Week 6: reading diary b

This reading was the continuation of the Mahabharata that we began last week.  Picking up from last week, the Pandavas are in exile in the forest and are hearing many stories from interesting creatures.  Krishna visits them, which makes Draupadi get a little emotional.  She begins to cry out for their old lives in their silken robes and soft beds, and cannot believe this is what their lives have come to.  She declares that now is a time for vengeance, but Brahman assures her that being angry is just sinful and forgiveness will bring her happiness.  The Pandavas are now traveling toward the Himalayas, where they laid eyes on gorgeous gold and crystal palaces lined with jewels. They are finally reunited with Arjuna.  We now learn that Arjuna will have to face Karna in a "deadly conflict," causing everyone to be sad.

We meet Arjuna's father Indra next, who steals Karna's natural, celestial jewels hoping that this will give his son an advantage whenever they face in battle.  Karna argues with Indra though that he must give him something in return, so he gives him an "invincible arrow." The next part was one of my favorites, "Riddles at the Lake."  This was interesting because all of the brothers approach this pool of water, one by one, and the water asks them questions, demanding they answer before drinking the water.  None of them obey, and they each fall dead.  Finally, Yudhisthira listens to the voice in the water and plays his game.  Little did he know, Dharma appears and brings the brothers back to life granting them the ability to remain unrecognizable.  I thought this was a funny, clever little excerpt and I may want to base my storytelling post on it this week.

The Pandavas exile ends, and the war with Kauravas is nearing. Krishna does not want the war to happen, and attempts to make peace and do what he can to avoid it.  It is not working, and they are realizing they are going to have to fight.  Krishna will not stop, he even takes on his divine of Krishnu to work his magic.  Unfortunately, Krishna's efforts fail and everyone begins assembling for war to begin.  Arjuna is getting cold feet, and Krishna addresses him in a powerful, poetic scene encouraging him and preparing him for battle.

Krisha (wikimedia commons)

Mahabhrata

Week 5: Tech Tip

I actually used this tech tip for my week 4 post last week, and saved it to write about this week.  In my storytelling post last week I made a popular Justin Bieber song a big part of my storyline, and I knew I wanted to add a clip of the song in my post for those who had not heard the song to reference.  As I have mentioned a million times before, I am really not great at this blogging thing, and am not so tech savvy, so I had no idea how to do this.  After pulling up the tech tip and reading the directions, I realized how simple it was!  I couldn't believe it was that easy, I had thought there was no way I was going to ever figure it out.  I thought it really made my post stand out a little better than my older posts, so I was happy to have found that tech tip!

Week 5: Reading Feedback

This week marked the beginning of the Mahabharata.  I thought this week's reading started out a little bit rough.  I felt like I was getting so much information and background of the characters that I need to make a little map and note who was who so I wouldn't get lost.  I had to go back and re-read certain sections a couple of times.  So far I like the story, but it does not feel like it flows as well as the Ramayana did.  I was excited to read the Ramayana, and was never bored or confused.  I feel like so far this reading is a little more detailed and challenging, but I am hoping I will get more into it this coming week.

Mahabharata (wikimedia commons)

Week 5: Comments

I think that commenting on each other's blogs is an extremely helpful practice.  I have been loving receiving comments on both my stories and my introduction.  I really look forward to getting email notifications about comments because I appreciate the feedback of my peers.  I think that the feedback on my introduction is often more exciting, because it's personal and more engaging, I have found more people are willing to ask questions and relate to you on your introduction post.  I enjoy my storytelling comments for different reasons.  I love hearing what my classmates think about my story for the week.  I think the best comments are encouraging with constructive criticism.  I personally do not take offense to criticism, so I like when my classmates give me tips or advice on how to improve my story.  It is really helpful to get those comments because it makes me want to do better the following week.  I think I need to do more of this when commenting on others' posts.  A lot of times I just keep it short and sweet, and do not leave many tips for improvement, but i think it's really helpful to point out things out so we can all learn from our mistakes and get better and better each week.

Week 5 Storytelling: Kunti Says Goodbye

There was a new king in town, and he was a mighty powerful warrior with two beautiful wives, Madri and Kunti.  As Pandu came to the throne, he made it clear that he valued one wife more than the other.  Madri was Pandu's pride and joy.  He showed her off like she was a trophy, and he was so in love with her he could hardly keep his hands off of her.  He could only pay attention to her, and he often forgot he even had another wife.  Kunti saw the way Pandu would look at Madri and longed for a husband that would cherish her that way.  Kunti felt trapped and hated her life, but she could never leave and betray the king.  Every single day Kunti would think of what her life would be like if she left and started a new life of her own, but she could never muster up the courage to walk away. She was a faithful woman with the most pious of hearts.  Even though Pandu loved Madri much more than Kunti, he would still be very angry if she left him.  Having two wives made him more powerful, and Kunti brought a lot to the table when it came to ruling the people.

