Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Storytelling for Week 6: "Riddles at the Lake"

Once upon a time, there was a pound in the large city of San Francisco. This pound was not your average pound and did not always treat animals the way they necessarily should be treated. There were four dogs in particular that everyone loved. They had been at the pound for almost twelve years and they were all born in the same litter, so they were brothers. The dog’s names were Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. The man that named them had a very particular sense of humor.

These dogs, just like all of the other animals living at the shelter, dreamt of one day escaping the place. There was an evil gatekeeper, though that ran the pound and refused to let the animals be adopted or go anywhere else. He sometimes refused to give them adequate amounts of water and food and he did not always take them for walks outside in the dog park.

When these four dogs were left on the side of the road as puppies, they did not expect much from people anymore. They did, however, expect to be treated humanely. After twelve years, they were finally ready to leave. They had put up with this nonsense for long enough and surely the outside world offered them a better life than being stuck inside a kennel all day.

After weeks of planning, they finally staged a breakout. They were ready to leave the pound and start anew. However, one thing stood in their way to freedom. The gatekeeper. 

As they slowly crept out in the night, they were careful not to make any loud noises. They made it all the way to the dog park in the back of the pound when suddenly, the gatekeeper sprang up out from the sprinklers!

“Ha ha! I’ve finally caught you! I know you have been plotting to escape for a long time now, but I will make you a deal. The deal is if you can make it through a series of challenges that I decide, you will be free to leave!”

The dogs looked at each other and thought it over. It did not take them very long before they decided they could do it. First, Nakula had a hot dog eating contest ahead of him. He could not make it through all of the hot dogs within the time limit so he was sent back to the kennel. Net up was Sahadeva, who had to dance while wearing a hula hoop. The hula hoop fell and so he was sent back to the kennel. And so it went with Arjuna. When Yudhishthira came to his challenge, the gatekeeper asked him a series of riddles that he had to answer patiently and with speed in order to gain freedom. He answered all of the riddles and the gatekeeper was stunned. 

The gatekeeper promised Yudhishthira his freedom and the freedom of his brothers. He also vowed to never rule the pound with an iron fist again! From that day forward, the animals roamed free and were able to be adopted and do as they pleased! The end!

("The Pound" from the Real Scratch Pad Blog at Wordpress)

Author's Note: I honestly do not know how I came up with the idea for this story. I think it was a combination of it being a late night and also my conversation with my sister. I was talking to my sister tonight and she recently adopted a puppy from her local pound. Somehow this idea crept into my subconscious and influenced my story! I decided to use the same names from "Riddles at the Lake" for the animal characters in order to make my retelling of the story less confusing.

Bibliography: "Riddles at the Lake" by Donald A. Mackenzie, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Web Source: PDE Mahabharata

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Curation: Week 6

This week, I found some really good things online to share for my curation blog post!


  1. The Shreemati News- this was a website done by one of my classmates and I think that she did an absolutely fabulous job! I was so impressed with this storybook I decided to post it.


(Screenshot from Shreemati News)

2. "The Mongoose" from the Mahabharata- this was one of my favorite stories from the reading this week! This is a picture from the story from the PDE Mahabharata.

(Image Source: Mongoose comes to Aswamedha of Yudhishthira from Wikipedia Commons)

3. The Himalayas- this was for research for my storybook website since I am creating my storybook from the perspective of children in the Himalayas. I absolutely love how Google lines up the information when you search for a topic.

(screenshot from Google Search: Himalayas)

Week 6 Review

My favorite image from the Course Announcements page this week was.... of course the cat meme!!!

(Image Source: cat meme from Laura Gibbs' Course Announcements page)

This is exactly how I feel sometimes when I am learning a new lesson.


Tech Tip: Twitter Follow

This week, I chose to add some people to my follow list on Twitter!

These are some of the accounts I chose to follow and why I chose to follow them:

  • President David L. Boren (@president_boren)- As the leader and figurehead of our school, I thought it was important to follow his tweets!
  • Laura Gibbs (@onlinemythindia)- As the teacher of this class, I thought Laura will have important and interesting tweets to share relating to people taking her classes!
  • Religious Studies UQ (@religionuq)- This account tweets periodically about different versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata available. It relates very much to this class!

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Mahabharata

1. Bhishma Falls

Bhishma vowed that he would not slay a woman, so Arjuna was sent to fight against him. Reluctant, Arjuna went with Sikhandin, a woman who was made male by yaksha?

2. Death of Drona

At the Battle of Kurukshetra, Drona was defeated by trickery by the Pandava brothers.

3. Duryodhana in the Lake

Duryodhana has used his supernatural powers in order to take refuge in a lake. Duryodhana and Yudhishthira bargained until they agreed upon fighting one by one.

("Duryodhana found in the lake" from Wikipedia Commons)

4. Ashwatthaman's Jewel

Ashwatthaman raided the Pandava brother's camp! Draupadi is in mourning for her brother and her five sons. Ashwatthaman is a brahmin and Yudhishthira vows to Draupadi that he will kill him for his wrongdoing. Arjuna found the jewel that Ashwatthaman took after a long pursuit.

5. Horse Sacrifice

They sacrificed a sacred horse in order for Yudhishthira's ritual of becoming king to complete and be official. Yudhishthira and Draupadi bathed in the sacred waters of the Ganges River (has anyone ever seen that? That water is anything but sacred!!)

