Adventuring in Indian Epics

Wedding of Prince Rama and Princess Sita as depicted in 'The Ramayana' Image Source: Infinite Eyes in flicker I stood there for a moment staring at my reflection, my whole body embellished in the finest clothes and jewels. I still couldn't believe it, today is the day. My body was filled with nerves and excitement all at once. Suddenly a large smile adorned my face as I remembered our first encounter and the events that came after... After we successfully helped Vishvamitra win in the battle against the rakshasas, Lakshmana kept bothering me to accompany him in exploring the city. All I wanted to do was rest after the long day but after a lot of convincing I finally gave in. We were accompanied by a hermit and finally set out to explore the city of Mithila ruled by the great King Janaka. The city was beautiful and full of life and the smells from the marketplace filled our noses, we walked for a while and later made our way to  King Janaka's palace, where w

Lakshmana cuts off Surpanakha's nose Style: 19th-century Paithan style source : Smithsonian Bibliography: Shurpanakha and Rama , Lakshmana and Shurpanakha , Battle with Khara Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) Main Characters Shurpanakha Sister of Ravana (demon King of Lanka) and Khara (who tries to get revenge for her)   A rakshasa (females = rakshasi)  Appearance: misshapen, ugly and with a harsh unpleasant voice  Could transform into a young beautiful woman  Rama  Lakshmana  Setting: Dandaka jungle Storyline Plot Timeline  Shurpanakha falls crazy in love (obsessed) with the handsome prince Rama at soon as she see’s him, She knows he is married to Sita, so in order to try and seduce him she transforms herself from her ugly form to more beautiful Rama introduces himself to Shurpanakha including him telling her he is with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana and wonders why such a beautiful women (like the bride of Vishnu) is wanderin

The Wedding of Rama and Sita; illustration from Nine Ideal Indian Women (1919) Rama and Sita Bibliography Stories used:  Sita , King Janaka , Rama Wins Sita , Rama and Sita's Wedding Sources: The Divine Archer by F. J. Gould and Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie, Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India , condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt Main Characters:   Sita      -avatar of the goddess Lakshmi (Vishnu's consort)      -Daughter of King Janaka   Rama      -avatar of god Vishnu      -darker skin toned      -Son of Dasharatha Sub-Characters   Lakshmana      -Rama's brother   King Janaka      -Ruler of Mithila   Vishwamitra Storyline Details The two princes set off to a walk through the crowded streets, full of marketplaces and caught the attention of all the people especially young girls for their handsomeness the two princes were dressed to the 9s their lodging was at the king's palace they were picking flo

Quote about feedback said by Bill Gates from feedback padlet The first article I read was  Rewire your self-critical brain , talks about practicing REBS (reality-based self-congratulations) to win the fight against our critical brains. The author states how we feel stressed, depressed or failure when we encounter setbacks that ruin our plans or at least we think they are ruined, however, if we use REBS we see the setbacks as small blips in our plans and keep moving forward. To me, the article is more about congratulating ourselves for our small victories and taking it to step by step in order to achieve our big goal. Celebrating our small victories also help upkeep motivated to continue our journey and the setback won't seem as big. I hope I can practice REBS more in my life as I always get stressed when a setback happens. The second article I read was Why it's so hard to hear negative feedback  because honestly I always feel tensed and nervous when I go to receive feedba

Draupadi by Raja Ravi Varma While looking through the reading guides the first one that caught my attention was Draupadi: Fire-Born Princess . Draupadi had already caught my attention from one of the videos I saw in the reading overview assignment. Then I learned more about her through  Wikipedia . In all the pictures I have seen of her she radiates an aura of fierceness and confidence. Her story is very amazing too she was literally born out of the fire and is the queen of the five Pandava brothers. I find her marring to the five brothers very interesting since we mostly only hear of men having multiple wives.  In the youtube video  16 fascinating facts about Draupadi, I bet you didn't know   I learned that she actually would have had 14 husbands according to some stories since she asked for a husband with 14 qualities. I also admire her strength and courage as she demanded justice when she was insulted and condemned the kings who failed to protect women. I see her as a femin

Female silhouette by As Novo A long, long time ago in a world where supernaturals and humans lived among each other. Goblins, witches and fairly ruled the lands with goblins being the most vicious of them all. Ceylon was a large city where the humans lived, for the most part it was peaceful nothing really happens but that was soon going to change. Because on the other side of Ceylon was a small island that the citizens of Ceylon believed to be uninhabited but was the home of Goblins. For centuries they had lived there secluded from the world. However, one day during a war with the witches, the witches had cast a spell upon the island that slowly began to kill all of the He-Goblins and vegetation. The few surviving witches flew and fled far away for they feared what the goblins could do to them. As the days passed the goblins grew more and more agitated, their food was becoming less and less and each day more and more the He-Goblins were dying. “If we don’t do something abou

Goblin City: The flying horse by W. Robinson . Bibliography:  Goblin City from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse  Plot A mystical world in which She-Goblins would lure men to make them their husbands but this is no love story the twist was the men would not only become their husbands but also their prey. The only person that can help these helpless men is a fairy living in the same land.  Setting  Ceylon: An island with a large city full of Goblin but only She-Goblins  Time period: Very long ago, ancient times  Main Characters  She-Goblins : The only way for them to have husbands was to get hold of travelers and make them their husbands, once tried of them they would eat them. The had magic powers that created illusions/ make shapes appear as normal people and other animals. At night when their husbands would sleep they would feed on past husbands. Would sing " Man’s meat, man’s meat, That’s what Goblins like to eat!&quo