One morning Kunti was feeling rather ill and realized she had become pregnant.  She went far into the forest where she would give birth to a celestial son.  His eyes were fiery and fierce like a wild lion, while his body resembled an angry bull.  Kunti looked at her son in dismay, for he reminded her of how unhappy she was in her marriage and she feared that Pandu would never love him or let him rule the kingdom one day.  Panicked, Kunti felt the only thing to do was do let another family love her son.  She swaddled him in blankets and gently packed him in a cozy wicker basket.  She kissed her son goodbye and prayed that whoever found him would love him unconditionally.  If she was not able to love her son, she just hoped that someone else would be able to do it for her.  She prayed for a woman who was ready to be a mother, and who had the most loving and supportive husband that would raise the child as their own.  After many tears she said her goodbyes and walked away hopeful she had done the right thing.  It was the most difficult decision she had ever made, and she knew she would think of her son each day for the rest of her life.

Kunti Saying Goodbye

The baby had been on a long journey, and had peacefully slept the whole time he drifted down many rivers.  He finally arrived in Anga, where he would soon drift towards a wonderful woman that would end up taking great care of him.  Radha was an unusually stunning woman.   Her eyes were piercing and her hair flowed like a mermaid's. She was extraordinarily beautiful.  She was married to a wonderful man named Adhiratha who absolutely adored her.  Radha was his everything, and he had loved her for years and years.  The couple had wanted to have children since they got married years ago, but Radha was not ever able to get pregnant.  She felt empty, and that some part of her life was missing.  There was a hole in her heart that only a child could fill.  Radha ventured out to the stream and saw a baby boy wrapped in a blanket.  She immediately began to cry and wondered if her prayers had finally been answered. She embraced the boy and instantly fell in love.  From that moment on they were connected forever.  The boy was now her son.  As the years went by the boy grew and still had his fiery eyes and broad, muscular body. And these attributes helped him to become a successful warrior in Anga. He was so loved by his new family, and their love for him helped him grow and succeed in his life. They did not know it yet, but their son would one day become an influential leader of their land.  Kunti often thought of the boy she had given up that difficult day.  She wondered if he would be okay, or if he would find a loving home.  She hoped and prayed that she had made the right decision, and dreamed of the man he would become every single day of her life.

Author's note: I chose to base my story off of the excerpt in the Mahabharata titled "Kunti and her Son."  I liked this story because it was the first one in the Mahabharata to me that felt really personal.  There had been a lot of information and introduction up until this point.  I wanted to twist the story a little bit, so I went into more detail about how Pandu preferred Madri to Kunti, and this left Kunti feeling sad and desperate.  I changed the story making Karna Pandu's son, and Kunti not wanting him because Pandu did not love her.  I wanted to make minor detail changes to the story to make it more personal and interesting, but I stuck with a very similar story line.  I think this story will go in my portfolio well because I want to stick with stories that have a lot of emotion in them.  I liked how dramatic this story was, and I like adding detail to the stories to make them a little more dramatic.

Mahabharata

Week 5: Reading Diary A

The Mahabharata begins by introducing us the background of the story, explaining the author is Vyasa, who will be an important character throughout the story. We meet Devavrata, who the author explains will later be known as Brishma.  Brishma is a human, but has special powers- Vasus.  Next is the love story of Satyavati and Shantanu.  I enjoyed this one because I love love stories, so this may be a possibility as the basis of my storytelling post this week.  Vyasa is born and more detail is given about his importance.  Next, we learn why Devavrata was a named Brishma, and I was a little confused.  I re-read this part a couple of times.  So far the reading has been very detail oriented, and a bit of an information overload.   Brishma means "terrible" because of the vow that was taken.  I enjoyed learning about Kunti and her son, Karna and how he will also be an important part of the story.  Karna has "the eye of a lion and the shoulders of a bull."

This reading was a lot of information and I felt like I read so much and understood little, or forgot a lot by the time I had finished reading it.  I feel like I will definitely need to go back and read through it again before moving forward with the reading tomorrow.  It felt like it was moving a lot faster than the Ramayana, and I felt like we were introduced to so many characters that I need to go back through and make a little character guide so that I do not get lost along the way.

