Epics of India

Promotional poster for the movie "Justice League" Source "Listen up men! Both the Penguin and the Scarecrow's goons are tearing this city apart, and Batman and the rest of the JLA are still out of commission from last weeks battle. So there's no backup, just your brothers watching your back. Be safe out there. Now, move out" police commissioner Gordon yelled at his men before turning turning back towards his office and slamming the door. "It looks like a war zone out there. They're going to destroy Gotham and rebuild it in their image" Gordon paced. Gathered in his office were the members of the Justice League of America (JLA) who were all looking onto the city with fear and wonderment. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg had all been ambushed a few days earlier, and were still recovering from the battle. When they thought they had the penguin cornered, scarecrow used a special concoction of chemicals to dis...

An concept of Swarga Source 1: Bhishma dies in battle, and asks everyone to finally stop fighting, but Duryodhana and Karna disregard this message and continue the conflict 2: Drona takes charge of the armies and vows to defeat the Pandavas. 3: Arjuna's son is killed by Jayadratha. Arjuna kills a lot of people to get to his sons murderer, and finally kills him. 4: At night, things got crazy. Everyone killed eachother, and Karna killed Bhima's demon son 5: Drona couldn't be killed as long as his son were alive, so Bhima killed an eleohant named after his son. Drona asked Yudhishthira if it were really true that his son were dead, and (not lying) he said (quietly) "the elephant named after YOUR SON IS DEAD" and Drona was eventually killed 6: Bhima killed and drank the blood of Duhshasana, the dude who who vowed to kill at the gambling match 7: Karna and Arjuna fought, but Arjuna broke his bow and called TO, Karna didn't abide by this and still fo...

The Storm God Indra Source 1: The Pandavas start their journey in exile in the woods. They do a bunch of holy stuff for the promise of one day getting their kingdom back. Surya blessed Yudhishthira with a endless pot of food to help them 2: Draupadi doubts her religion (She isn't used to living not in luxury), Yudhishthira tells everyone to just wait and god will help them, and Bhima wants to bring war to the opposition 3: A holy man stumbles upon the boys and says that if Arjuna goes to the mountains and receives the vision of god, then all enemies will be slain. Arjuna goes to the mountains and prays, meets god in the form of a huntsman, and is given a bunch of weapons. 4: Arjuna is taken to Indra's home and is given a bunch more weapons from other gods. He is tasked with waging war on sea demons and giants, and he is victorious. 5: The exiles continue wandering around the forest, and Yudhishthira learns dice from a sage. Arjuna comes back and the group is ...

What I imagined the Mafia to look like in this story Source "Visit Panipinto, the biggest town in little Italy!" read the run down sign at the edge of the city. This sight was not an uncommon one, as the whole country turned to hell after Y2K2. With the absence of technology that humans had come so dependent on, the whole world seemed to fall apart. Where governments once rained now belonged to smaller groups, and tribal warfare was common.  "Mama, are we going to be safe?" asked Michael, one of the small boys in Tailia's nomadic group. With a heavy sigh and the best forced smile she could manage, Talia told her children and the others in her group that they would look for food and water in the town of Panipinto and that everything would be okay. Talia felt uncomfortable lying to the others, especially her own children, but then again she wasn't 100% comfortable being the leader of this group either so she deemed it necessary to keep spirits h...

Bhima Slaying Baka Source 1: Prince Vidura warned the next-to-be king Yudhishthira about the plan and when they got to the palace, he told them about how they'd all die. They planned to dig a tunnel to the jungle to escape, which they did, but Bhima wanted to go back and fight the guard Purochana. He snuck back inside the house, set the guard barracks on fire, and Purochana died. The embers found their way to the palace anyway and it burned. Earlier in the day, the royal family gave some wine and food to a beggar and her children who passed out and died in the palace fire that night. People thought the bodies were that of the royal family and Duryodhana and the king rejoiced thinking their plan worked. 2: Bhima helped the family find a place to rest in the forest, and took first watch. A demon smelled humans and told his sister to kill them and bring them back for eating. The sister saw Bhima and fell in love. She turned into a beautiful women and tried to steal Bhima away s...

Painting of Karna Source 1: The king Uparichara of Chedi was so devoted to religion, the gods feared he was trying to rob them, so they sent Indra to bribe him into calming down with a flying chariot. The king takes the bribe and drops some of his semen while flying it . This semen lands in a fish, who gives birth to a boy and a girl after being caught by a fisherman. He told the king about his find, and the king took the son with him, and the girl stayed with the fisherman family. The daughter one day agrees to bang a rishi in return for her fish smell to go away, and gives birth to Vyasa. 2: King Shantanu and his wife Ganga (the goddess of the Gangas river) of Hastinapura met when Ganaga was cursed to have sons and be in human form. Ganga in human form killed all her sons right when they were born so they could stay in their celestial state, as long as they left 1/8th of their power behind for her son, who would stay among men and never marry/reproduce. Ganga told the king sh...

Don Corleone from The Godfather Movie Source "Please Mr. Inuchi, I'm begging" Those were the last words I ever heard as a innocent kid. Now, I am the senator of New York with only one goal in mind, avenge my brother. Well, he's not my brother by blood, but we sure spilled more of that together than I'd prefer to mention. See, Roy was the son Davis Howell, the head of the largest crime family in Yonkers. When I was young, my father and his father took care of business a lot, so we became more than best friends. I loved Roy, but he was on the path to power, the type of power that would hurt my fathers business associates. See, my father is Michael Inuchi, the main reason why the Howells don't come to Manhattan. Roy was working with the new senator, senator Rawlins. Rawlins would get "campaign donations" from Roy, and in return he'd continue to look the other way with the family. The only problem this presented was that now we had the cops ...

