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

Storytelling for Week 4: "The Succession" (The Divine Archer Ramayana)

There once was a queen. She was no ordinary queen, but the queen to a king who ruled over many lands and who was revered by all. Unfortunately, she could not provide an heir for the king. He was not upset with her for their lack of offspring, but he was disheartened. Was his line not meant to continue in the kingdom? The king saw the queen's disappointment as well and promised to make her the happiest woman in the world, child or not. He promised to grant her three wishes and he would have to see through to them no matter what they were.

The queen saw how the king was disappointed and she was eager to do something about it. She asked to use one of her wishes from the king in order to leave the castle one day in search of some peace. He happily granted her the freedom she so desired. She went to the forest and approached an old hermit living in a small hut. She had heard rumors about the hermit living in the woods. The rumors claimed that he was more than just a mere hermit, he was actually a sorcerer. She asked the hermit what could be done about her childbearing abilities and he seemed very confident that he could find a solution for her.

"Take these berries twice a day for three months, but do not miss a day or you will surely have consequences," the hermit warned her.

The queen was faithful to take her berries twice a day just like she was told. However, one day, a servant in the castle was cleaning the queen's room. When he was cleaning the drawer in the nightstand, he stumbled upon the berries. Now he was an evil servant, very cruel to all. He took a few of the berries wondering about their power and laughing at his small trick on the queen. After all, how important could a few berries be to the queen of all the lands?

The day came where the queen came to the last berry. She took it slowly, promising herself that she would be with child before long just as the hermit had promised. Little did she know of the servant's trick...

Before long, the queen was pregnant. She was overjoyed and celebrated the news with her husband! A few weeks later, though, she learned that she was not the only woman with child in the castle. Her husband's other three wives were also pregnant with heirs to the kingdom. This news infuriated the queen. Had she not done everything she was asked? She sought out the hermit in the woods and demanded he explain his error. The hermit calmly told her, "Madam, you did not follow my instructions accordingly and because of this, you will suffer for relying on dark magic to do your bidding."

Years later, when the queen's son had grown up to be older and wiser, he was of age to control the kingdom. However, he would never have his chance because his brother, Rama, was the favorite of everyone who met him. The queen schemed once again. This time, she planned to ensure her happiness by seeing her son on the throne. Because of the king's previous promises to her, he was obliged to obey whatever she commanded him. She forced him to make her son the true heir of the kingdom and to banish Rama for fourteen years before he could return. This time would ensure his brother's long reign over the kingdom, so Rama could not come back to claim everything once again.

The queen felt sorry for her actions because she truly had good intentions once upon a time, but her son must be protected at all costs.

("Rama and Sita in Exile" Image Source: Wikipedia "Rama")

Author's Note: I have just recently started watching the show Reign on Netflix. Since that show has been on my mind, it had a point of influence in my version of the story this week. The way that the queen manipulates people and situations in order to ensure her own son's crown and title is almost exactly the same in both Reign and "The Succession". The mother is willing to do whatever it takes to see her son on the throne, including banishing the other son of her husband. Anyways, this definitely had a part in my take on the story! I created this story with the idea that the queen actually did not want to hurt or punish Rama from the beginning, but you get the idea that she felt like she had no other options. I did not want readers to hate the queen, but instead to feel pity for her in the midst of the situation because that makes her a much more dynamic character and thus, more interesting to the storyline overall. If I had more time and more words to share, I would have created a whole other part of the story about the evil servant and I would have covered his role in more detail. I hope you enjoyed the story that I had to tell about the queen who made a strong choice!

Bibliography: "The Succession" by Frederick James Gould, from The Divine Archer (1911). Web Source: Sacred Texts Archive

Storytelling Week 3: Ravana's Death

There once was a boy named Jerry who was in love with a gorgeous girl named Beatrice. Beatrice was kidnapped one day by an evil professional wrestler, whose name was Henry. Henry took Beatrice from Jerry because Jerry was only trying to help his friend, Gary, earn the right to professionally wrestle again. Henry refused to let Gary wrestle because they were brothers and because he secretly knew that Gary was a much better athlete than he ever could be.