Brishma (Wikipedia)

Mahabhrata

Week 4: Tech Tips

As I wrote about in my last post, I had never used a blog before this class.  I am not the most technologically savvy person in the world, so I really had no idea what I was getting into when starting this blog.  I would see all of these amazingly designed blogs, and how no idea how these people were doing it until this week.  When I saw the tech tip about design, I knew it was the one I wanted to focus on this week.  While I did not improve it much (I still have a long ways to go) I decided to switch up my color scheme and go for a purple background.  Deep purple reminds of of indian culture and royalty, so I think it is very appropriate for this class.  I wish I had known before how simple it was to make little design changes like this.  I will definitely be making more changes and improving the look of my blog as the class continues!

week 4: Growth Mindset

This week I decided to do a growth mindset challenge, and the one that really grabbed my attention was the meme challenge.  I love memes, I never knew how to make one, so maybe I will do that portion of the challenge next week, but for this week I just wanted to browse some of the memes Professor Gibbs compiled in her blog.  There was one in particular that stuck out to me that I loved that was about getting out of your comfort zone. 

Get out of Your Comfort Zone

I loved this meme for a few reasons.  First of all, I love cats.  Because I love cats so much I was immediately drawn to this particular meme.  I thought the cats face was hilarious and it reminded me of my cat's reaction when getting a bath (once every 5 years, ha ha).  I also really loved this meme because I thought it was representative of how I feel in this class.  I do not consider myself a great writer, and I also came into this course knowing nothing about Indian Epics or how to use a blog, so this course has definitely been out of my comfort zone a bit.  However, it has definitely been a good experience for me working on things that I was not so comfortable with beforehand.

Reading Feedback

This week I chose to watch the film Sita Sings the Blues, instead of choosing a reading.  I was definitely happy with this choice.  It was such a nice change of pace to be given the option to watch a film instead of reading like every other week.  I feel like this gave us a nice little break, as well as put some faces to the names of the characters we have been reading about for the past month.  The film was easy to access, and when I lost my place on your directions of how to view, it was so easy for me to just google it and pull it right up on YouTube.  The film was split into two parts for our reading assignments, and I kind of wished there had been two films for each day because I enjoyed it so much I wanted to finish the entire film the first day, and was ready for another!

Sita Sings the Blues (Flickr)

Week 4 Storytelling: Poor Sita

Poor Sita

Sita was the most beautiful woman around.  Every man admired her and every woman wanted to be her.  Her beauty took the breath away from almost everyone that met her.  Sita was blessed with her powerful, handsome husband Rama, and it's safe to say the two were the power couple of the century.  They were always making everyone around them jealous with their passionate love for one another.  Sita did not know it, but her perfect life was about to take a turn for the worse.  

There was one man in particular that was desperate for the love of young Sita, and that was Ravana.  Although Ravana had wives of his own, none of them compared to Sita.  Ravana wanted the best of the best and it was clear that capturing Sita and making her his own, would be the only way to achieve this.  Rama and Sita were on their usual Starbucks run, when Ravana came out of nowhere and whisked Sita into his Ferrari.  Sita dropped her pumpkin spice latte as a sign to leave behind.  

Ravana held her captive in his castle in the Hamptons, and Sita wept for her love, Rama.  She was hidden in the basement, and the only way to cope with her blues was to sing. So, Sita sang "Where Are U Now," in hopes that Rama would hear her cry and find her.  

Where Are U Now?  (Wikipedia) 

Rama was anxious to find his beloved wife, so he sent his good pal Hanuman out on a journey to find her.  Rama knew Hanuman would likely have better luck, and he would be much safer this way.  It did not take long before Hanuman approached the Hamptons and heard the beat dropping in Ravana's basement.  He then heard Sita's angelic voice crying out, "Where are you now that I need you, Rama?"  Hanuman was too big of a wimp to go in the castle and fight Ravana and rescue Sita himself, so he leaf her there weeping and returned to Rama.  

Hanuman came to Rama with the news of where his wife was and Rama was furious that he went all the way there and came back empty-handed.  "What was the point of even sending you?" Rama asked him angrily. The Cowboys game had just started, and Rama was so not in the mood to go fight someone.  Nevertheless, Rama got up and went to rescue his wife.   Ravana had his castle guarded by flying monkeys.  Rama pulled up to Ravana's castle in his brand-new Harley and he could hear Sita calling for him, "Where are you now, Rama?"  He then got a rush of energy and effortlessly defeated all of Ravana's guard monkeys.   He ran to the basement, Sita hopped on the back of his bike and they sped off back to the city.  