For our Ramayana reading project, I chose to read the public domain version of the reading I chose this version because not only is it free but it also provides lots of notes, pictures, and links with more information. I am a visual learner and as much as I enjoy imagining the world that is depicted in books, having the ability to actually look at pictures and be able to see what I am reading in front of me is much more enjoyable for me. I started to go through the first few pages because I was scared to choose the version with old fashion language but I found the notes and links left in the readings very helpful and persuaded me more to go with this option. Ganesha Chaturthi Source:  Wikimedia   Vasantasena, A Dancer and Her Most Precious Jewel ,  Vasavadatta: The Princess who Captivated a True Kshatriya,  and Purushottam Dev and Padmavati: Their Ally Was Jagannatha  are 3 of the love stories that captured my attention. Vasantasena's story sounds interesting because it is m

Pink Hour Glass and Retro Clock Source: Pxhere This semester so far has been very hard to manage my time (not that I have been very good at in the past) and it is mainly because I have started working in my first job since ever. Having a job is taking a lot of my time, this is also my senior year so I have many future activities and things that need to get done. The first article I read was 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time by Áine Cain and I can relate to many of the unsuccessful ways that were mentioned before. Some of them were juggling too much and procrastinate. I often keep putting things off and then suddenly they all pile up and I am running crazy trying to do everything at once. Another thing they mentioned was not scheduling fun time, I had never actually thought of doing that before but it sounds like a good idea and I feel like it can help me with easily getting distracted (another bad habit article mentioned).  The next article I read was  How to Beat P

Dog Using Laptop public domain pictures  I had never heard of Twine before so I'm looking forward to seeing working and playing with it. I am also looking thrilled to know that we will be creating a website for this class. Even though I have never done it before, it is something that sounds fun to do. I always enjoy playing around with new technology and tools so I am looking forward to seeing how each work and can help me improve the quality of my blog. There is definitely many more online technology tools and web browsers usage in this class compared to other online classes I've, usually, we would only use canvas. PowerPoint and at times video maker websites.

Vintage dressed puppy watering plants Source: public domain pictures Looking through the assignments, I am a little nervous as this is class has a lot of reading and writing involved. Compared to all the other classes I have taken, I think this is the most writing and reading I will be doing for a class. Even though I am nervous I am also looking forward to reading about different stories and also creating my own. One of the extra credit assignment themes that caught my mind is tech tips. I am excited to learn new ways to upgrade my blog since it was already something I was thinking of doing. Therefore, seeing I can get extra credit for it sound fun. The growth mindset assignments also grab my attention since it is something I want to learn more about. 

I had heard about the growth mindset before from my health and exercise professors. In health promotion classes we learned how to use it in order to help people move from a fixed mindset to a growth one in order to improve their health and move them away from a sedentary lifestyle. However, I had not heard of Carol Dweck, her TedTalk was very eye-opening for me and made me see the things I have done wrong. Without knowing college helped me slowly move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Throughout my younger school years, I had always been a pretty smart student, I did the work that was assigned and studied for my tests but I never really felt challenged. I can see why Dr. Dweck says kids should feel challenged because since I didn't think the work was too hard I always would study and prepare for the minimum of what would get me the grade I wanted. When I entered college is when I first felt challenged, for the first time there was material that I just couldn't grasp or

City view of Guanajuato, Mexico Taken by me  Hello everyone!! My name is Monica Avila, I was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and moved to the U.S. when I was five, I can speak Spanish, English and a little bit of Portuguese (currently learning). I am a senior here at OU (Wow can't believe I'm saying senior time flies by so fast). I am a Health and Exercise Science major. I'll be graduating this spring, my plans so far are to take a year off and work and travel a little maybe go for masters in health promotion but I'm still not sure yet. In the future, I hope to go to grad school for physical therapy and work with either the elderly or children. I love science and learning about the human body. The way the human body works and manages to keep us alive is so amazing, learning all the mechanics of it is one of my favorite parts of my major. Therefore, some of my favorite classes have been Human Anatomy and Exercise Physiology. Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, B

Flower on the road by George Hodan Source: public domain The first storybook that caught my attention was SITA, SIDEWALKS, SHADOWS, STARS . I was first intrigued by the title, i t soun ded mysterious and kind of dark to me even though I still had no clue what the storybook could possibly be about. The way the introduction was written was magnificent. The author wrote it in a way that it continues to grab your attention more and more as you continue to read down the introduction. As I read it out loud to myself, it reminded me of movie trailers from back in the day where there was a narrator telling the story in the background of what the movie was about. Remembering the advice from my English Composition courses, the introduction it the most important part of the story because it is what readers look at first and its what makes readers want to either keep reading the story or not. In the first few sentences, the author introduces the character which is a goddess, it states what th

         Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, a  picture I took from my trip in 2016)   I traveled to Rio in the summer of 2016. It was my first time to fly outside of the country, I love learning about different cultures and places, so you can say I was super excited! Ipanema Beach was less than a 10-minute walk from the hostel I was staying in. I always have lived in landlocked states so this was the first time I got to see the ocean and it was AMAZING! As I sat listening to the waves I could also see children playing in the water, families having picnics, ongoing volleyball games, couples on dates, people doing yoga and capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art) classes, people running, jogging and surfing, stands selling coconut water (Delicious), other drinks and types of foods, it was like getting a small glimpse of Rio's citizens' daily lives. One of my favorite parts was looking at the sunrises and sunsets. Ipanema Beach was my favorite place from my whole trip. Eve

Super Excited for this course and starting my final semester at OU!😁🙌