Jerry was absolutely distraught when Beatrice was taken and he forged a plan with Gary to get her back from the evil Henry. If Jerry could help Gary beat Henry in a wrestling match, he would be able to win Beatrice back again. So they set on a journey to reclaim Gary’s professional wrestling title.

Jerry was very superstitious and did weird things like throw salt over his shoulder and knock on wood before they crossed any path that looked remotely dangerous. For instance, in the middle of their long journey, they came to a rickety bridge with a ravine underneath. Jerry took the salt and through it over his shoulder, mumbled a couple of words, and hoped to cross safely. Once they were across, Jerry and Gary both took large breaths, finding comfort on the other side.

"Building the bridge to Lanka" (Image Source: PDE Ramayana)

As they reached the wrestling gym, where Henry was keeping Beatrice, they made a plan outside. Jerry would take Henry down by distracting him, while Gary would then come and wrestle him one last time. They shot into action. Jerry grabbed Henry from behind, which allowed Gary to catch Henry by surprise. Henry was furious and he challenged Gary to a wrestle-off in order to settle the whole ordeal.

As Gary prepared for the wrestle-off, he realized he had twisted his ankle. He said to Jerry, “Jerry, I can’t wrestle! You have to take my place in order for me to become a professional wrestler again and for you to win Beatrice back!”

Jerry felt uneasy about the whole thing, but he knew that he had to have Beatrice back with him, so he wrestled. Henry came at him from all sides, but Jerry fought him off like a true champion. In the end, Jerry won because he ran into a piece of wood on the side of the arena. His superstition believed this was the knocking on wood that came to his aid. When Henry was knocked out, they called the police to haul him away. Jerry was once again reunited with Beatrice. As he held her in his arms, he promised to never let go again.

One year later, Gary was headlining as the main professional wrestler for the state and people were coming from all over in order to see him. Jerry and Beatrice were married and they went to go and see Gary wrestle one evening. As they watched him doing the sport he loved, they gazed deeply into each other’s eyes, knowing what it took to get to that moment.

Author's Note: I am not sure how it came about for me to write this story, but it was fun after I started. I chose to tell my story in a modern interpretation this time because I had seen other people's stories written this way and I thought they were so creative! This story did not take me long at all because the modern interpretation made it fun! The idea of the professional wrestlers came to me just in a whirlwind of brainstorming for the storytelling assignment this week. As soon as I thought of it, I knew that I could make it both humorous and inspirational to the readers. Another aspect that I enjoyed about this story was the superstitions. Instead of praying to the gods for certain things, I created the idea of superstitions. The character of Jerry would be very superstitious and would have to perform some sort of action in order to counter the bad luck that would happen along the journey. I think that one way I could have improved this story would have been to spend more time on the actual “final wrestling match” because I did not describe it very well. For those of you who were curious, I picked the names on sheer will. I had no idea what I wanted to name the characters, but I just wrote down the first names that popped in my head and voila! The characters were born!

Bibliography: "Ravana's Death" by Donald A. Mackenzie, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Web Source: PDE Ramayana: "Ravana's Death

Storytelling for Week 2: Sita (PDE Ramayana)

Two brothers set out on a journey. It was a journey of exploration and one for adventure. They wanted to tell many stories from their travels, but one brother never expected that he would be explaining how he came to fall in love on the brothers' journey. 

Lakshmana and Rama, two brothers from a large kingdom, started on their journey. Lakshmana was adventurous and wanted to see the country and his brother, Rama, wanted to be alongside him for his travels. These brothers were also princes and they were handsome princes at that. They wandered through their kingdom to get to the outer skirts of the city and people watched them pass by every place they went. Rama caught the attention of women, especially because he was the most handsome and the darkest brother of the four princes. They begged him to be theirs, but he refused because Rama believed in the idea of true love and he did not feel as if any of these women could be his true love.

They traveled until night and decided to look for a place to stay the night. They found small accommodations near the edge of the city where they paused their journey for some much needed rest. In the morning, they woke to pick flowers and bathe in the river nearby. They continued on their journey, only to end up in a beautiful garden with a beautiful lake and waterfall.

