Famous Last Words: Week 12

Your reading for this week.
For my reading diaries this week, I watched week 1 of the video that was emailed to us, Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos . I watched both parts for this week and I really enjoyed it. I learned so much about the gods and goddesses that I didn't know before. It helped me to understand more about the Indian epics. I am happy with my reading diary strategy. I mainly write what stuck out the most to me and parts that I liked. There were many quotes that I really enjoyed from this reading, so I put some of those in my blog post.

Your best writing for this week.
I was actually not that fond of my writing for this week. I just felt like I couldn't get the words right and so I am a little disappointed in it. I tried something different with my storytelling post and I am still not too confident that it turned out okay.

Other people's writing.
I can't think of the specific people's writing that I liked but I do love how everyone in the class seems to have a unique style of writing. Its really cool to see all the different ways that people can change the same story. I think everyone's writing is improving so much as we are ending this class and its cool to see how far everyone has come since you can read their very first story and then compare it to now.

Your other classes.
My other classes are going pretty good. The main connections that I am finding are that the more that I write in this class, the more my writing is improving in my other classes. The feedback is so helpful to let me know where my weaknesses and strengths are and this helps me with my other classes.

Outside of school.
I feel like there is not much of my life that exists outside of school right now. With the semester only having a few weeks left, I am noticing that school is taking up a huge portion of my time.

Clock for those of us who are always late. Source: Etsy

Week 12 Storytelling: The Elephant Head Child

Pam was lonely. She had wanted a child for so long but her husband, Steven, never wanted children. She begged and begged for him to have a baby with her but his answer was always the same.

"I think that I was made to be a mother," Pam told Steven. She knew what his answer would be but she needed to continue to try.

"You know that I don't want children, Pam," Steven answered her. "We have discussed this before. The answer is still no."

Devastated, Pam decided to take a walk. She continued to walk until she came across a baby. She couldn't believe it. This was finally her chance to become a mother. She didn't need Steven's permission.

She cradled the baby into her arms and walked him home. She was relieved when she saw that Steven's car wasn't in the driveway. She took the baby inside and rocked him to sleep.

Steven walked in on Pam in the rocking chair.

"What are you doing, honey?" He asked. He walked calmly to where Pam was sitting. He looked into her arms and realized that she was rocking a baby doll.

"I'm rocking our new baby." Pam replied, with a smile on her face.

Steven was so confused. What was Pam thinking? Did she seriously think that this joke would make him want to have a real baby. Angrily, he grabbed the doll from Pam and threw it across the room. Pam screamed when she saw the doll's head pop right off of the body. She began to cry hysterically.

It was at that moment that Steven realized just how sick his wife actually was. She genuinely thought that the baby was real and he knew that he needed to find a way to fix it. He grabbed his wife and walked her to the bedroom.

"I'm so sorry, Pam." he said. "I will fix the baby. I promise you that he is fine."

Pam laid down and closed her eyes. She knew that her baby was going to be okay. Steven would make sure of it. He was going to be such a good daddy.

Steven looked at the head of the doll. He had thrown it so hard that the head was unsalvageable. He went to the garage and found a stuffed elephant. He took the head of the elephant and attached it to the doll.

He laid the doll next to Pam. He would let her take care of the doll and he would continue to take care of her, no matter how sick she was. He could pretend that the doll was a baby. He would do it if it meant that Pam would be happy.

Ganesha. Source: Tumblr

Author's note: I based this story off of the birth of Ganesha from the video Ganesha's Secret. In the video, it describes how Ganesha was born. Parvati scrubbed a paste off of her body and used it to make a doll. She breathed life into the doll and it became her child, Vinayaka. Shiva, Parvati's husband, did not know that the boy was the child that Parvati created and he beheads the boy. After seeing how devastated Parvati was about the boy's death, Shiva attached an elephant head to the boy's body to bring him back to life. The boy with the elephant head was renamed Ganesha. I wanted to change the story to be a bit more modern and more realistic. Since it wouldn't be realistic for the elephant head boy to be real, I had Pam have a psychotic break and think that the doll that she found was a baby. I also wanted her husband to be supportive of this fact after he realizes that she thinks the doll is real so he fixes it and decides that he is going to let his wife continue to care for this doll as if it was a real child.

Week 12 Reading Diary B: Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos

For this week, I watched the videos that were emailed to us as the options for this week, Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos .

Ardhanari's Secret: God is Stillness Within, Goddess is Movement Around:

"The Upanishads, ancient Hindu scriptures dating to 500 BCE, constantly refer to these two truths: a truth which changes and a truth which does not change."

This quote caught my attention. It uses the examples of in movement, we seek stillness and in sound we seek silence. I think this is so true. We have the truth and then we have the truth that we wish to seek. I think this is so cool.

Ash represents permanence and snow represents is water that is still. These represent the unchanging truth. These are what are used in many of the paintings to represents this.

Shiva's Secret: Withdrawal Leads to Destruction:

Part 1
Shiva is the destroyer and our understanding would have us believe that all of this happens out of anger. Shiva is represented in the images as calm. The problem lies in our understanding. I have noticed that our understanding has a lot to do with the misinterpretation in the epics. We think of something as one thing when it can also represent something else.

Screenshot of Shiva from the video

Shiva destroys things by closing his eyes. He doesn't become an observer. I think this is so interesting. I love the contract

 

Part 2

 

Screenshot of Shiva carrying Sati's dead body.

 

 

Sati's death lead Shiva to destroy out of anger. This photo above shows how Shiva reacts to Sati's death which is unusual for him because he normally doesn't react to external stimulus.

The goddess causes Shiva to open his eyes. This just made me think of the fact that the gods can't exist with out the goddesses. They are the two sides that have to be present in order for things to happen. This reiterates what was said in the earlier videos.

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos

For this week, I watched the videos that were emailed to us as the options for this week, Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos


Ganesha's Secret: People See God Differently:

The first thing that stuck out to me in this video was  the race between Ganesha and Karikeya. Kartikeya just went around their parents and said

 "You went around the world. I went around my world. Tell me, which world matters more?"

I think that this is an amazing perspective that I never would have thought of. They both traveled around what they believed to be the world, even though they both had a different conclusion of what that meant.

Another part of the video that caught my attention was the image at the end that showed Shiva holding Ganesha. After learning that Shiva, a hermit, didn't want children but his wife did, it is interesting to see the image of him holding a child. He was the one who originally killed the child that his wife created and then replaced the head because his wife was upset. This makes the picture stick out so much because it looks like they have a connection.


Narayan's Secret: What Dies Is Always Reborn:

The Hindus believe in rebirth. I think this is quite fascinating. It removes the sense of urgency in this life that other religions feel. I think the picture below is a great example of this belief. A person, according to the Hindus religion, does not have to be defined by one life because they live numerous ones. I find this so interesting.



Screenshot taken by me which shows the many lives that Hindus believe people live.

 

"Does our world exist when we are in a deep slumber?"
Obviously the actual world continues to exist for us. Our sleep does not affect time but this is an interesting question that I feel ties into the first video of what we consider to be 'our world'. If our world consists of other people, then it would still exist when we are sleeping. If we consider our world to be solely us, then it would not exist while we are sleeping. I found this quote to be quite fascinating to me.