Indian Epics: Week 4

Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts

Monday, February 8, 2016

Week 4 Review

Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!!

Chinese Lunar New Year Background

This week has been kind of crazy with the amount of work I have had to do with school. Things seem to sneak up on me. My first round of tests start next week but I am keeping myself plenty busy with the amount of homework I need to get done. That is one reason why I have been working ahead. It outs my mind to ease to know that I am not falling behind in this class. I want to be able to give this class the proper time it deserves to do a good job and make a good blog that I am proud of at the end of the semester.

I found the reading for this week extremely entertaining! I decided to watch the video "Sita Sings the Blues" instead of reading another option because to be honest I am tired of reading the story of Ramayana. I wanted to see it this time and I was not disappointed. The video was hilarious and well made! The artist who made the drawings is very talented and kept the video interesting the entire time as if I were watching a movie. I looked up some of her other work and would be happy to watch something else made by her. Her name is Nina Paley and she is very talented.

This is Nina Paley
By: Sage Ross Flickr

On a more modern reality note, the broncos won the super bowl! I was shocked and excited. It was also nice to be able to watch it with my friends and do something other than homework. March madness is coming up soon and I will have to do my research on the teams. My family loves March madness and I need to have a perfect bracket this year to beat my sisters. Maybe I can even convince one of them to come to Oklahoma to see an on basketball game.

Tech Tip: Pinterest Board

I have used pinterest before so it was easy for me to set up my board. I look forward to using more of this tech tip section.
Feel free to check it out!

Follow Sara's board Epics of India Portfolio on Pinterest.

Learning Challenges: Happiness Jar

I think this idea relates to both happiness and empathy in the H.E.A.R.T acronym. It is a pretty cool idea that I think I might try this semester. I also think you could modify this challenge by getting a couple people to add to the jar to understand the little things that make people happy.

Found on Laura Gibbs Blog

Growth Mindset: Use your Brain-Read!

One of the reasons I wanted to take this class is to add some reading to my college schedule. I think reading is a great way to sharpen your mind and broaden your vocabulary.

Photo by Sylvia at Flickr.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Week 4 Storytelling: Jennifer's Luck

For Jennifer, if something could go wrong it always did. She was beautiful and kind but she had the worst luck. When she was five years old broke her mother's vase, at ten she lost her dog, at fifteen she knocked over the cake at her cousins wedding, and a seventeen she managed to lose her job at a law firm because she was too clumsy. Her father was her favorite person in the world because he looked past her luck and saw a determined and fun young lady.

Jennifer hated the idea of an arranged marriage but it was a tradition in her family for the father to pick out his daughters suitors when they turned twenty. Since her father loved her, he search for years to find just the right person that he thought would love his sweet daughter. When Jennifer woke up on her twentieth birthday her stomach dropped because she knew it was the day she married a stranger. When she walked down the aisle she was pleasantly surprised because he was a handsome man. Once they were married she learned his name was Richard and they had a lot in common. Jennifer thought to herself how happy she was that her luck had changed.

Jennifer's Pearl Necklace before she broke it off.
Source: Pixabay

Jennifer grew to love Richard and she thanked her father often for matching her with such an amazing man. One of their favorite things to do together was hunt in the woods with the golden bow that was gifted to them at their wedding. One day while hunting Richard went off to chase a deer and when he got back Jennifer was missing. She had been taken by an evil hermit in the woods who admired her beauty. Jennifer knew her bad luck would return one day but she wasn’t going to let this separate her from her love. When she was taken she broke the string of pearls Richard gave her and left of trail of pearls for him to follow. Even though she left a trial, she feared Richard would not come for her because her unlucky nature would be too much work.

Richard went to his house and gathered as many arrows as he could. He then set out into the forest to follow to path of pearls. As soon as he started his search he found a dog trapped underneath a fallen tree. He rushed over and helped the dog to freedom. As he walked on the dog followed behind keeping him company. Richard enjoyed having the dog around but never lost sight of his ultimate goal to find Jennifer.

One night while Richard had gone to sleep the dog saw a fire in the distance. The dog licked Richard's face until he woke up and then it guided Richard to the fire where he saw Jennifer tied to a tree and the hermit by the fire. Richard pulled back his bow with all of his strength and killed the hermit with one arrow to the chest. Jennifer was overjoyed to see her long lost love and knew that she would live happy with him or the rest of her life no matter how unlucky she was.

Author's Note:

This story is very different than the plot from the video (Sita Sings the Blues). First of all, I changed the names in the story which I have not done before but since the film made the Ramayana seem more modern I wanted to use names that were more familiar to me. In this story I changed Sita's name to Jennifer and Rama's name to Richard. I named Jennifer after a friend of mine who seems to be very clumsy. I made Rama's new name Richard because they both start with the letter R. I also changed Sugriva the Monkey-God into a dog who follows Richard and helps him find the hermit who took Jennifer. In this story the hermit represents Ravana. I also gave Richard a golden bow which is true to the original story. Since the film did not emphasis Rama's brother, I did not include him in the story. I also ended the story in a happier manner like I have in the past because I like a happy ending. Another way I stayed true to the video is when Richard goes to chase a deer. Rama is away from Sita getting a deer when she is taken too. The rest of the story was made up by me in my own interpretation of The Ramayana video named Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley.

This story is based off a film reinterpretation of The Ramayana. The films name is Sita Sings the Blues. It is written, directed, produced and animated by American artist Nina Paley.

Week 4 Reading Diary Continued: Sita Sings the Blues

I am glad I have chosen the video so far. It is fun to watch and I think it will be easy to write a story about this video, although I don’t think my humor will be able to stand up to theirs. This video can be found on YouTube.

A Screenshot of Rama sending Sita into exile
Sita Sings the Blues

· It starts back with Nina (the back story girl) receiving an email from Dave saying to not come back to India which is sad
· I still don’t understand the point of t he back story
· I now understand that Rama exiled Sita in order to have respect from his people but he did it in a shady way.
· Also I have not see Lakshmana in this story
· Sitas children praise Rama even though he cast sita out
· Rama is in the forest and he finds his sons and he lets them all return to the kingdom except for sita because she has to do another purity test
· Sita dies?
· In the back story Nina reads the Ramayana and I think she relates it to her life a little bit

Week 4 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues

I decided to watch the video on YouTube for week 4 reading because it seems interesting and kind of a change of pace which I like every once and awhile. I am hoping that watching this film will be a good way for me to have a better understanding of the Ramayana story. This video can be found on YouTube.

A screenshot of Rama and Sita
Sita Sings the Blues

· It is a little hard to follow and I am thankful for the footnotes at the bottom
· It is really funny and random
· The story is told by three shadow figures, the narrators of the story
· The way the cartoon is drawn changes frequently throughout the story.
· There is also a background story that I don’t understand. It is a couple with a cat moving to India for a job
· This story is mainly told from sita's point of view
· The story line seems to follow the one of last week's version.
· It's getting funnier as it goes on. It's actually making me laugh a lot
· Sita is captures again
· I feel like the monkey god came in earlier in this version then the other or maybe the demons where just fought quicker
· The three characters that are narrating the story are nice because it makes the story more relatable and I can understand it better with more modern language
· Ravana is defeated very easily
· Rama is not happy to see Sita because she has lived in another man's house and he is skeptical of her loyalty
· Part A ends with Rama forgiving Sita for whatever he thinks she has done