Wikipedia Trails: From Chief to French Revolution

I read the Twenty Tales of Jataka and was interested in starting my search with Chief. This is a nod to the chief dog. There are many different meanings of chief. It is mostly related to different types of rankings and leadership among military and law enforcement. Chief seems to be a term that means you are respected.

Next I went to Commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief of the US is President Trump. This term follows the idea of civilian control of the military. There are a multitude of countries that have commander-in-chief's and everyone has different stipulations on how you get this title.

Next I went to Warlord. This name just sounded interesting to me. Being a warlord is due to the person's ability to mobilize loyal armed forces. The first use of the word warlord is from American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Finally I went to the French Revolution. I honestly just tried to find the most random thing that I could. The French Revolution was when the revolution overthrew the monarchy. I lot of stuff went down. There was a lot of violence during this time.

French Revolution

Week 13 Reading Notes: Tales of Ancient India, Part B

When I saw the list of all the names there were a lot that looked familiar. I really liked learning about Rama, but after doing weeks of readings about him I thought that it would be best to not read about him. I chose to read about Surya.

The first paragraph is really nice. I like the way that it is written. It is descriptive and provides a lot of context as to where the story is taking place. The line that says “he was the light of his parents’ life” is really nice. It is important to admire lines like this in ancient stories. Sometimes the children in these types of stories do not get the love and admiration that they need. If I wanted to do something very different, I could take this one line and create my own story from it. It would allow me to be very creative and take it pretty much anywhere I want to go.

running away

It makes me sad to see Surya and Sangna separated. When he realizes that he was betrayed it was powerful. The reader can tell how sad he is that he was betrayed. The fact that he pushed Chhaya out of the car speaks for himself. He searches for her so much he probably was losing hope. I know what it is like to love someone so much and to have them be away from you. When you are looking for them it can be difficult because you don’t know if you will ever see them again. I could write a story on this. It would be between a human and their dog. The human would portay Surya while the dog would portray Sangna. The dog would run away from the human and the human would do anything possible to get the dog back. It would be a very similar to the original story, just with the twist of having it be between a dog and a human.

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India written by Edmund Charles Cox, online source

Week 13 Reading Notes: Tales of Ancient India, Part A

When I read the title “How Krishna Was Born” it made me very curious as to how he was born. That is not a typical title, so I was very intrigued.

I like how at the beginning of the story there is a lot of description. It is very visual and it makes it easy for the reader to actually imagine what is happening in the world of the story. It seems like the entire world is happy for Krishna’s arrival. Everything in the world that can be bad was happy for him to be apart of their world and to “take away the burden of the world”. I wonder if Krishna will be able to live up to this expectation?

possible baby Krishna

The parents of Krishna are happy that he is safe. I like this part of the story. They pretty much say so what if Kans kills us, we know that our child is safe. This shows the love of the parents. Also, it probably helps that they know that someday Krishna will be back to take down Kans. This seems to give them some sort of closure in case something bad does happen to them. Hopefully something doesn’t. I could see myself writing a story about the parents of Krishna. Right after Krishna was born, he said that he must go. It must have been devastating for the parents to hear that. They do as he says though. Writing a story from their point of view will add more to the story. I would make them said in the sense that Krishna would be gone, but happy in the sense that they know that he is safe.

It seems that the parents did a good thing by letting Krishna leave because the king went and killed all of the children and old people. This king sounds insecure almost. He is afraid of the powerful infant that was born so he has to kill them all. He knows that his time is coming so he tries to put a stop to it. This obviously will not work.

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India written by Edmond Charles Cox, online source

Tech Tip Cheezburger

Cheezburger

I can really relate to this cat. I always have this look on my face when I wake up and it is Monday. 

Week 12 Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales, Part B

The title once again caught my eye. When I think of pigs I think of a lot of different stories, such as Charlotte’s Web, Babe, and so much more. Then when I see a descriptive number in a title it makes me think of the different personalities that they could have. Will they be similar? Will one be corrupt while the other is not? Are they both going to be bad or good? From the beginning of the story I could not tell how the pigs would act. But after being introduced to the woman I was a little skeptical. She just met them, put them in her basket and took them home. A little strange to me. Once they got home she was very excited. I bet she has a plan for the pigs.

the two pigs

Unfortunately, men came and wanted to take the pigs. I think that people can learn a lot from Mahatundila. He spoke words that made the men and the entire city stop and recognize that love is the most important Mahatundila loved his brother so much that he told him do not fear, my love will save you. I think that this part of the story was so sweet. I did not see it going there. The fact that the pigs went to live in the palace with the King and that Mahatundila was the one to settle the disputes tells a lot about how everyone reacted. They were brought to tears. I have loved something so much that it brings me to tears. This shows that love is extremely powerful.

I feel like I could write a lot of different stories with the idea of the original in the back of my mind. I could tell the story from the old woman’s point of view. She loved those pigs, but they forced her to drink which made her have bad judgment. I could also tell a story not to do with the pigs but rather to do with love winning all. In the right context and the correct writing style, this story could resonate a lot of feelings and make the reader remember a time where love won.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales written by Noor Inayat, online source