing hobby into a career and becomes one of the most famous writers of all time. Bharata realizes everyone loves him and becomes jealous just like his mother. Basically, he convinces his friend, Ravana, to steal Sita from Rama. Rama ends up getting Sita back at the end of the season, but when he does, his mother never believes that Sita was loyal and always brings it up at the worst moments. Rama and Sita constantly have marital disagreements because Sita believes his mother needs to give them space, while Rama is afraid to talk to his mother in that way.

Eventually, Rama has to send Sita away to appease his blabbering mother. By the end of the season, this family is so messed up. Dasaratha has died. Kausalya and the other wives are always spreading bad rumors about Sita. Rama is too little of a man to actually confront the women and save the woman he loves. And Bharata... he has his own personal problems, like always having to touch his food to his chin before he eats.

I would say that if you enjoy watching shows about majorly dysfunctional families and love listening to TV show laugh tracks, you will love this one. I personally, however, only got through the season because I knew at some point Sita and Rama would die and I would never have to watch it again.

Rating 2.3/5

(Image Information: Everybody Loves Ray(ma) Source: made in paint)

Bibliography:

Paley, Nina, Annette Hanshaw, Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Pooja Kumar, Debargo Sanyal, Aladdin            Ullah, Nitya Vidyasagar, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya, Todd                      Michaelsen, and Vālmīki. Sita Sings the Blues. Jersey City, N.J.: Film Karavan, 2009.

Author's note: I chose to write this piece as a TV review critic for the show "Everybody loves Raymond". I got the idea because in the video, there was a moment when a group of women literally were singing "Everybody loves Rama" and it put the idea into my head. I took a risk with this one, and I'm not sure I completely like the way it came out, but at least I gave it a try! Any feedback would be appreciated. Also, yes, I actually really hate the show "Everybody Loves Raymond". 

Storytelling Week 3: A Cinderella Story... continued

(Image Information: Rama returns to Ayodhya. Source: Giriraj Swami)

Last time on "Rama, A Cinderella Story"... Rama was exiled from Ayodhya and Bharata came to try to get him to return and become king. Rama refused and Bharata decided to place an item of his brother's, his glass slippers, on the throne to represent his rule while he was away in exile.

Sita had requested Rama to go into the forest to fetch her the most beautiful animal he could find. Being deeply in love with his lady, Rama set out to do such. However, while Rama was gone, an elderly man wandered into their cottage and asked Sita if she could spare some food. Since she was such a gentle spirit, she would never refuse to help someone if it was possible. While Sita had her back turned, the elderly man took off his disguise and showed himself as the evil King of Lanka, Ravana. Sita tried to scream for Rama, but before she could Ravana stuffed her in a bag and put her in the back of his carriage and sped off to his palace.

Rama returned to find that Sita was gone. He knew something was wrong, however, because he saw food spread across the kitchen. He stepped outside to call for her, but while doing so he heard a "CRUNCH!" He had stepped on a Dorito, Sita's favorite food. He noticed there were Doritos leading out from the house. He began to follow the Doritos and they took him all the way to Ravana's palace. Infuriated about Sita being kidnaped, Rama let out a great sound. Suddenly, thousands of monkey responded to his call and began to stampede towards him.

Ravana heard the sound of the monkey swarming the city, and he ran outside to confront Rama. When he finally got outside, he saw the army of monkeys burning down his city. Ravana was furious and shouted, "WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THE MONKEYS FIRE? DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU LET THEM JUMP ON THE BED?!" Before Rama could answer, he grabbed his bow and arrows and shot Ravana directly in the head. Ravana fell to the ground and Sita ran outside to meet her hero.

In the background, Lanka was burning in flames and its King lay slain on the ground. Rama took Sita in his arms and began to walk off towards his home of Ayodhya. Once they arrived, Rama walked up to his brother who was sitting on the steps leading up to the thrown. Rama noticed that Bharata was taking a Snapchat with the glass slippers in the background. The snap was entitled "lol waiting for the bro to come back". Rama put his head in the photo's background and he saw his brother's eyes light up on the phone's screen. The King had finally arrived.



Author's note: So, I decided to keep up with my promise last week and finish my fairytale story. I decided to right this in a little bit different fashion. Since the rest of the Ramayana did not exactly make a connection in my head to any childhood story that I knew of, I decided to make my own ending to the story. I pretty much kept up with the story of the Ramayana, but added some more modern symbols in the piece. By doing so, I hope to reach out to my audience (considering it’s mostly full of college students). I actually added some of my favorite things to thing story: Doritos, snapchat, childhood rhymes. Yes, I do love all those things, Cool Ranch Doritos, especially. I decided to also speed up some aspects of the story and completely leave out other parts in order to make the story seem more fairytale like. I left out a lot of the fighting that took place in Lanka, although I did not take it out completely because being a hero is a huge theme in princess stories. I also left out the part about Rama forcing Sita to leave because the town did not trust her loyalty. Something about that just did not scream “fairytale” to me.



