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.

Reading Feedback: Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos

Reading review- Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos

How and why did you choose your reading selection? Are you happy with the choice?
I chose the videos because they were emailed to us and I really enjoy watching the videos. I feel like it gives me a break where I can just relax and watch.
What part of the reading made the biggest impression on you and why?
I think that the explanations of what the different gods and goddesses represent made the biggest impression. It is much more complex than I realized.

Was there anything in the reading you did not understand? Did you do any research on your own to find answers to your questions?
I feel like the videos were explained very well.

Did the reading come with a Reading Guide? If so, was the Reading Guide helpful? If there was not a Reading Guide, would it help to have one?
There was a reading guide for the videos that took notes over the video. This helped me because I could really pay attention to the videos and I could look at the notes to see the different quotes. This helped me to better structure my reading diaries.

How much time did you spend on the reading? (The goal is for the A/B together to take about 3 hours; it's the equivalent of going to class.)
Each portion of the videos was about an hour long so the total thing took me around 2 hours.

Screenshot of Shiva from the videos.

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.

Tech Tip: Pinterest Board

For this week's tech tip, I decided to make a Pinterest board for this class. I already have a Pinterest account so I am pretty familiar with how it works. I really enjoy Pinterest. There are so many different things that you can look at and it is also a great way to save websites and other things that you find interesting.

You can find my Pinterest board HERE.

Screenshot of my Pinterest Board. Pretty bare so far but I'll get there.

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.

Week 11 Reading Diary A: Dharma. Ramayana Week 1 Reading A

For this weeks reading, I read Week 1, Reading A of Dharma. Ramayana, I found the prologue to be of the most interest to me.

Prologue- What made this story so interesting to read was all the background information that it gave about Ravana. In the other epic, all we knew was that Ravana had been cursed so that he could not rape any woman. This prologue actually went into detail about how he came to have that curse. He attacked his nephew's wife and so his nephew put that curse on him because it was the only revenge that he could get against such a powerful rakshasa. I really enjoyed how it focused so much on Ravana. The other epics only told pieces of Ravana's story and this went into great detail. I was able to understand why Ravana was able to obtain such powers. It also showed that he had only wanted immunity from gods and didn't worry about humans because he was so cocky. This was the reason why he was undefeatable to the gods but a human was able to defeat him. It was so interesting to get that much background into his story.

Ravana mask.

Google Timer Tech Tip

I have never really thought about using a timer for task management. I think that it is a great idea though. I remember hearing that our attention spans are only good for about 30 minutes per subject and then you are supposed to take a break and then work on another subject. I think that the time would be perfect for this. I usually time myself but even just looking at the clock takes my concentration away from what I am doing. This timer would be a very helpful tool when it comes to task management.

I am taking a large course load so I usually have numerous subjects to work on and study everyday. I think that using the timer could help me to stay on task and really focus for a set amount of time. I really like the idea of a timer.

Quote. Source: sliptalk