Monday, March 7, 2016

6:19 AM

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Week 9 Storytelling: Oh, Arjuna

(Ulupi and Arjuna chilling on a cliff)

I am stuck in these stupid woods all by myself.

You may be asking yourself why. Why are you in these woods alone, Arjuna? How did you end up here?

Well, when you’re married to a woman with five husbands, things can get tricky. We had rules regarding living arrangements and… I may have broken the rules. Who cares though?! I caught the robbers. I broke the rules for a good cause!

No one else saw it that way, though. So, I am in exile for twelve years. Can you believe that? TWELVE. Ridiculous.

Yudhishthira did not want me to go. Actually, he pleaded that I stay. I couldn’t though. How was I supposed to stay somewhere and be miserable because everyone was mad at me? So, I left.

Here I am now, in these woods all by myself.

I don’t mind it. I really don’t. The green, dense forests are very beautiful and have given me many stories to tell. I have seen many wonderful places and met many wonderful people. I have visited more holy places than you could ever imagine. I went to Haridwar, a place where the Ganges River flows into the plains, and that is where I met her.

Who is she? Ulupi. She is the daughter of Vasuki, the king of the nagas. She was beautiful. Long, flowing silky hair and smooth soft skin…she was perfection. I fell in love instantly.

Somehow, I managed to get her to love me back. It was probably because of my handsome face or charming personality. Or maybe it’s because of my strength and ability to fight.

Let’s be honest, as long as she loved me, I really couldn’t give a damn why.

She led me to her father’s palace and we stayed there for a while. It was blissful and I was happy. Hell, we even got married and had a kid together. Iravat is his name. He is our adorable, chubby little boy. It was like living in a dream. Life was perfect.

Until she found out I was married. Oops.

You see, Ulupi has a bit of a jealous streak. She doesn't like to share. She was not happy that I was and still am married. I tried to tell her how I only loved her and that the other marriage meant nothing to me. If you couldn't guess… I did not win that argument. In fact, I don't think I even got to speak for more than five minutes during that argument and it lasted for days. Many many days. Stressful, right? 

So long story short, she kicked me out. She even packed my bags for me. Hell, she even broke the news to Iravat before she even told me! I learned from him that I was getting kicked out. Do you know how crazy it is to eat breakfast with your kid and he says "Mom said you're leaving forever today!"? I do.

How am I always finding myself getting exiled when I try to do things right? So stupid. I left and haven’t heard from her since. I don't know what to do really. I suppose I will travel and hope that one day she will take me back. Until then though…


I am stuck in these stupid woods all by myself, again.

Author's Note: I decided to write about Arjuna and Ulupi. It's a pretty simple story about how Arjuna is exiled because of breaking rules regarding living arrangements and is exiled. During his exile he meets Ulupi, they fall in love, get married and have a kid. I decided to make it a bit more complex. When writing I pictured it like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or House of Cards, where the main character breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience. To me, this is a moment like that for Arjuna. I think breaking the fourth wall makes it a bit fun to read and allows it to seem more modern and relatable. 

Originally, Arjuna just kind of moves along from story to story in his exile. I decided to make it where Ulupi kicks him out for not mentioning his previous marriage. I figured I would switch it up a bit to create a reason as to why he was wandering the forests alone, again. 

I chose an image of Ulupi because the story, in a way, revolves around her. I wanted readers to know what she looked like.

Bibliography:
Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

7:24 PM

By Unknown

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Week 7: Reading Diary B: Mahabharata Cont.

(Krishna found on Wikipedia.)

Onto part C!!! Will do part D as extra credit. Much to my enjoyment, there were more Arjuna stories.  One again, I am reading the Public Domain version of the Mahabharata.

Arjuna and Shiva: Arjuna is forever going out on adventures by himself. Im starting to think its so he can get as many wives as possible :P The worst thing that kept happening while reading this story is that I kept thinking of that show, The League. It's because their trophy is called the Shiva and whenever I read the name Shiva, I hear it in my head how they say it.

Bhima and Kichaka: I know this story has a lot of battles and stuff, but I feel like when I think about the battles, Bhima is the first characters that pops to my head. Perhaps its because he's pretty darn good at winning!

Krishna and His Army:  I LOVE the stories about Krishna. I love reading about his relationship and the dynamic between Krishna and Arjuna. It's probably the main reason why I love these stories. It amazes me that Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, like Rama. So basically Vishnu, Krishna and Rama are the same person but in different life cycles. That's something I always think about when reading about him. I think this week, my story will involve Krishna!

FINALLY going to finish the Mahabharata. Finally. I cannot wait.


Monday, February 29, 2016

4:04 PM

By Unknown

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Week 7: Reading Diary A: Mahabharata Cont.

(Bhima fighting Baka illustrated in the Mahabharata.)

It's been a while and I need to finish this book!!!!! As a reminder, I am reading from the Public Domain edition. So, I am on section B. Here are a few of the stories I found really interesting:

Bhima and Baka: It was kind of funny that Brim's preferred method is mace but will happily use tree trunks too based on the image. In the story, Bhima returns home, oddly after his mother wishes for him, to fight Baka who is terrorizing the kingdom. It was a really easy read and I loved how Bhima just appears when needed conveniently. If all things could work like that, wouldn't it be amazing?!

Arjuna and Ulupi and the other Arjuna based stories: This was an interesting story. It's a bit odd considering that it starts with one wife and five husbands. When I think of Indian epics, I always think of how there is a male figure that has many wives and concubines. It is really interesting to see that the roles can reverse, too. Since he is in exile and has a child with Ulupi, does this mean he will not have to return to his former wife? According to the other stories, it seems like he marries and has many lovers. So, I guess it is complicated? Then he seems to just do whatever he pleases, so his exile does not seem all too terrible. I mean, he does end up marrying Krishna's sister too. Sounds like a not too terrible exile to me.

I liked the stories of Arjuna. They were an interesting read and everything was pretty unexpected. I look forward to reading sections C and D.



9:58 AM

By Unknown

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Week 6: Famous Last Words

(Here is a cute cat just to make you smile!)

Not going to lie, I was pretty lazy this week. With points, I am a bit ahead in this class. So, I kind of took the week off to give myself a bit of a mental break. Now it is time for me to get my head back into the game.
If you guys couldn’t tell, I am a pretty strong Bernie Sanders fan. He came to Tulsa and OKC and I missed it BOTH times. I was so upset. I wanted to go so badly but either I had work or I did not have a ride. VOTING IS TUESDAY! You guys, please vote. Even if you’re not voting for Bernie… if you are registered, please vote! I promise you will not regret doing so! My last thing about Bernie is that I joined the text for Bernie team. It is pretty awesome to see so many people radiating positivity about one movement!
I cannot wait for Spring Break. My boyfriend and I are going to Denver, Boulder and Longmont to visit friends and go on as many adventures as possible. Right now I know we will be looking around CU Denver, because I am applying there for graduate school and we will go hiking. I am so insanely excited. I’ve been counting down the days! Only 11 left!!
I’ve also been counting down the days until graduation. I love school, but I need a little break. There are so many things I want to do this summer and I am so eager to get to them. I need to chill a bit, but yeah. It is just so hard to focus on school work when you have so many things planned coming up. Like one thing I am doing is going to Disney World! Ugh, it seems so far away but next thing I know, it will be here!

Anyways.
It has been a good week “off”, time to get things going. GO VOTE TUESDAY!

Write to you soon :)

Sunday, February 21, 2016