Week 14 Essay

For this week, I chose to read Ryder's Panchatantra. This reading was fantastic. The majority of the stories were really fun and cute. I actually found many of them to relate to a few Shel Silverstein poems. For instance, my favorite story was Mouse-Maid Made Mouse. It was actually a really cute story. In the story a holy man and his wife are unable to have children so he uses his magical powers to turn a mouse into a girl and they raise her as their own. When the girl turn twelve-years-old, they realize that she is of age to be wed so they decide to find her a suitor. The holy man calls on the sun, but the girl does not like the sun. So the holy man calls on that superior to the sun – the clouds – but the girl does not like the clouds and the holy man calls on the wind (which is superior to the clouds). The girl does not like the wind, so the holy man calls on the mountains. The girl does not like the mountains, so the holy man calls on a mouse. When the girl sees the mouse she recognizes him as her own kind and asks to be turned into a mouse.

I think I like the story so much because it is one of those happy ending sort of stories. Anyway, it made me think of this poem by Shel Silverstein that goes…

Masks by Shel Silverstein (Source)

I found the poem to be indicative of what the story was trying to say, kind of like be yourself and do not hide who you really are.

The only problem I found with all of these stories was the random poems, or quotes, that were imbedded in them. I understood that the stories were supposed to be teaching tools to learn intelligence, but sometimes it would be confusing and not really completely necessary for the story. Sometimes the stories themselves taught a lesson and they did not really need the quotes in them, so it was kind of like a lesson inside of a lesson rather than a story inside of a story.  

Week 12 Essay

This weeks readings were all incredibly enjoyable. I had the most difficult time deciding which story to do for a storytelling. This week I read the Jataka Tales (Babbitt) and enjoyed every bit of it! What I liked about the stories was that they were all so pleasantly enjoyable, yet incredibly short. I definitely could see these stories being told to children at bed time or at a campfire or sleep over. They had such amazing morals to them as well.

I found the trickster stories to be more fun and less about values and morals. What caught my attention though, was that the trickster was always a wolf. I was not sure why this was or if it had something to do with the Indian culture, but it was definitely something worth noting.

As I said before I had a very difficult time deciding what story to write about. Two that captured my attention were the story of Beauty and Brownie and How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. I found them both to be of good moral standing and great learning tools, especially Beauty and Brownie! It is so useful to see things compared in that way.

Many of the stories I read were very familiar. I am pretty sure I have read the story The Turtle Who Couldn’t Stop Talking about five times now. The one that I was not expecting to find familiar was The Princes and theWater-Sprite. The story reminded me so much of the Mahabharata when the Pandava brothers were out searching for a deer and they came across a lake where each brother ignored the deity of the river and drank the water anyway. It was not until Yudhistira answered the deity’s questions correctly that the brothers were able to go free.

Oral Storytelling (Source)

Week 11 Essay

While I did enjoy the readings (my favorite of which being the Mahabharata), the Untextbook is definitely one of my favorite options. I think what makes the untextbook option so much fun is that there is so much variety with that option because you are able to read so many different stories.

This week I read the Santal Folktales. I thought some of the stories were interesting and entertaining, but this was not my favorite unit thus far. My personal favorite was definitely the Indian Fairy Tales. The stories were not too long and not too detailed but they were incredibly fun and entertaining. I wish that I were able to read them again and do another storytelling from this unit because I just loved it so much! I had read them once before last semester for Mythology and Folklore and did, what I consider, one of my best storytellings from that unit.

Back to the Santal Folktales… I am not quite sure why, but for some reason I had a difficult time deciding what to do for my storytelling. I had to have written at least the beginnings of three different stories and I still could not decide on which one to do. The stories were just not as exciting as some of the previous units and I found them to be more difficult when thinking creatively. Unfortunately it did not meet my expectations for this week, which was a little disappointing. Usually while I am reading I will be in the middle of a story and my mind will just start coming up with a storytelling. It is like a zap or like something within me just takes over, in a creative way of course! This one unit in particular did not seem to have as many connections as previous units I have read, but they were not bad.  

Busy Street in India (Source)

Week 7 Essay

I absolutely love the Untextbook. It is so helpful because it allows you to read things on your own time and breaks the readings up in a way that keeps your focus. It is also incredibly flexible. There are so many things to keep up with and read as a college student, and the untextbook allows you to stop in the middle of something you are reading and pick right back up. Last week I was reading and I was trying to read as much as I could before a meeting, and I was able to just close my laptop quickly and pick right back up. It is also easier for note taking. What I hate the most is when I have to balance holding a book open while I try to write something and read at the same time. The book never stays open well and always flops over. I computer stays open perfectly for you!

I definitely think length is an important criterion when deciding what to read. Obviously I am not going to pick a longer unit to read when I have three tests that week, so I am able to pick something a little simpler to fit my time. The audio option is another favorite of mine. Everyone likes listening to people telling stories and sometimes it can be really helpful. I used the audio with one of the stories because I became a little bit confused with the wording. It really helped to clarify things for me. Sometimes, especially after a long day or late at night, it is nice just to follow along while you are listening to the story.

I actually looked at the Ramayana in the Untextbook to compare it to the book, and I definitely liked it better. Personally, I like the way that the untextbook breaks up stories. You can see that there are twenty-something sections that are roughly the same length rather than holding a giant chunk in your hand. It gives you a smoother goal to accomplish.

Indian Market (Source) 

Week 6 Essay

This week I read the stories from Indian Fairy Tales, and it was amazing! I really enjoyed how much more flexible this week was in reference to the readings, and being able to read a grouping of different stories really helped to grab and focus my attention. There were a lot of great stories to choose from, so it was definitely a difficult decision to pick which story to write about. 

There were so many stories that I loved during this weeks readings. I felt as though the morals of the stories where very applicable to real life. Like the story The Talkative Tortoise was a hilarious way of somewhat combining two stories, or imbedding a story within another.  The original story is Aesop fable called “The Tortoise and the Ducks.” Basically there is a tortoise that cannot stop talking and these two ducks want to show the tortoise their home. They decide that the tortoise will hold onto a stick with his mouth while the ducks hold it on either end and fly. Unfortunately the tortoise is unable to hold his tongue for long, opening his mouth to sleep, and thus falling to his death down below.

In The Talkative Tortoise there is a king that will not stop talking, not even to let another person get a word in edgewise. The king’s advisor wants to teach him a lesson about the dangers of talking too much and luckily for him that tortoise suddenly falls to its death in the middle of the king’s courtyard. The king then realizes that it was the fact the tortoise could not hold his tongue that caused him to die, thus the king became a man of little words. It is kind of a great way to teach one to be a better listener and to speak less.

How the Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner was definitely my favorite story though. Stories about kindness are ones that always grab my attention because I feel as though humanity has lost its good. This story is definitely a perfect way of teaching one about the value of showing kindness toward others.

Talkative Tortoise falling (Source)