The power couple finally returned home.  Rama took one look at his wife and told her to get out.  "You've been living with another man, Sita.  You've obviously been unfaithful.  You disgust me," Rama told his beautiful wife.  

Sita looked at him and said, "You're kidding, right?"  Rama told her he was over it and did not want a wife that wasn't pure and kicked her out.  Sita crawled down the street crying and began to sing her blues again screaming, "Where are you now, Rama? I need you the most."  

All but ten minutes later Rama realized that if he let Sita go, then she would quickly find another man and then he would no longer have the most beautiful wife in the world.  He could not possibly let another man steal her from him, and it hit him that kicking Sita out was the stupidest idea he's ever had.  He ran in the streets, calling out for Sita, begging for her forgiveness.  Sita heard her distant husband, but decided to make him suffer a little before forgiving him completely.  Sita hid and made Rama spend hours and hours searching for her before she finally came back home.  Poor Sita had been through the woods for her man, so she had to make him work a little to win her love back.

Author's Note:  This story was based off a section of the short film "Sita Sings the Blues" by Nina Paley.  The film tells the story of the Ramayana, and I put a modern twist on the story to make it my own and appeal to my readers.  I loved this film and thought it was such a funny, clever way to retell the ancient story of the Ramayana, so I knew I wanted to use it as a base for my own story.  This section of the film tells the story of Sita and Rama.  Sita was taken away by Ravana who hoped to make her his wife.  Rama goes after her, but when he finally gets her back he shuns her because she had been living with another man.  Rama eventually forgives Sita and all is well--at least for the time being.   Throughout the film Sita showed her pain by "singing her blues," so I immediately knew I wanted to make her song a current pop song.  I took important pieces from the story told and replaced them with similar things that made sense in popular culture.  I made some slight changes to the plot such as the end where Sita makes Rama look for her everywhere.  I also added a lot of detail to the story where I thought it was lacking in order to make the story more entertaining.  

Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)

Week 4: Reading Diary B

Sita Sings the Blues

Sita (Wikimedia Commons)

Part B of Sita Sings the Blues starts off on a rough note with our modern characters, Dave and Nina, breaking up.  Dave broke up with Nina while she was away in New York, and she was completely heartbroken.  Fast forward to our narrators, and they are now telling the story of Sita becoming pregnant and breaking the news to Rama.  Rama does not react very well, and the narrators bicker about what actually happened from here.  Rama shuns his wife and tells his brother to take her to the forrest and leave her there.  Sita starts singing her blues again, and at this point I feel like I have heard the same song over and over and over again.  The words are changing, but all of her "blues" sound the same to me.  They remind me of 1920's music, which is not a bad thing.  It feels like they've combined aspects of many different periods of time into this one short film.  The film begins to close as Sita is forced to prove her purity, and then once again sings of her love for her Rama.  Finally, we see Nina start to read the Ramayana and work on this lovely film.

One thing I noticed about the film is that they have multiple depictions of the characters.   This is something I did not really think about until the end of the film, and I noticed it with Sita's sons.  I really liked that they changed things up and displayed the characters in different ways.  I noticed three different animations of the characters, each so different and unique. I liked how at the end, the whole story was tied together and we understood the placement of the modern characters Nina and Dave in the film, as Nina begins reading the Ramayana.  I thought it was so neat that Nina Paley decided to base this character off of herself and make the story really come together.  I liked watching this film because it made me realize how many different ways the Ramayana has been and will be told.  It is interesting seeing the similarities and the differences in the two.  

Sita Sings the Blues  (Nina Paley)

Week 4: Reading Diary A

Sita Sings the Blues


Because we had a little more freedom this week, I decided I wanted to watch the film, instead of doing another reading since we have done so much reading up until this point.  I had enjoyed the readings, but thought watching the film would be a  fun way of getting a different perspective and actually putting a face to the characters and scenes.  I loved the animation of the film, I thought it was done so well.  My favorite animation was of the rakshasas.  That was not at all how I was picturing them while reading the story, they were much cuter in the film.  The story flowed pretty consistently with the original telling, at least the main components.  They went a little too quickly explaining all of the characters, and had I not already read the story, I probably would have been a little lost on who was who and who was related to who.  