6. The Mongoose

The mongoose is the storyteller in this part of the Mahabharata. He tells the story of the brahmin and Dharma.

PDE Mahabharata

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Mahabharata

1. The Himalayas

Draupadi and four of her Pandava husbands set out to venture through the Himalayas. Arjuna rejoins them later and they live in Kamyaka. Kamyaka's forest was a place where the six were "cleansed of their sins" and where they achieved great virtues? Many sages visited them here, sharing wisdom with Draupadi and the five Pandavas.


("Kubera, the god of riches" from Wikipedia Commons)

2. Bhima and Hanuman

Hanuman is still one earth from when we last saw him in the Ramayana. He meets his half-brother, Bhima. They are both sons of the wind god, Vayu. Bhima found Hanuman lying in the middle of the road. Hanuman revealed himself to Bhima and then explained the castes of the caste system to Bhima.

3. Riddles at the Lake

As the twelfth year of exile came upon the Pandava brothers, they wanted to leave the forest. Suddenly, they were all very thirsty. When they came upon a pool of water, a voice said that they had to answer a question asked of them before they drank. Nakula ignored this warning and drank anyways. He promptly fell over, dead. Sahadeva, did not drink, but gazed greedily at the pool. He too, fell dead. Arjuna and Bhima followed the others and also fell dead. Yudhishthira was the only one who heeded the voice's warnings and he promptly answered all of the questions (or riddles). The voice revealed himself to be Dharma, the god of wisdom and justice. Yudhishthira wanted his brothers' lives restored and the power to be unrecognized by anyone for a year? Why this wish?

PDE Mahabharata

Monday, September 28, 2015

Famous Last Words: Week 5

This week was more difficult for me to accomplish the tasks necessary to finish my week. All of my classes suffered this week because I was sick for three days! I did not even get to finish my storytelling post because I could barely get out of bed on that day. I missed three days of work and three days of school. For a college student, we know this is very bad news.

However, I felt much better on Friday and I was able to go home for the weekend! I got to visit my family as well as see my boyfriend’s family, which really lifted my spirits after practically being a shut-in all week. On Sunday, I was able to attend a music festival in Denton, Texas, called Oaktopia where my friends and I got to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes play! It was so fun! There were vendors selling various things, food everywhere, and music performances on several different stages throughout the main square of the local Texas town. My friend’s dad directed and organized the entire festival, so he was able to score us some sweet VIP passes where we could hang out with some of the bands! It truly was a night to remember and it was totally worth going to and not getting back to Norman until two in the morning.


So even though I was sick this week, I got to experience a lot of fun! Now, for the upcoming weeks, I have to play catch up in school and I need to somehow make up my hours at work. IN addition to that, I also have some very ominous midterms looming over my head and I have some job interviews lined up. Eeeep! I know I can get through these upcoming weeks! I just want to experience the joy in every situation while going through these difficult, busy times in my life!

(Image Source: Oaktopia Fest on Twitter)

Reading Feedback

Again, I chose my reading for the Mahabharata based on what was already available online. I felt like this epic was more difficult to read than the Ramayana because there seemed to be a lot more going on. I am not sure if that was just my opinion, or if other readers felt this way too.

The reading did come with a reading guide and I felt it to be extremely helpful because of the confusing storyline of the Mahabharata. I spent only about 2 1/2 hours on the reading for the week. It really was not bad at all. This reading is very easily doable as long as you plan out the time when you are going to read and write and such!

Overall, I enjoyed reading the Ramayana better than I have enjoyed reading the Mahabharata thus far, but I will see what is to come in the upcoming weeks!

(Image Source: Flickr; photo by Erin Kelly)

Growth Mindset: Week 5

This week, I decided to do the growth mindset challenge based on the challenges presented in my other classes. Specifically, I chose my accounting class. I chose this class because I have come close to failing an accounting course before and if it had not been for some friends to lift me up and encourage me, I never would have made it through the course. It was by the grace of God I made a good grade in that class!

So here it goes....

In my accounting course this semester, I am worried that I will come close to failing again. It is a fear that one might say is irrational, but it is very real to me. As I focus on this challenge, I am reminded of the grade "not yet" in the growth mindset thought process. I feel like that is a much better way for me to think about it because it takes all of the pressure off for me! I am able to relax a little bit more and not be so worried about my grade. I can just really focus on learning the material and doing my very best in the class.

I will keep you posted as to how I progress further into my accounting course this semester!

(Image Source: Accounting and Finance Memes)

Week 5 Review

This week, I really enjoyed this picture from the course announcements page because it made me think of all the times I have not been paying attention when I am filling a cup and I fill it too full. It is not too much longer before there is coffee (or whatever liquid was inside) everywhere! I liked this a lot, not more than the cat memes, but I tried to change it up a little this week. :)

(From Laura Gibbs' Course Announcements)


Tech Tip: First Tweet

While I have already had a Twitter account in the past, I have not been using it hardly at all since I came to college three years ago. Unashamedly, the only thing I have used Twitter for lately is to check the OU parking account to see how many parking spaces are left on campus!

When I saw this was a Tech Tip for Indian Epics though, I was pleasantly surprised and ready to start tweeting again! Be on the lookout for my new tweets people!