References: "Rama and Bharata", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"Ravana's Death", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Chase", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)
"The Burning of Lanka", Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914)

Week 2 Storytelling: Rama, A Cinderella Story

(Image Information: Photo of Rama and Sita. Source: Daily Kos)

There once was a very handsome man named Rama, son of Dasharatha. Although, Dasharatha favored Rama over his other sons, his wife and Rama's stepmother, Kaikeyi knew this was the case and had a plan to make her son, Bharata the ruler of the land, Ayodhya. She banished the poor Rama to the forest and in doing so, opened the doors to Bharata to take over the throne after Dasharatha's death.
However, Bharata knew that what his mother had done was wrong and that he could never be as good as Rama would be as the leader. Bharata escaped Ayodhya while his mother was not looking and set out to find Rama in the forest. Once he finally came across his brother, he asked him for forgiveness for the actions that had taken place. Rama knew it was not Bharata's fault and forgave his brother. Bharata attempted to bring Rama back to the city and grant his brother his rightful throne. However, Rama refused to go back Bharata only had two options. First, he tried to convince his beloved brother to let him take his place in banishment. Rama would not let his brother take this punishment for him, though. Bharata's only other option was to allow his brother to rule from afar until he would one day be able to return.
So. Bharata took the glass slippers from Rama's feet and took them back to the city to place them upon the throne. Bharata took over the operational aspects of rule, but diligently made sure that his brother came first. Every time someone brought a gift for them, the glass slippers were presented the item first. Whenever it was raining, Bharata would make sure that the slippers stayed dry. Bharata would wait for his brother to return, and was willing to wait forever. Meanwhile, Rama had other duties to tend to in the forest. An evil was lurking near him and his wife, Sita.

To be continued..... Will Rama ever return to Adyohya? What was the evil in the forest? What will happen next? Stay tuned next week to see the outcome!



Author's note: While I was reading the story of Rama's banishment, the only thing I could think about was a correlation to Cinderella. So that is what I wrote about! The image of Rama’s stepmother (or at least one of them) and the description of her jealously tied to Rama made a connection in my head to the stepmother in Cinderella. Due to the layout of the family, I actually googled the story to see if it had any influence on the princess story that we all know so well. AND THE VERDICT IS… no there is not a connection between the two, at least not one that they intended when they were making the childhood tale. Even though the connection did not exist, it did not mean that I could not make it exist. That’s right guys, I started something new and exciting. Although the story doesn't exactly follow the Ramayana, it presents the knowledge you need to know but just in a different manner. You should still be able to see the symbolic connections in my version of the fairytale. I thought it was pretty clever to turn the sandals into glass slippers and one of the stepbrothers into Rama's fairy godfather.

Resources: "The Sandals", Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

Week 1 Storytelling: A Bowl Full of Villains

ATTENTION! 
The television's light penetrated my sleeping eyes with the presentation of this warning.

ATTENTION! THREE MEN LOST AT SEA.
As I slowly began to wake up, I read the channel's "Breaking News" text scroll fly across the screen. Although this was interesting news, it didn't warrant my full attention as it was requesting. That was until I heard the reporter describe the situation at hand.

"Today, around 4:30 p.m., three men have been reported as missing after trying to escape Batman and Gotham City Police. The three men are being reported as The Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face. The men were last seen leaving the coastal waters in a hand-made bowl. Yes, we said a bowl. No news as to whether or not the bowl has any special use or whether it was the first thing they could get their hands on before escaping. We will let you know any new information on this breaking news as we receive it."

I was a little startled by the news. Even though I did not live anywhere near a coast, knowing that Gotham's worst villains had escaped the wrath of the law and knowing that they were all together out there made me nervous.

The Penguin with The Joker and Two-Face. Source: DC Animated Universe

About an hour later, the "Breaking News" banner flies across the screen again. I had been anxiously waiting for this moment.

"After several hours after the villains escaped following a crime at the state bank, they have been captured. As stated before, the men fled the scene and were later seen off the coast in a large hand-crafted bowl. The three men were finally captured once they were discovered clinging onto pieces of ceramic left over from the bowl which had broken while they were at sea. The three men were sent to the hospital to make sure that they are in okay condition before being taken into custody."

I felt a sigh of relief as I turned the television off. However, I couldn't help but fear that these notorious criminals may get away with the crime in some way.....

Author's note: This story was based off of a nursery rhyme titled "The Three Wise Men of Gotham". 

"Three wise men of Gotham

Went to sea in a bowl:

And if the bowl had been stronger,

My song would have been longer."

The idea behind my version of the story is the connection to the Gotham many people know from popular culture. The original story behind the rhyme was that the villagers of Gotham acted insane in order to escape taxes and the control of King John. In other words, the inhabitants of the village were wise for acting like fools. Although I ended the story with the men of Gotham in the hospital, anyone that knows these characters would know that they are notorious for their escape plans. Perhaps that is what would have occurred next time my narrator turned the news on.

Source: "The Three Wise Men of Gotham", n.a., The Nursery Rhyme Book. 2008. Web. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26197/26197-h/26197-h.htm#Page_265