Sita Sings the Blues (Wikipedia)

There are two characters, Nina and Dave, we see in the beginning who live in San Francisco with their cat.  Their own, modern day story is being told in the background of the retelling of the Ramayana because Dave is being relocated to India.  There are three narrators that kind of bicker over the correct telling of the story the whole time, and make it really entertaining.  I love that it wasn't just a voice over of someone telling the story, they made it seem like if someone was to really try to just retell the story on the spot.  They were all so funny, which I was not really expecting.  I wished I had started the film earlier in the day so I could have just finished it all in one sitting, because I definitely did not want to pause it and wait to finish until tomorrow.  I was pleasantly surprised how fun and and well done the film was!  The first half closes with Nina visiting New York for a week, the narrators tell the story of Rama and Sita being taken back to Ayodhya after he seeks her forgiveness for telling her she serves no purpose to him because she had been staying in Ravana's house.  Sita then "sings her blues" at the very end of part one.





Sita Sings The Blues (Nina Paley)

Week 3 Storytelling: Hanuman and Sita

Hanuman was beginning to feel a little discouraged. It had been a long journey search for Sita, and he did not want to disappoint Rama and Sugriva.  He knew that he had to return with the beloved Sita, and he was not going to give up on his fight.  After leaving Ravana's palace with no sign of her, Hanuman gave himself a little break to sit and ponder his next move.  He waited hours and once he felt refreshed, he got back on his feet and made his moves toward the eerie Ashoka Grove.  He was sure to find her there.

Right as Hanuman approached Ashoka Grove, he saw the magnificent Sita in all of her glory.  His heart sank as he saw her surrounded by demons of all sorts.  These demons were no joke, they came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, resembling horses and pigs with demonic, mystical bodies floating around her. Hanuman hopped up in a nearby tree, trying to disguise himself as he looked down on the situation and contemplated how her was going to get past the demons to retrieve Sita.

As he got closer he noticed that Sita was with none other than Ravana.  Ravana was bribing her to stay with him, and to never think twice about Rama.  It was almost as though Ravana was attempting to hypnotize the queen in order to convince her to be forever his.  Sita was frightened by Ravana, sobbing at his first sight.  Ravana and his demons swore to Sita that if she were to leave, she would b slain and killed instantly by his vicious slaves.  Hanuman knew he had to step in.

Sita was nearly alone and Hanuman knew this was his chance.  He crept up slowly, easing Sita into his appearance while trying not to scare her.  She saw him and immediately was sure that this was a trap.  She knew that this monkey being had to be Ravana taken in a new form.  However, when she spotted the shining ring of Rama, and gust of relief came over her and she fell to her knees and sobbed.  She finally felt she may stand at chance of escaping her disgusting Ravana.  She was overly gracious to Hanuman and immediately felt a connection to him as her savior.

Her joyous reaction suddenly came to a halt when she replayed her interaction with Ravana and the threats he had given her should she decide to flee from him and not obey his commands.  She worried than even with the help of Hanuman and the powerful Rama, she would not be able to escape her fate of a gory death by Ravana's evil minions.  Sita did not want Hanuman to leave her side, as she felt more comfortable and protected with him near, knowing that he had the power of Rama behind him.  Hanuman planned to stay hidden in the tree to watch over Sita, while the conjured up a plan of safe escape for her, but little did they know their plans would soon come to a halt by the evil Ravana.






Author's Note:  In this reading Hanuman has finally laid eyes on queen Sita, and is deciding how to approach her.  The two have never met in person before, so Sita was not sure what to think when first seeing Hanuman.  Sita is apprehensive, and does not know whether to trust and follow Hanuman. I thought this particular could have been a little longer and more detailed.  Hanuman had spent so much time looking for Sita, I was expecting a little more from their first encounter.  The search for Sita had been built up for several readings before, so I really wished there was a little further description of their meeting.  Because of this, I decided to elaborate a little on what happened when Hanuman finally approached Sita. I combined a little bit of the back story and reading before, to elaborate on how Hanuman actually found Sita.

Wikimedia Commons: Hanuman Approaches Sita

References: PDE Ramayana
Ramayana Reading Guide

Week 3: Reading Diary A (Public Domain Ramayana)

In the third reading of Sugriva and Vali, I got a little distracted.  This was so descriptive and poetic, I had to go back and read it a second time to really get a sense of what was going on.  We have just met Tara, Vali's main wife, who is begging Vali not to go out and begin fighting Sugriva.  Sugriva is described as mighty and "sustained by Rama's forces."  I liked how this reading sounded very dramatic, and kept me interested in the story.

