Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Part D

In this section, I really admire the love between Rama and Sita. They have been apart long enough and truly want to be together. This is evident when Sita heard that Rama “died” and she was “grieving out of all measure, and crying aloud with many lamentations, and she prayed Ravana to slay her by Rama’s head that she might follow him”. This part of the story reminds me slightly of Romeo and Juliet. I know that they are very different stories that have different plots, but in this moment, Sita has heard that Rama died and she wishes nothing more than to die right next to him so they could soon be together again.

Romeo and Juliet final scene

Later in the story, the character Indrajit tries to convince Rama that Sita is dead. He is the master of illusion so he is able to create an image to convince Rama of her death. In the reading notes (part C), I discussed a possible storyline that I could go with. This included a girl that was able to see things just like the bird Sampati. Instead of the girl having the same powers as Sampati, she could have a combination of him and Indrajit’s special abilities. The Indrajit portion could be the dark side of the girl while the Sampati part could be truthful side. The powers both involve being able to see things that others can’t, but the girl could manipulate her visions in order to gain access and/or power to her life. It would not be anything dramatic like Indrajit’s visions, but it would be something of impact for the high school type setting.

Indrajit's death

In the part about Indrajit, I liked the style of the text. It had rhyming verses again. I think that having a rhyming scheme would be a challenge but fun to write! There is also a lot of visualization in this section. Phrases like “And a deathlike trance and tremor fell upon the warrior brave” show the writers ability to have the reader see exactly what is going on. I hope to write pieces of my story like this.

Bibliography

Public Domain Ramayana written by Sister Nivedita and Romesh Dutt, online source

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Part C

In the beginning of Part C, Rama kills Vali. This is seen as almost controversial. He sends an arrow straight into his body and watches him bleed out. This part of the story is in a rhyme scheme. I like this. I might be able to incorporate rhyming into my story to make it different then anything I have written before. There was sadness that came from the death of Vali. With the verses again having a rhyme, it adds a different feel to the discussion of how people feel about the death of Vali. It is morose and a somber style of writing. If I were to have a part in my story that is sad like this, the words and phrases in this section would be something to look up to in order to make it stand out.

Sampati

Sampati is a character that I can put into my story. Instead of the vulture like bird telling exactly where Sita is with Ravana, the bird could be working with Ravana and be sending the monkeys into a trap. Another option could be out of the Ramayana world completely. It could be in modern times and a girl has the same powers as Sampati. People know of her powers and use her abilities for their own advantage. The story could focus around the girl and gaining the ability to better control her powers. The story could also go back in time to when the girl got her powers. It would show what exactly happened in order for the character to be where she is today. It could be seen as a struggle and something that the character must overcome in order to get to the point where she is at the end of the story. Adding this to a story would create a hero-type character that people can relate to even today.

Bibliography:

Public Domain Ramayana written by Romesh dutt, Sister Nivedita, and Frederika Richardson Macdonald, online source

Feedback Thoughts

Getting and giving feedback can sometimes be a difficult task. Some people are afraid to hear what others say and some people have a difficult time accepting their own flaws. I have become pretty good at accepting what others have to say, but seeing critiques is never easy. These articles can help!

Tips for taking feedback
This article brings up 5 points about accepting feedback. One of my favorite tips is that if you can accept the feedback, then that means that you have not reached your highest potential. This tip is so great because it says that yes there are negative things about your writing, but the positive is that they believe that you have so much more to gain. If someone were to comment this on my story or blog post, I would take it as a positive rather than a negative.

Rejection and What To Do
One of my favorite things that author Guy Winch says in this article is to "have zero tolerance for self-criticism". This speaks volumes. It pretty much says that even when someone says something rude and mean, just know that it doesn't define you. Learn from what these people have to say and apply it for the future. Just don't take what someone has to say personally. This is very difficult at times, but it is very important

Importance of learning

Be a Mirror

This article is about giving feedback. Its main focus is telling the reading to be a mirror. By this they mean to read with a growth mindset in place. Growth mindset is very important for students and people in general to have. This article states to focus on what the reader has provided. Doing this allows better feedback with what was put out by the author. The most important part of this article was about not saying "I like" or "I enjoyed" as this gives a pleasing tone to the feedback rather than a critical tone. This may sound weird, but it doesn't give the one being critiqued enough to go off of. 

Learning Feedback

The author of this article gives a numerous amount of examples on ways to learn how to feedback. A good point from the article is to take action. It is important to give feedback that one can take action from. This can be positive or negative. Another major topic of this article is to be consistent with your feedback. A rubric would be the best way for consistency from student to student feedback. This article brought up many points on how to be a better feedback-er and I plan on using this to my advantage. 

Week 2 Story Planning: The Fall of Rama

Characters:

Rama would be the main character that has a lot of conflict. He is in love with Sita but is beginning to also fall for Shurpanakha. He can come off as a jerk and definitely thinks of himself first, but at the end of the story he starts fresh so he can be happy.

Sita is Rama’s wife but doesn’t like what he is doing with his life. She doesn’t like the idea of sharing him or losing him to another woman, so she doesn’t let this happen. She leaves before he can do anything.

Shurpanakha seduces Rama and is successful in the sense that he is attracted to her and is considering leaving Sita, but this isn’t enough. Shurpanakha is greedy and only want himself to her and is jealous that he still has feelings for Sita. She eventually leaves Rama as well.

Styles:

A possible style could be to focus on one character’s point of view. If I were to do this, I would choose Rama and see the struggles that he is going through.

A possible style would be to make it like a reality show where a scene happens and then each character in the story shares their thoughts about the scene. This would create different sides of the story to be seen and a lot of detail could be obtained.

A possible style is making Rama be a huge jerk. I kind of plan on making this happen anyway, but I may make him more or less of a jerk depending on which style of the story I go with. He will obviously be a jerk if he is having major thoughts of wanting to be with another woman that isn’t his wife.

A possible style would be to write an alternate story to the original. This would mean that Rama would chose Shurpanakha, he doesn’t love Sita anymore, Khara would win the battle and so much more.

Research:

I have decided to do research on marriage in India. Here is what Wikipedia told me

For females, part of the family’s wealth is presented at the time of the marriage since there is no legal ties to the family fortune. This can include a variety of objects. Arranged marriages are common in Indian society. The marriage age is very young as well (on average 21 years old for women). Love marriages are becoming more common in India today. Weddings and marriage are taken very seriously. Weddings are a time of celebration and unity for the couple and the family. In my story, I plan to have a shift in the marriage between Rama and Sita.

Unity between husband and wife, online source

Bibliography:

Culture of India, Wikipedia, Marriage in India

Public Domain Ramayana written by Donald A. Mackenzie, Romesh Dutt, Gould, and Sister Nivedita, online reading