As the princes washed their faces in the whisper of the waterfall, they heard footsteps. Rama looked up and found a beautiful girl staring at him from a distance. Somehow, they found themselves in the princess' garden! The princess was beautiful and Rama stared at her. Lakshmana recognized their attraction instantly and thought to himself that he had to make sure that they ended up together. Their love was obvious from the start and they even looked like they were meant to end up together.

Sita prayed to the goddess that night to reveal her true love to her. She was secretly hoping that her true love would be Rama. As she prayed, a string of flowers fell from the tree above and Sita knew instantly that Rama was to be her husband and true love.

Rama simply knew from that first moment of meeting Sita, he would have to marry her. He loved her deeper than his father had ever loved any of his wives and he knew it was meant to be. From that moment on, no woman could ever compare to Rama in the same way that Sita would. 

("Rama and Sita setting up their hut in Panchvati")

Image from Wikipedia Commons

Author's Note: I was inspired to write this story because of the powerful romance found between Rama and Sita. Their love story was so dramatic, I simply felt inspired. I wrote this story in a modern sense, so it can relate to modern generations, so they can see the power of a blossoming of romance. The story is based on Sita from the Public Domain Ramayana.

Bibliography: "Sita" by F. J. Gould, from The Divine Archer (1911). Web Source: Public Domain Edition Ramayana.

How a Man Came to Wear a Pig

You might be interested in some words I have to say.

That is, of course, if these words do not lead you astray.

There are strange tales to be told for sure, 

But this one might be the most absurd!

One quiet, sunshine-filled day, a man, new to town, went to his local barbershop for a haircut. As he made his way down the street, he took notice of how empty the town had become.

Image from Flickr Photos

(Photo by: Ewan Munro)

As he walked into the barber shop, he noticed he was the only customer inside. When he saw the barber, he politely asked, "Sir, where has everyone gone today? I observed our town's empty streets today and I was wondering what event is taking place?"

"Well, good sir, you do have the best of timing. I was just about to head there myself. The entire town has gathered for a day of fun at the Hickerson farm just outside of town," proclaimed the barber.

"Yes! I would love to attend with you if I may!"

So, the barber and the man headed off down the road towards the Hickerson farm for a day of fun. When they arrived at Hickerson farm, the local deputy ran up to the barber waving his hands in a mad sort of fashion and yelling at the top of his lungs.

Davy Jones yelled, "Mr. Robertson! Mr Robertson! Come quick! David Mayfield and Rudolph Vanderby just placed a bet where Vanderby lost and now he has to wear a wig made of pig hair!"

Mr. Robertson, the barber, calmly chuckled to himself and said to his guest, "See, it will be quite the day of fun here at Hickerson farm. Are you not glad that you joined me?"

The man also laughed, but was very surprised at the recent turn of events.

"Well, let's see about this pig wig now," said Mr. Robertson.

The Andy Griffith Show

(Picture of Barney and Gomer Pile on Wikipedia)

As the deputy, the barber, and the man came over the hill, they noticed Mayfield and Vanderby standing next to a squealing pig. The barber pulled out his shears and he was ready for action. The crowd gathered around and started to chant:

"Barber, barber, shave a pig;

How many hairs will make a wig?

Four-and-twenty, that's enough:

Give the barber a pinch of snuff!"

(traditional nursery rhyme)

When the barber finished shaving the pig, he gathered the hair in a bundle. He presented it to David Mayfield and Mayfield thereby presented it to Vanderby, on top of his head! The crowd went wild! 

The man who came with the barber said to himself, "I do believe I am going to like living here."

The end! The end! What more truth can I bend? 

A nursery rhyme to tell the tale,

A blog that will surely not fail!

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Author's Note. This is an original story created from the nursery rhyme "Barber, barber, shave a pig" which is quoted within the story. The original nursery rhyme can be found in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). The story I wrote simply came about from many long minutes of brainstorming. I liked the nursery rhyme and I knew that I wanted to create a funny tale explaining how a barber shaved a pig and made a wig.