Vali is eventually taken down in the next excerpt by none other than Rama.  Rama was hiding while Sugriva and Vali began their battle, but he ultimately ended it.  I was saddened by the later description of Tara mourning the loss of her husband, and surprised that even Sugriva, who started the fight, was very upset over the loss of his brother Vali. Sugriva does not mourn for too long though, as he is crowned king.

They must wait for the rainy season to end to pursue their search for Sita, but they are getting impatient.  They have sent herds of monkeys and bears to search everywhere for Sita, and eventually run into Sampati, Jatayu's brother, who tells them stories of he and his brother and how he came to be where he is.

Hanuman is eventually persuaded to take the leap to exploring Lanka on his quest for Sita.  It does not take him long to stumble across Ravana's palace, but Sita is no where to be found.  Hanuman even mistook another for Sita, but was assured she would never be in the kind of position that this woman was in, so it could not have been her.  After waiting a while he arrived at the Ashoka Grove, and alas found queen Sita surrounded by she-demons.  I loved this reading because the story had been so built up to this point, that I was excited that they had finally tracked her down.

A lot is going on now, between Hanuman being captured, his tail being set on fire, them marching back through Lanka to try to get back to Rama and Sugriva, it is no surprise that Ravana is wanting to go to war with this.  Things are about to get interesting.

Wikimedia Commons: Hanuman Finds Sita in Ashoka Grove 

References: PDE Ramayana
Ramayana Reading Guide

Week 2 Storytelling: The Tale of Thataka

In the beautiful land that prince Rama lived, there was an evil witch named Thataka.  Thataka was no ordinary witch, she was the most gruesome, disturbing looking creature that ever lived.  Thataka liked to keep to herself unless bothered, so hardly anybody had ever seen her face in person, they had just heard the terrible tales of eerie encounters with her.

What most people didn't know, is that Thataka had a reason to be so angry.  When Thataka was young, she was always frightening looking, but she didn't mind.  It wasn't until she accidentally let her dark side come out and scare away a young princess, that she was banished from the land.  Thataka did not mean to scare anyway, she could not help that her appearance was frightening, but because she was so scary, she was told to never show her face again.  Ever since that fateful day Thataka had been the scariest, meanest, creature in the jungle.

The two brothers were on their journey, when they came across a wild jungle.  There were beasts of all shapes and sizes roaming through this area, and the brothers were not sure how to handle this situation. Just as they were about to start making their way through, they spotted her.  Thataka in all of her glory, perched on a tree glaring at the brothers.

Rama knew he had to handle this, he grabbed his bow and struck her right in the left leg.  As an honorable prince, Rama did not want to kill Thataka, as she was still a lady, but he wanted to injure her enough to prevent her from causing any problems through there journey.  Once her leg was struck, she began roaring, causing the whole jungle to shake.  The brothers knew they were going to have to fight.

Wikipedia (Thataka)

Thataka began squealing and pelting the boys with rocks and whatever she could find.  She was ready to attack.  Rama did what he knew best and hunted the creature. With his bow in hand he took off towards her, striking her twice in each arm.  Rama thought he had taken care of her and the boys walked off, until she came back for more.

Lakshmana then ripped off her entire nose and face, destroying her entire being.  "There! Away, beast!"  He shouted victoriously.  Then Thataka beat all odds and took on a different form, being invisible to the naked eye, but her shadow creeped uncomfortably near the boys.  Rama had had enough, put his good boy sense aside, and shot her right in the chest, finally killing the wicked creature.

As if Rama was not already loved enough, he quickly became the land's favorite, most loved man and prince.  Only the toughest, most courageous could ever fight Thataka, and Rama and Lakshmana successfully tamed the jungle, bringing down its worst resident on their way.  The boys were officially heroes.  The sage gave kisses all around and brought the boys back to brag of how he watched the entire thing go down.

Author's Note:  This story is about the beginning of Rama and Lakshmana' journey with the sage and encountering this creature that is not totally explained, Thataka, and eventually killing her.  I loved this story, but I thought there was a lot of detail missing that could have spruced the story up a lot more, which was my goal in telling my version of this story. I decided to give her a little bit of a back story, a reason for why she was scary and evil.  I thought this made the already interesting story a little more interesting.  I chose this particular excerpt because I liked the story behind it. It showed valiance and success on Rama's part.  I thought the moral of this story would work well in my portfolio because I wanted to achieve a theme of overall hard work and success, and this story definitely shows that.  I chose the photo above because I thought it was a good representation of Thataka for the original story, I had wished there was a photo more representative of the story I told, but I did make some changes.

Bibliography: Thataka Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).