Carving of Sugriva and his army Source Compared to the "reading" I did yesterday over Sita sings the blues, this reading was much more consistent and familiar to the Ramayana I read last week. The chapters in this telling were very similar to the one I read last week, and at times I even forgot I was reading a new telling of the epic (Granted, I havent touched up on last week's version since I finished it.) One of the things I noticed differently in this telling was the lack of poem sections. This was refreshing for me, as I was not a huge fan of the poems in the previous readings. The constant storytelling in this Sister Nivedita's work allowed for a much more enjoyable and easier read. I feel like if I were to recommend the Ramayana to someone (which I have a few times but have been told they'll "get around to it" which we all know means they won't) I would recommend Sister Nivedita's version, as I found that it is much more common to st...

Scene from the animation mentioned Source After reading the Ramayana, I was curious to see how it has been told in other ways, as it was mentioned that there have been many telling and alterations to the story. After looking at the list, I chose to watch the animation, as I wanted to see how they would tell the whole story in just the short time (Books are always better than the movies.) The animation was a little strange at first, as it started with some trippy visuals before eventually there was dialogue. I continued to be confused as the animation style changed every few minuets. Sometimes there was dialogue, and others not. I eventually caught on that this was meant to represent how there are many retelling of the Ramayana, and this is showcasing those in a chronologically ordered compilation. Out of all of the styles it showed, I particularly liked the one where there was 3 people speaking with animations playing in the background. It had some pretty funny moments, and the ...

My Storybook

Crash Course Logo Source I truly enjoy crash course, even if I am not using it for this class. I have used crash course in my philosophy, history, and science classes in high school, and the way they convey their stories is done so well, that sometimes I just watch these videos for fun. I started by watching " What Is A Myth? " where they go over what myths are and what to expect from the rest of the videos in the series. One of the things that stuck out most to me was when they explained that when you take myths for the stories they are, it allows for you to enjoy them without thinking of their values as structures of religious belief. I think this really describes why videos like crash course and books like the Percy Jackson series are so popular. When you tell someone a myth, they think of the deeper context. But when you just tell a story and leave it up for interpretation, the stories are very interesting and you get hooked in. This point is furthered in " ...

The battle of Lanka Source 1: Rama prayed to the god of the sea, in hopes that he would allow for his army to pass into Lanka. Nothing happened, so Rama shot the ocean, which caused the earth to shake and lighting and thunder roared. Rama ignored this warning and lit a arrow on fire and threatened to dry up the entire ocean. This prompted the king of the ocean to rise up, and he said "Rama, I like you, but according to ancient laws, I cannot help you. But you should hit up Nala, a monkey chief, and he'll help you" Then the king went back into the ocean and everything went back to normal. Nala came forward and began constructing a bridge of rocky islands. 2: The weather became dreadful as the comings of war were known. Rama prepared to lay siege to Lanka, and Ravana knew of this as his spies had come back from their disguised monkey forms to report the news. They advised Ravana to surrender Sita, but he was just more enraged. Ravana faked Rama's death and told ...

Statue of Hanuman Source 1: The brothers run into Hanuman, the messenger of the virtuous monkey Sugriva. Hanuman asked why the boys were wandering, and Lakshmana told him the story so far. Hanuman explains that Sugriva is in a similar situation, and that he will help, and he takes them to Sugriva. 2: Sugriva explained his story and how his brother, Vali, hated him. Sugriva thought his brother died, so he basically buried him alive, but his brother didn't believe that Sugriva thought he died, he thought Sugriva was just a terrible brother. Vali took Sugriva's wife. Rama asked Sugriva to challenge Vali to battle. 3: Tara, Vali's wife tells her husband how powerful Rama is and advises him to avoid the battle. Vali doesn't listen and prepares to battle. 4: Rama hides from the battle, and ambushes Vali and kills him. 5: Tara, Sugriva, and the counselors of the monkey kingdom all mourn the death of the king. Sugriva is named the new king 6: Sugriva holds up his en...

Feedback Padlet Source The growth mindset, and feedback in general, are crucial aspects to ones education at any age. Whether in the classroom or in the office, feedback is essential if we want to continue progressing on our course to be a better and more educated student/worker. Though giving feedback is crucial, not many people are able to give feedback  effectively. In Gravity Goldberg's article " Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset " she gives some qualities of feedback that foster a growth mindset which I think I can incorporate into my giving of feedback. The quality that most stuck out to me was to focus on what the reader is doing, not missing. I think it is very common and easy to give feedback that says "This would have been perfect if X happened." She states that a mirror cannot reflect what isn't there, and I think this is the perfect analogy A lot of times we like to say that X should have happened, but some...

Graphic Novel: Ravana: Roar of the Demon King Source One of the stories I think would work well is  Ravana & His Rakshasa Family , as throughout the Ramayana, many of Ravana's siblings are introduced. I think that having a story devoted to his family tree would be very helpful to better understanding the characters in the Ramayana and how they relate to the demon king. Another story I think would work is the story of The Legend of Ravana , more specifically, Ravana's rise. In many stories of Ravana I have found, they all take place when he is already an established demon. Rarely have I found any stories detailing the birth and rise of the demon king, and I think it would not only be very interesting, but also very useful when trying to understand his motives or why he acts the way he does. Lastly, I think using the story of   The Lord of Lanka: The Rise and Fall of a Demon King , more specifically the section titled "Ravana's dowfall" would make for a v...